Firefighters get hurt. Duh.
“Chicago Fire” fans might be surprised to hear it, but we don’t often get hurt by fire and smoke. Most of our injuries are of the less screen-worthy variety: strains, sprains, and muscular pain, usually caused by slips, trips, and falls.
It’s not that we’re klutzy. Well, sometimes we are (each of us has an accident-prone member on our department). Sometimes it’s overexertion (check out my previous article “Build Backs Better” for more on that), and sometimes it’s that we’re fatigued.
Many times, though, it’s our own fault. Not that we hurt ourselves on purpose or even that we do stupid stuff (well, sometimes we do — remember that accident-prone member?) Sometimes we hurt ourselves just by repeatedly moving wrong, causing wear and tear over time that strains muscles, stresses tendons, and grinds joints. Imagine bending a metal hanger over and over until it snaps.
“Biomechanics” views the body as levers and uses mechanical advantage to move loads with the least risk of injury. Using “proper form” for tasks like lifting a patient, advancing a hose line, or pulling ceiling is key to keeping ourselves on the front line and off the sideline.
What does this look like for us? Here are some foundational guidelines that minimize injury risk:
First, keep the spine in line. Good posture, the foundation of good body mechanics, starts with “spinal neutral” — not rounded too far forward or arched too far back.
Try this posture drill: stand tall with your ears, shoulders, and hips in line, and everything “stacked” on top of your ankles. You should feel even weight on both feet. Practicing this good posture regularly will help dial it in for when it really matters.
When changing direction with a load (like a patient, a hose line, or a ventilation fan), avoid twisting the spine — spinal rotation or “torsion” under load magnifies compressive forces. Instead, turn by moving with the feet, maintaining spinal neutral.
Second, be “all about that base.” Keep your base of support — your feet — wide.
Like a narrow tripod is less stable and easier to tip over, your balance is harder to maintain with a narrow stance. Widening your stance gives you more power when lifting, pushing, pulling, and swinging. Staggering that stance (one foot offset slightly back) gives you additional stability, and helps you transfer loads by shifting your weight from foot to foot (keeping spinal neutral).
Third, “get it right — get it tight.” Hold loads as tight to your body as you can.
The farther you reach out when lifting, the more torque (force times distance) is applied to your body — particularly your spine and your shoulders. More torque means greater stress on muscles and joints. This spells trouble, especially for firefighters already carrying a few extra pounds — data correlates that spare tire with lower core and back endurance and a higher risk of injury.
Let’s expand on these general guidelines and add some specifics for a few emergency response tasks:
LIFTING A PATIENT OR OTHER LOAD — “push” the hips back and bend the knees to lower down (like sitting on the commode). Knees should track in-line with the toes. Imagine “pushing the floor away” with your feet, squeezing your “sit muscles” (the glutes) as you lift. Keep your gaze forward and your shoulders “pulled back.”
PULLING WALLS OR CEILING — brace your core (like resisting being tickled) and use the staggered stance for breeching force, driving with the back leg and stabilizing with the forward leg. Then power your pull with the forward leg and stabilize with the back. Watch out for bent wrists — try to keep them in a neutral position, and don’t let your arms extend behind you.
PULLING OR DRAGGING HOSE — keep your elbows tucked in and your core engaged. Maintain neutral wrists, and don’t let your arms get pulled behind your body.
So there we have tips for some specific tasks, but what preventive measures can we take even before we start working to become more injury-resistant and “harder to hurt”?
Start by losing the spare tire. That extra weight is correlated with diminished back and core endurance — losing it can reduce your injury risk by a factor of ten.
Commit to improving your overall fitness — strength, endurance, and cardiovascular conditioning. Physical fatigue increases accident risk and dampens critical thinking skills. Regular exercise builds fatigue resistance (and can improve your fireground work).
Make sure you practice your balance. While slips, trips, and falls may not be entirely preventable (remember that klutz on your department?) the risk can be reduced by training your balance. Any single-leg exercise works — lunges, tailboard step-ups, or simply standing on one foot. Single-side loaded exercises (like climbing stairs holding a heavy dumbbell or sandbag in one hand) help your body to stay stable and balanced when hauling ladders or the K-12.
Do regular work on your mobility and flexibility.
Job tasks like crawling during VEIS, kneeling during hose line advancement, or reaching overhead with ladders can challenge mobility in the hips, ankles, knees, and shoulders. If tight hips and ankles restrict your squat when lifting a patient, or tight pecs or lats make your back arch when reaching overhead to lower a ladder, you’re almost guaranteed an injury.
Many people skip flexibility and mobility workouts because there’s an opportunity cost — time spent stretching is time you could be doing exercises that “feel” more productive. But consider this — what good is it to be able to lift a house, if you can’t get your arms overhead effectively? Investing a little time every week into stretching and other mobility work pays big dividends.
Firefighters will continue to get hurt on the job — the nature of what we do opens us up to that risk. Training our bodies to move well can help minimize that risk and give us a better chance to go home safe.