A comparison of two physical ability tests for firefighters

Mamen, Asgeir; Oseland, Harald; Medbø, Jon Ingulf

doi:10.1080/00140139.2013.821171

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…That value is still only 70% of the measured O 2 uptake during the real test (excluding low values during the first few minutes). It is also lower than our proposed lower limit of 35 ml · kg -1 · min -1 for strenuous activity during firefighting [11,17].…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 69%

“…Thus, firefighters' are tested regularly on physical performance tests. The last decades firefighters have increasingly been tested in applied tests that mimic tasks firefighters meet during real firefighting and rescue work [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] as alternatives to standard laboratory tests [6,7,11,13,14,15]. In Norway, Fredrikstad fire brigade has recently modified an applied test from Canada [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The steady-state load of five firefighting tasks

Medbø

Mamen

Oseland

et al. 2019

International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics

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ORCID for Asgeir Mamen: 0000-0002-4316-7455Word count: 3350 words JOSE: http://www.editorialmanager.com/ijose/default.aspx 2 Abstract Purpose. Physiologic demands of five common tasks in firefighting have been examined. Methods.Eight male volunteers, being dressed up as smoke divers (+21 kg extra load), carried out the following tasks at constant pace for 5 min: Walking at 1.4 m·s -1 , walking (all walks at the same speed) while carrying a 10 kg ladder, walking carrying two hose packs of 16 kg together, walking carrying a 32 kg spreader tool, finally climbing up and down a ladder at preset pace. A 5 min break separated each exercise. Heart rate, O 2 -uptake and ventilation were measured continuously, and blood lactate concentration was recorded after each task. Results. The end-exercise heart rate rose from 108 to 180 bpm from first to last task, blood lactate concentration rose from 1 to 7 mmol·L -1 , O 2 -uptake rose from 19 to 48 ml·kg -1 ·min -1 , and ventilation rose from 38 to 124 L·min -1 . Discussion. Walking was an easy task even when dressed up as a smoke diver. Adding loads increased demands; ladder climbing taxed >90% of the subjects' aerobic power. Conclusions. The physiologic demands varied considerably between different tasks.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 69%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The steady-state load of five firefighting tasks

Medbø

Mamen

Oseland

et al. 2019

International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics

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“…For example, physicians and nurses in an emergency department have to lift patients, perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and run from one room to another. In this context, firefighting represents an occupation that is especially physically demanding (e.g., Bos, Mol, Visser, & Frings‐Dresen, ; Mamen, Oseland, & Medbo, ). Firefighting tasks involve running, climbing, and lifting (e.g., removing barriers and carrying victims), which require continuous physical activity from the firefighters.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A time to trust? The buffering effect of trust and its temporal variations in the context of high‐reliability teams

et al. 2018

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This study aims to further clarify the functionality of job resources in the context of highreliability teams. Combining extant stress models with theoretical considerations from team research, we address temporal variations in the buffering effect of trust in teammates. We hypothesize that trust buffers the negative effect of objective physical activity on perceived strain and that this buffering effect is more pronounced during later performance episodes (i.e., when employees complete a series of temporally distinguishable tasks). We tested the hypotheses with a sample of professional firefighters who completed a sequence of 3 performance episodes in a high-fidelity simulation environment. Each participant was equipped with a smartphone capturing individual motion activity, which we used as an indicator of physical activity. In line with our hypotheses, multilevel modeling revealed a buffering effect of trust on the relationship between physical activity and perceived strain. Importantly, this buffering effect was more pronounced in the second performance episode as compared with the first performance episode. Our findings add a temporal perspective to the understanding of the effectiveness of job resources. In addition, the current study illustrates the usefulness of smartphones for obtaining behavioral data in a naturalistic setting. Tübingen. He is a coeditor of an international social psychological textbook (together with M. Hewstone and W. Stroebe, sixth English edition, translation into eight additional languages). Sebastian Feese is a senior researcher at the Wearable Computing Lab of ETH Zürich. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zürich in 2014. In his doctoral thesis, he investigated methods to automatically observe social interaction and coordination in teams using wearable sensors. His research interests are team and crowd behavior sensing, social signal processing, and machine learning. In 2015, he cofounded antavi GmbH. Gerhard Tröster is a Professor and Chair of the Electronics Laboratory at the ETH Zurich. He obtained his doctorate from the Technical University of Darmstadt about the design of analog integrated circuits. At ETH Zurich, his fields of research include wearable computing, flexible electronics, human-computer interaction, and detection of the physical, mental, and social contexts of the user aiming at applications in health care and music. How to cite this article: Burtscher MJ, Meyer B, Jonas K, Feese S, Tröster G. A time to trust? The buffering effect of trust and its temporal variations in the context of high-reliability teams. J Organ Behav.

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“…The past few decades have seen the construction of a large number of high-rise buildings and large commercial centers, which have placed greater demands on the skills and physical abilities of firefighters [ 1 , 2 ]. Therefore, this places a high demand on the physical ability and health of firefighters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The weight of the self-contained working tools used by firefighters is also additional. Both the total weight of the thermal suite, which may be 25 kg, and the increased inhalation resistance at the scene of the fire and when using the respirator place extremely high demands on the firefighter’s physical capabilities [ 1 , 3 ]. Furthermore, firefighters engage in heavy muscle work, they must climb stairs and ladders, carry and use heavy tools, usually on their heads or in awkward positions where they may be called upon to perform difficult rescue operations [ 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship between Firefighter Physical Fitness and Special Ability Performance: Predictive Research Based on Machine Learning Algorithms

Song

Meng

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Firefighters require a high level of physical fitness to meet the demands of their job. The correlations and contributions of individual physical health parameters to the tasks of firefighting would enable firefighters to focus on the effects of specific physical conditions during their physical training programs. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to identify the relationships between various physical health parameters (weight, maximum oxygen uptake, body fat percentage, upper body muscular power and lower body muscular power) and performance on simulated firefighting ability tasks, which included a set of seven tasks (rope climb, run 200 m round trip with load, 60 m carrying a ladder, climb stairs with load, evacuation of 400 m with supplies, run 5 km with an air respirator, run 100 m with the water hose). Through use of a partial least-squares regression (PLSR) algorithm to analyze the linear correlation, we revealed the change in various training performances of specific ability tests with physical fitness parameters. The present study demonstrated significant relationships among physical health parameters and performance on simulated firefighting ability tasks, which also represent that those parameters contributed significantly to the model’s predictive power and were suitable predictors of the simulated firefighting tasks score.

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A comparison of two physical ability tests for firefighters

Abstract: The physiological load from two firefighter fitness tests was compared. The demands were found to be similar, but the field test was of a shorter duration. With some modifications, the field test may be sufficiently demanding to be used as a fire fitness test for smoke divers in Norway.

Cited by 15 publications

References 22 publications

The steady-state load of five firefighting tasks

The steady-state load of five firefighting tasks

A time to trust? The buffering effect of trust and its temporal variations in the context of high‐reliability teams

Relationship between Firefighter Physical Fitness and Special Ability Performance: Predictive Research Based on Machine Learning Algorithms

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