Health & Wellness
The goal of the Euless Fire Department Health & Wellness Committee is to cultivate a culture of physical and mental resilience in all of our personnel.
By implementing evidence-based fitness programming, nutritional guidance, and proactive behavioral health resources, we aim to systematically and individually reduce the occurrence of on-duty injuries and chronic health issues.
We strive to decrease sick leave utilization, not merely through policy, but by empowering every firefighter to maintain peak operational readiness. Ultimately, this committee exists to extend the quality of live for our members, and increase their longevity and time with their families.
This goal is to ensure that they continue to give the community with excellence and eventually transition into a long, healthy retirement.
Key Pillars of the Health & Wellness Committee
-
Injury Prevention
-
Cardiovascular Health
-
Mental Resilience
-
Longevity
Euless FD Health & Wellness
Research confirms that maximal oxygen consumption (Vo2 Max), a primary measure of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), is one of the strongest independent predictors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality (Han et al., 2022; Ross et al., 2016).
Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing - A beginner's guide to the nine-panel plot
https://www.bjaed.org/article/S2058-5349(19)30021-6/fulltext
EXERCISE CAPACITY
Red Line - VO2: oxygen consumption
How much oxygen your body is using at that moment in time
Blue Line - VCO2: Carbon Dioxide
Shows ohw much CO2 your body is producing as a byproduct of metabolism.
Black Line - Watts: power output
VT1 - Ventilatory Threshold 1
This is the point where breathing begins to increase. Lactate begins to accumulate in the blood due to sustained intensity of workload.
RER 1 - Respiratory Exchange Ratio of 1.0
This is where the blue line crosses the red line. It shows that your body is now at a significant metabolic "tipping point". At this point, your body is producing more CO2 than the oxygen that you are taking in. This is a byproduct of your blood buffering the lactic acid that is beginning to accumulate.
This is also the point at which your body shifts from burning a mix of fat & carbs, to 100% carbs.
In this picture, this is occuring around 500 seconds. If this crossing were to occur very early in the test, it would indicate a poor metabolic flexibility and a need for better cardiorespiratory training.
VT 2 - Ventilatory Threshold 2
aka Anaerobic Threshold (AT point)
Your body is now producing lactic acid faster than it can clear it. This high intensity can only be sustained for a short period of time.
This graph shows that VT2 was reached at approximately 660 seconds, and was sustained for about 100 seconds until max.
Training can push your VT2 further, meaning the ability to do more work, for longer, before reaching exhaustion (even delaying the burning in your quads).
CARDIAC OUTPUT vs OXYGEN UPTAKE
This shows the efficiency of your cardiovascular system.
This is a "synchronization" map, which shows your heart rate and stroke volume working together to deliver oxygen to your muscles.
Chart plots show 3 data points:
Red Dots - Heart Rate in bpm
Blue Dots - O2-Pulse: This is the amount of oxygen that your body consumes per single heartbeat (this is measured in mL/beat).
Black Line - VO2: This is the linear "gold standard" line.
The goal is to keep the red dots and the black line, close to each other. This indicates a strong linear correlation and a normal cardiovascular response.
This picture shows a peak oxygen uptake of approximately 2.4 L/min. The higher the black line travels, the more oxygen the body is able to take in.
If the blue dots (O2-Pulse) were to stop rising and begin to plateau early in the test, it would suggest that the heart has reached it's maximum stroke volume too soon.
If a sudden drop in O2-Pulse (blue dots) occurs while intensity and heart rate are still increasing, it shows that the heart is struggling to pump effectively under stress, and can be pointing towards underlying ischemia or cardiovascular issues.
CARDIAC OUTPUT (HR X SV)
Red Line - Heart Rate in bpm
Blue Line - O2-Pulse: This is how many mL of oxygen your heart is able to deliver to your body with each heart beat. This graph shows an O2 Pulse that starts around 5mL/beat, and rises to 14mL/beat during max intensity exercise.
A healthy heart will continue increases O2-Pulse through to the end of the test. If this line dropped significantly while the red line was still going up, it would indicate that the heart was struggling to fill with blood in between beats.
Shaded Areas-These are the standrd predicted/normal ranges for that individual's body, based on their InBody sheet.
OXYGEN TRANSPORT/UTILIZATION
This graph plots your oxygen uptake (Vo2) against your workload (Watts) and shows how efficient your muscles and blood are at turning effort into energy.
(This is essentially MPG for your body.
Black Line - Workrate Slope
This line represents a normal slope. It shows a mathmatical expectation of how much oxygen your body needs to produce a specific amount of power output.
