Physiological responses to treadmill exercise in size- and fitness-matched male and female firefighter applicants.
Ergonomics
; 66(10): 1582-1593, 2023 Oct.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36503410
ABSTRACT
Physiological responses during a standardised treadmill test for structural firefighting employment were compared in 41 pairs of size-matched, male and female applicants. Applicants wore personal exercise clothing, running shoes, and fire protective ensemble with self-contained breathing apparatus (added mass 21.2 ± 1.0 kg). Applicants walked at 1.56 m·s-1, completing a 5-min warm-up, 8-min at 10% grade, and then, progressive 1-min stages to exhaustion. The cut-score required completion of 13-min of exercise. Up to the cut-score, no differences in heart rate, oxygen uptake or minute ventilation were detected between sexes. At time 1230-1300 min, VÌO2 was 45.7 ± 0.6 vs. 44.2 ± 0.5 mL·kg-1·min-1 (body mass) for males and females, respectively. Despite similar physiological responses at minute 13, females worked at higher fractions of peak than males (p < 0.05). A second analysis compared a subset of 27 fitness-matched (VÌO2peak) male-female pairs. Fitness-matching further reduced or eliminated most observed differences in physiological responses, except small differences in breathing pattern. Practitioner Summary:
Physiological responses during a standardised treadmill test for firefighter applicants were investigated in male and female applicants matched on size and fitness. Absolute responses to exercise were the same for both sexes when size-matched, but relative intensity was higher for females. Fitness-matching reduced or eliminated most previously observed differences. Abbreviations NFPA National Fire Protection Association; VÌO2 rate of oxygen consumption; VÌO2peak rate of oxygen consumption at peak exercise; PAR-Q+ Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire Plus; SCBA self-contained breathing apparatus; ANOVA analysis of variance; VÌE minute ventilation; VÌEpeak minute ventilation at peak exercise; VÌE/VÌO2 ventilatory equivalent for oxygen.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Firefighters
/
Exercise Test
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Ergonomics
Year:
2023
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Canada