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Technology & Development Center |
The ability to perform hard (arduous) work for protracted periods of time can be related to a number of physical and psychological factors. These factors can override demographic factors such as gender, race, or ethnicity. Some of these factors, listed in no particular order of importance, are:
Some of these factors are controllable, others are inherited, and still others change with the environment. Recognizing that we have no control over the environment, what factors can we address?
With all of the published research on the benefits of regular exercise, you would think that people would embrace the concept that the human body was meant to be used. While we can’t guarantee that there’s a one-for-one relationship between fitness and longevity, for fit persons the quality of the life is clearly more vibrant and productive. The direct benefits to increased productivity on the job is well documented.
We might ask the same question of the well-established relationship between smoking and a host of diseases and disorders. Knowing what we do, why do people choose to do the things they do? Said another way, the physiological basis for improving performance and health is well known. What’s really needed is more research on how to motivate people to avoid selfdestructive behavior such as smoking or sedentary lifestyles.
In terms of demographic factors, research does not lend support to physical performance limitations based on race or ethnicity. Studies of gender differences indicate the obvious: women are, on average, smaller than men, and they have much less upper body strength (50 to 60% of the upper body strength of men). The average woman has a lower aerobic fitness (39 to 40 ml/kg-min for young women compared to 45 to 48 ml/kg-min for men. This means that when job demands are arduous, as they are for wildland firefighters, more women will have to train to be able to accomplish work tasks, while maintaining a reserve to meet unforeseen emergencies.
For the balance of this paper, I would like to examine a topic that has been of great personal interest to me: aging. Aging is relevant because all of us are on this planet together, and no one is getting off alive. We all have the same amount of time per day. We are basically captives of the 24-hour day.
Age has been used in making hiring decisions for many years. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) developed a protected class (persons from 40 to 70 years old). For persons within the portected class, employers could only use age for decision-making when they could show that it constituted a BFOQ (bona fide occupational qualification). Most of us operate on the principle that there is a decline in performance with advancing age. This is true. No one reverses the aging process, no matter what you may hear. But, we can certainly slow and temporarily halt the process by adhering to a well-established scientific principle called the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).
What the GAS says is that if you don’t use a certain physiological system, you lose it. Conversely, if you use a system, it gets stronger. This is the underpinning of physical conditioning. If we stress a system to the point of fatigue, it rebounds and actually becomes stronger. Clearly, there are limits. All Olympic athletes strive to optimize all of their systems, allowing them to perform beyond any previously demonstrated level.
So what are the implications for wildland firefighters? Looking again at the factors that have been demonstrated to distinguish differences in work output and personal performance, alterations and improvements can be shown in the following areas:
Lean body weight is increased through physical exercise (strength or resistance training)
Fat weight (both total percent fat and total fat weight) is reduced, resulting in less “ dead weight” to be hauled around, reducing the burden on the heart to pump blood or otherwise support mass that is not contributing to productivity)
Strength: If I train the neuromuscular system, then I will get stronger. Lifting objects now takes less of my functional reserve.
Stamina: Cardiovascular fitness (the ability to take up and utilize oxygen) has a host of benefits beyond the simple improvement of one’s functional work capacity. Training the cardiovascular system sets in motion a host of positive effects such as lowered heart rate while at rest or while performing sustained tasks that previously resulted in fatigue.
Muscular endurance (not to be confused with heart-fitness) are those repetitive muscle-contractions that are typically finite in nature (we usually measure them in repetitions to failure). Adaptations from training in this area are among the fastest to improve and the easiest to sustain.
The body adjusts to the effects of heat and altitude.
The fitter individuals have already demonstrated that they are personally motivated. They feel that they have a locus of control that starts within themselves. Think of it this way: they know how to budget time and have organized their day to include personal time that directly benefits them.
Hydration: No matter how fit you are, when you’re out of fluid, you’re out of gas. Paying attention to personal hydration status is critical. There may be no edge for the fit person, other than, hopefully, they’ve learned that you need a minimum of 1 quart of fluid for every 60 minutes of hard work.
Energy substrates: The fit person is better able to store (supersaturate) fuel at the cell level than the unadapted individual. Again, score another point for the fit person.
Medical science has amassed evidence that individuals may actually “choose not to age.” Said another way, while you can’t stop the superficial process of graying hair or the wrinkling skin, you can preserve and extend your underlying “functional work capacity.” The human organism is a wonderful machine that, unlike man-made machines, is better maintained with use.
The normal age-associated decline in aerobic fitness, one important dimension of firefighter fitness, is approximately 1% per year, or 10% per decade for the sedentary population. In physically active individuals, the loss is approximately 13% across the span of 25 years.
In a study funded by the U.S. Fire Administration examining the relationship between physical performance measures and job performance, increasing amounts of body fat were more harmful to performance than was advancing age.
We all need sleep and rest; without rest, work performance goes down markedly and ultimately halts. The fit person can do more work in less time and takes less time to recover.
Wellness is a term that lacks objectivity. We can’t measure it in terms like pounds, or milliliters per minute. But the fit individual has a certain vibrancy, resistance to fatigue, resistance to disease and savior-faire. If you’ve been there then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, then the good news is that you can experience the personal benefits of fitness. It’s a challenge that’s available to everyone walking the face of the earth.
Laboratory or field studies do not support differences in performance related to ethnicity or race.
Because of factors such as body size (lean body weight), and muscular and aerobic fitness, some men and women will have to train to meet job demands.
Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of rosy cheeks and supple knees but a matter of will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of emotions, an appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in the man of 60 more than in the boy of 20.
Samuel Ullman
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