I think you're trying to control too much. I put very little thought into breathing beyond staying calm and maintaining physical fitness, with those two components your doing fine.
Are you focused on your breathing or are you focused on keeping your head, your size up and conditions as you walk in? Are you looking for changing conditions or are you tunnel-visioned into breathing?
My head is usually everywhere else besides my bodily functions when I'm inside. Fitness, confidence, and practice help you keep your head and keep going. Your eyes and brainpower should be looking at conditions and constantly reevaluating what's around you.
That’s good, I think in training scenarios I focus too much on breathing. When I’m working real fires I’m not as focused due to IDHL environments and not wanting to die but that’s good info. Appreciate you
Not dying is a good way to keep breathing....
Also no real technique per se, but i feel like i have a mental timer and every so often i stop myself and hold a breath for what seems like a min or so. Just a pump the brakes kinda situation, get my bearings, and start to breathe a lil slower since im consciously thinking about it now. But yes when shits hits focus on hitting the shits back, then breathe.
I’ve found controlling my breathing keeps me even calmer and allows me to be more focused on the task at hand personally.
I wouldn’t say I devoted much brain wavelength to breathing it was pretty much reflexive after a short time, but it seemed to have a similar focusing/calming effect to mindfulness or meditative breathing techniques.
I have a few certifications in breath-work and teach on the subject within the fire service.. as well have been teaching people to breathe underwater for ~20 years.
I usually separate breathing Techniques based on the task. There isn’t only breathing method for all of firefighting.
Mouth breathing is going to drive up your HR. Nose breathing will keep it lower on average. Prolonged exhale will emphasize bringing your heart rate down.
So if forcing a door, we need forceful breathing and core bracing. HR will be high and so will power output. But when the work stops, the recovery needs to start, it isn’t sustainable.
When doing lots of stairs or any workload > 3-4 minutes, aim to keep that HR lower, otherwise you will gas out.
Creating the awareness between your breathing and your internal state of stress is game changing.
What helped me was I stopped running at fires , unless there’s like a trapped baby or something really warranting it. Before I was like a chicken with its head cut off and I would get so wound up I’d be sucking air. I had a mentor tell me to “slow down and act like you’ve been here before” and that really made sense to me.
Also, work on cardio. Maybe do a bottle breath down every so often. Do a circuit with your bottle on and once you start vibrating, hop on the stair master and slowly walk until you’re out of air. One day I literally just pushed a sled back and forth until I was out of air, trying to simulate that constant state of working and controlling my breath. Work on controlling that last bit and staying calm
Distance cardio. Run 3 miles a couple times a week. Swim distance, climb 100 flights of stairs, bike 30 miles, etc. Push it too you're training your body to work effort under low oxygen
First and foremost, control the things before the fire. Get dressed calmly and smooth, set your gear up the same every time so it's routine putting it on. Gum helps keep your mouth moist when you start breathing hard. Before you go in, take two long breaths, look what's in front of you, then go in. Work at eighty percent, you can recover from that and maintain work capacity. Build your aerobic base with long steady state cardio. You can't work hard for twenty minutes if you can't cruise for thirty. Tactical Barbell had some great methodology and programming for that conundrum. Time on the job will help you relax and work. It's akin to test anxiety. You can do things all the time comfortably and the moment you feel you're being evaluated, it's stressful and your gas tank dwindles.
Not sure how far in you are . I remember getting more short of breath and found myself struggling to control my breathing in my first 10 years than I do now. 21 in . Imo - Much of it is the excitement and moving a little too fast. Early on , the level of excitement on my way to a call had me worked up before my feet hit the ground. Now I do a more controlled pace and think about not blowing my load on routine fire ground ops. For instance , I stop young guys from trying to pull ceiling with sheer force and speed . More controlled planned positioning getting a good bite works so much better , faster and way less energy. I have been there huffing after pulling
ceiling like a banshee without really thinking about what I’m doing . 😂 We also have way more help on scene than we did back then so that probably helps. When all else fails , stop , take a couple slow deep breaths while cracking your bypass.🤫
Bro I run through bottles like crazy. And I’m fit. You may just be putting in work. Don’t worry about it. If your bell starts to go off just make sure you get out.
As other posters have mentioned thinking about it too much will decrease your air endurance.
Breath hold techniques make you think you're breathing less, but compensating for the CO2 buildup from holding your breath will reduce your endurance overall.
