(35) PERCEPTIONS OF EXERCISE INJURY MECHANISMS AMONG INJURED FIREFIGHTERS

Purpose:   Firefighters are required to complete arduous occupational tasks in hazardous environments. To enhance occupational readiness and reduce injury risk, firefighters should perform regular exercise. However, exercise injuries are commonly incurred by firefighters. Therefore, it is important to identify injury mechanisms among firefighters to identify appropriate countermeasures.



Methods: A convenience sample of 252 career structural firefighters from the United States volunteered to complete an anonymous online survey describing exercise-related injury occurrences. Data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation and frequencies. 

Results: 227 firefighters confirmed exercise participation. Of these, 86 firefighters (37.9%;  80 males, 5 females, 1 preferred not to say; Age: 39.9±10.4 yr; Firefighter experience: 15.4±9.2 yr) indicated they had been injured while performing exercise on- (n=34; 40.0%) or off-duty (n=51; 60.0%) in the past 5 years. The injured firefighters described the primary cause of injury as exertion/strain (51.2%), improper technique (16.7%), sport-related mechanism (16.7%), slip/trip/fall (9.5%), fatigue (4.8%), or contact with an object (1.2%). 20.9% lost work time due to the injury and 68.6% did not report the injury to the department.  40% of the injuries required treatment from a healthcare professional. 37.6% of exercise injuries occurred at a fire department fitness center or station. Bending, lifting, or squatting and push/pull movement patterns were responsible for 40.0% and 29.4% of injuries, respectively. 32.6% of injuries occurred at the lower back, whereas 22.1% of injuries occurred at the shoulder. Traditional resistance training (48.8%), high-intensity resistance training (20.2%), and endurance training (16.7%) were responsible for the majority of injuries. Firefighters’ perceptions of injury mechanisms are provided in Table 1.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that firefighters are often injured while performing resistance training on-duty. The most common mechanism of injury was exertion/strain. Injuries commonly occurred during bending, lifting, squatting, and pushing and pulling movement patterns that result in lower back and shoulder injuries, respectively.  

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Fire departments are encouraged to provide certified strength and conditioning practitioners to educate firefighters about proper exercise techniques, especially during compound movement patterns, and stress the importance of utilizing appropriate training loads to limit overexertion injuries. Furthermore, fire departments should adopt a non-punitive injury reporting system to facilitate timely treatment and reduce lost time. 

Acknowledgements: None