Abstract
Introduction: Firefighting is a physically and mentally demanding job, requiring optimal level of physical fitness. Recent scores of individual proficiency physical tests were somewhat alarming, the needs to explore the issue is warranted. A recent need analysis conducted within the Fire Rescue Department of Malaysia sparks an interest to look into methods of boosting functional strength as part of physical training in firefighters.
Method: A modified Nominal Group Technique (mNGT) is conducted to gain a group consensus on the identification and ranking of exercises for five functional muscular strengths i.e. pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying and dragging. The participants of the mNGT are consisted of six physical training instructors (PTIs) at Fire Rescue Academy Malaysia (East Region). The participants were required to 1) identify type of muscles involved in each function: pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying, and dragging, 2) brainstorm for type of exercise targeting each muscular group of the respective function, 3) document the list of exercise till ideas were exhausted, 4) ranking the displayed exercise individually.
Results: The mNGT yield five top-ranking exercises for each muscular group ; 1) pushing muscle: push up, sit up, jumping jack, squat, and burpees, 2) pulling muscle: push up, jumping jack, sit up, lunges, and squat, 3) lifting muscle: jumping jack, push up, jumping squat, burpees, and plank, 4) carrying muscle: push up, plank, sit up, chin up, and straighten arm, 5) dragging muscle: jumping jack, sit up, jumping squat, lunges, and airborne. We further design three difficulty level of normal, progress and regress for the beginner, intermediate and advanced for each selected exercise by incorporating own bodyweight, full gear and/or equipment. Discussion: These findings give insights to PTIs on major muscle groups-matched exercises for boosting all five functional strengths. Hence, PTIs were actively involved in developing intermediate to advanced level fitness regime for 6-days weekly functional fitness program to be applied on the firefighter recruits.
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BibTeX (Download)
@proceedings{APCPH2022-P-73,
title = {Modified Nominal Group Technique for Prioritizing Exercise to Boost Functional Strength in Firefighter Recruits},
author = {Noor Dalila Inche Zainal Abidin and Rosnah Ismail and Nor Hisham Mohammad and Abdul Khair Osman and Ismail Abdul Ghani and Asnarulkhadi Abu Samah},
url = {https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/APCPH2022-P-73.pdf},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-08-02},
urldate = {2022-08-02},
issue = {7},
abstract = {Introduction: Firefighting is a physically and mentally demanding job, requiring optimal level of physical fitness. Recent scores of individual proficiency physical tests were somewhat alarming, the needs to explore the issue is warranted. A recent need analysis conducted within the Fire Rescue Department of Malaysia sparks an interest to look into methods of boosting functional strength as part of physical training in firefighters.
Method: A modified Nominal Group Technique (mNGT) is conducted to gain a group consensus on the identification and ranking of exercises for five functional muscular strengths i.e. pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying and dragging. The participants of the mNGT are consisted of six physical training instructors (PTIs) at Fire Rescue Academy Malaysia (East Region). The participants were required to 1) identify type of muscles involved in each function: pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying, and dragging, 2) brainstorm for type of exercise targeting each muscular group of the respective function, 3) document the list of exercise till ideas were exhausted, 4) ranking the displayed exercise individually.
Results: The mNGT yield five top-ranking exercises for each muscular group ; 1) pushing muscle: push up, sit up, jumping jack, squat, and burpees, 2) pulling muscle: push up, jumping jack, sit up, lunges, and squat, 3) lifting muscle: jumping jack, push up, jumping squat, burpees, and plank, 4) carrying muscle: push up, plank, sit up, chin up, and straighten arm, 5) dragging muscle: jumping jack, sit up, jumping squat, lunges, and airborne. We further design three difficulty level of normal, progress and regress for the beginner, intermediate and advanced for each selected exercise by incorporating own bodyweight, full gear and/or equipment. Discussion: These findings give insights to PTIs on major muscle groups-matched exercises for boosting all five functional strengths. Hence, PTIs were actively involved in developing intermediate to advanced level fitness regime for 6-days weekly functional fitness program to be applied on the firefighter recruits.},
howpublished = {published online at https://apcph.cphm.my},
note = {Type: POSTER PRESENTATION; Organisation: Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, UKM; Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, UKM; Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia; Fire and Rescue Academy Malaysia Eastern Regional, Marang Terengganu; Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia; Malaysia Community Development and Planning Association},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}