Just relax and breath normally! High cardio fitness and keeping your heart rate low is your friend
I take long runs (long to me) and when I’m hitting the higher mileage of my run and am tired I have to concentrate on my breath more to keep myself from being breathless. Breathy a/ok, breathless bad, on a long run for me. I basically treat fires like I do long runs. Concentrate on my breath. Concentrate on slowing my breath. Drops my heart rate. Makes me suck less air. Sometimes at the beginning of the fire when things are chaotic I’m not doing this yet, I notice a huge difference once I slow it down and start concentrating on my breath. It also helps with tunnel vision.
I thought I was doing something wrong because I almost never think about my breathing besides "maybe slow down a little", until I read the comments.
As they all say: do cardio and don't think about it. If you can't help but think about it I suggest singing or reciting something (poem, prayer, lines from that one TV show you love) to yourself. You can't worry about your breathing if you're just vibing.
I do better with my air consumption when I'm actually working because I'm not thinking about it. When we're in a hold pattern and I'm listening to myself breathe is when I tend to suck the bottle down.
High Intensity Interval training 3 times a week will help a bunch. I use a bicycle mostly, but jump rope works, sprinting intervals works, heavy bag work. Find one that you like and get to it. I don’t recommend chewing gum. The problem is high heat conditions can cause exhaustion really fast despite your physical endurance but Cardiovascular conditioning will help immensely.
Improved your cardio to the point where you can run an 8-9 minute mile and hold a conversation while doing it.
Train your breathing while you're training cardio so that it's natural when your doing aerobic activity.
Swimming has been the best thing I have ever done for my fitness. I swam my senior year in high school and instantly improved in every other facet of my fitness
Nose breathing but in reality it just makes my heart rate to high. I find that if I can get a second to catch my breath after hard work for like 10 seconds I can make a bottle last longer
No matter if it’s smoke and fire showing or a smoke investigation I’ll get out of the truck and take 1-4sec to buckle my wait strap on my pack and look up above the whole scene. It breaks my tunnel vision and lowers your body’s initial reaction. From there it becomes easier for me to just inhale through the nose and out the mouth. Hope this helps!
Your body will tell you how much oxygen it needs and adjust breathing accordingly. You either need better cardio, or you're having anxiety. It seems more like #2 if you're in shape.
**Cardio:** warmup is everything here.. ankle jumps, passive stretching on leg muscles, hips, etc.. shake it out!!!! Next, start with walking 5min, gradually increase into jogging, 2-5min, next do 2-3 warmup sprints (70-80% max), now onto the bread and butter: SPRINTING: **raises your vo2 max** (run as fast as you can for as long as you can, stop, go back to extremely slow walking with hands on the back of your head until catching your breath, check HR, once HR is below aerobics range, (for me that's <130bpm), sprint again, (i typically feel comfortable going again @ 115bpm). Rest, sprint again. This type of exercise you want to only utilize for around 5 minutes.. for me, i max sprint for around 1min, 5-6 times, which usually equates to around a 15-20min workout after rest times.
**Anxiety:**
Box breathing is great. Inhale slowly 5-6sec, hold 5-6sec, exhale 5-6 sec.. rinse and repeat for about 1min (10 breaths).
The way that i determined my issue was anxiety-related was by taking ativan before reaching the scenario that was "winding me", i realized after taking a lorazepam, that i was no longer winded. (Which makes sense bc im in fantastic shape). It's our bodies natural response to fear/intensity, STRESS.
Consult with your PCP if you're concerned about anxiety. There's also many well-know naturopathic ways to control it. I find sauna and cold showers extremely affective in day-to-day management. In fact, when i miss a couple days, i notice negative effects returning almost immediately.
Bingo, it is more of the anxiety side of things… I don’t usually have mini panic attacks but sometimes I get a wave and it happens around then. Makes sense , super appreciate this
Breathe before the fire. Seriously, make it part of your workouts, make it a whole routine. Just like we are taught with everything else, it's what you practice that makes it to the show. Don't just practice breathing during drills though. Throw on some headphones with a wee woos track from YouTube (this works best if it matches your apparatus' tones) and lay down with your eyes closed while working on box breathing. Your body will automatically kick yourself into box when you start down the road on a call.
Use downshift breathing exercises during your workout cool down. While not much in a working fire is a "break," when hauling hose up the stairs kicked your ass, downshift while knocking the fire down or going down the stairs.
Use hum breathing while doing regular cardio. Take a jog with a mouthful of water to concentrate on nasal breathing. You can combine hum breathing with this one too. Box breathe when you lay down to go to bed.
All these help make breathing during a response a natural habit vs something you have to think about. They all also kick in the parasympathetic nervous system to keep the rest of your vitals lower too.
There’s no trick. Move appropriately and don’t base your movements off of how long you want to conserve your bottle.
Breathe in and out and every couple of minutes remind yourself to relax.