Red Dots - Vo2 as measured in Liters/Minute.
This is the total volume of oxygen that your body is taking in each minute, as intensity is increasing.
Oxygen utilization by the mitochondria in your muscles are able to use this oxygen to creat the Watts that you are pushing to create workload output.
If the red dots are not lined up with the black line, this indicates a breakdown in how efficiently your body is able to convert oxygen into physical work.
If the dots fall significantly below the black line, it means that your body is attempting to increase the workload, but oxygen consumption is failing to keep up. This is usually a delivery problem, such as heart failure, CAD, or pulmonary limitations.
If the dots rise above the line significantly, it means that you are using more oxygen than expected, to only produce a smaller amount of power output. This is caused by obesity, poor muscular conditioning, metabolic disorders, or inefficient mitochondria.
In a significantly fit individual, the goal is to shift these VT1, RER1, AND VT2 markers as far to the right (meaning later in the test and at higher power/heart rates) as possible.
This creates a massive "aerobic engine" that can perform heavy work with very little metabolic stress.
Here is where these thresholds typically sit for a highly conditioned person:
VT 1 (Aerobic Threshold)
The goal is to push VT1 to occur late, typically at 55–65% of their total test time.
-
You want a high VT1 because it represents your "cruising speed".
-
The Benefit: A late VT1 means the athlete can perform significant physical labor (like hiking with a pack or pulling a hose) while remaining entirely in a fat-burning state with a low heart rate.
-
The Look: On the graph, the first rise in breathing and the first "step" in heart rate should be pushed far to the right.
RER-1 (The Metabolic Crossover)
-
The Goal: You want the point where you switch to 100% carbohydrate fuel to happen as late as possible—ideally at 70% or more of the total workload.
-
The Benefit: This is "metabolic flexibility". It allows the athlete to spare their limited glycogen (sugar) stores for the "emergency" finish, rather than burning through them during the middle of a task.
-
The Look: The blue $VCO_2$ line should stay below the red $VO_2$ line for as long as possible.
VT 2 (The Anaerobic Threshold)
The goal is to move VT2 as far as possible to the right on the graph, close to the Max Effort, often at 85–90% of the total test time.
-
The Goal: A high VT2 means the "redline" is extremely high.
-
The Benefit: This allows the person to sustain near-maximal power (like 300+ Watts) for a long duration without "gassing out" from acid accumulation.
-
The Look: On the graph, the "second break" in breathing should happen only shortly before the test ends.
References
Kunutsor, S. K., Kurl, S., Khan, H., Zaccardi, F., Rauramaa, R., & Laukkanen, J. A. (2017). Oxygen uptake at aerobic threshold is inversely associated with fatal cardiovascular and all-cause mortality events. Annals of Medicine, 49(8), 698–709. https://doi.org/10.1080/07853890.2017.1367958
Han, M., Qie, R., Shi, X., Yang, Y., Lu, J., Hu, F., Zhang, M., Zhang, Z., Hu, D., & Zhao, Y. (2022). Cardiorespiratory fitness and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease and cancer: dose–response meta-analysis of cohort studies. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 56(13), 733–739. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2021-104876
Kang, S.-J., & Ko, K.-J. (2019). Association between resting heart rate, VO2max and carotid intima-media thickness in middle-aged men. IJC Heart & Vasculature, 23, 100347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcha.2019.100347
Lang, J. J., Prince, S. A., Merucci, K., Cadenas-Sanchez, C., Chaput, J.-P., Fraser, B. J., Manyanga, T., McGrath, R., Ortega, F. B., Singh, B., & Tomkinson, G. R. (2024). Cardiorespiratory fitness is a strong and consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality among adults: an overview of meta-analyses representing over 20.9 million observations from 199 unique cohort studies. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 58(10), 556–566. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-107849
Ross, R., Blair, S. N., Arena, R., Church, S. S., Després, J.-P., Franklin, B. A., Haskell, W. L., Kaminsky, L. A., Levine, B. D., Lavie, C. J., Myers, J., Niebauer, J., Sallis, R., Sawada, S. S., Sui, X., & Wisløff, U. (2016). Importance of Assessing Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Clinical Practice: A Case for Fitness as a Clinical Vital Sign: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation, 134(24). https://doi.org/10.1161/cir.0000000000000461
Hughes, A. D., & Chaturvedi, N. (2017). Estimation of maximal oxygen consumption and heart rate recovery using the Tecumseh sub-maximal step test and their relationship to cardiovascular risk factors. Artery Research, 18, 29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artres.2017.02.005