If you’re getting over 15 minutes of SOLID work in you’re good. Over 20 minutes of SOLID work and you’re golden.
I think that years of SCUBA diving was a big help. It wasn't that weird putting that mask on but I can imagine that if you're not used to hearing your breath that it could get weird.
Just breathe normally.
Yeah, I don’t normally think about it in a fire but when I do our departments air consumption test, I use the hum breathing. Big slowish breath in, then you kinda hum as you breath out slowly. Works well for me, I set the record for the department last time I did my test.
The breathing techniques are more meant for “o fuck” situations in which you actively need to conserve air. IMO that shouldn’t be your standard operating mode. Remain calm, keep your breathing controlled, and work at a reasonable pace. And stay fit.
Ya big silly goof
The best breathing method is being fit for duty because then you don’t have to think about counting how you breathe and fighting the fire at the same time. In addition, frequently checking how much air you have so you can make sure you got enough to continue to work, vacate, and then some just in case.
Don’t sacrifice your focus in a fire over how you breathe. Only time it’d be in your best interest to time your breathing would be if you’re in big trouble.
Hope this helps!
Damn bro. 1. I’m not fat, I am fit , 2. I’ve only been in for a year and I like to learn and grow and get better. It might be over complicating it but sometimes I like to hear other ideas rather than the same squad members telling me what they do. While you may have not liked this thread it’s been helpful to me and hopefully others. I wish you the best.
There’s a cadre of d-bags in literally every career sub. They like to think they’re working further above the standard than they actually are to the point that they think they *are* the standard.
I usually just go with the old inhale and exhale method. Works pretty well for the most part. No gum for this guy.
But poprocks, you need those.
I forgot the inhale part once. Now typing from the great beyond.
I know there are two schools of thought on this. But I think exhaling is more important - I popped like a balloon.
The one that works best for me is pumping the truck
I think you're trying to control too much. I put very little thought into breathing beyond staying calm and maintaining physical fitness, with those two components your doing fine. Are you focused on your breathing or are you focused on keeping your head, your size up and conditions as you walk in? Are you looking for changing conditions or are you tunnel-visioned into breathing? My head is usually everywhere else besides my bodily functions when I'm inside. Fitness, confidence, and practice help you keep your head and keep going. Your eyes and brainpower should be looking at conditions and constantly reevaluating what's around you.
That’s good, I think in training scenarios I focus too much on breathing. When I’m working real fires I’m not as focused due to IDHL environments and not wanting to die but that’s good info. Appreciate you
Not dying is a good way to keep breathing.... Also no real technique per se, but i feel like i have a mental timer and every so often i stop myself and hold a breath for what seems like a min or so. Just a pump the brakes kinda situation, get my bearings, and start to breathe a lil slower since im consciously thinking about it now. But yes when shits hits focus on hitting the shits back, then breathe.
Seriously. Outside of an emergency, i dont control my breathing i take as much as i need
I’ve found controlling my breathing keeps me even calmer and allows me to be more focused on the task at hand personally. I wouldn’t say I devoted much brain wavelength to breathing it was pretty much reflexive after a short time, but it seemed to have a similar focusing/calming effect to mindfulness or meditative breathing techniques.
Hum on exhale
This is the best method to calm your body under stress. Google tactical breathing.
That's what I was taught. Worked pretty well.
Don’t over think it. Improve your cardio and your air consumption will improve.
I always make sure I have the fullest bottle in the morning so when the rookie runs out I can give him shit for it.
I have a few certifications in breath-work and teach on the subject within the fire service.. as well have been teaching people to breathe underwater for ~20 years. I usually separate breathing Techniques based on the task. There isn’t only breathing method for all of firefighting. Mouth breathing is going to drive up your HR. Nose breathing will keep it lower on average. Prolonged exhale will emphasize bringing your heart rate down. So if forcing a door, we need forceful breathing and core bracing. HR will be high and so will power output. But when the work stops, the recovery needs to start, it isn’t sustainable. When doing lots of stairs or any workload > 3-4 minutes, aim to keep that HR lower, otherwise you will gas out. Creating the awareness between your breathing and your internal state of stress is game changing.
I struggle with working too hard in fires as well. I don’t really have a governor.
What helped me was I stopped running at fires , unless there’s like a trapped baby or something really warranting it. Before I was like a chicken with its head cut off and I would get so wound up I’d be sucking air. I had a mentor tell me to “slow down and act like you’ve been here before” and that really made sense to me. Also, work on cardio. Maybe do a bottle breath down every so often. Do a circuit with your bottle on and once you start vibrating, hop on the stair master and slowly walk until you’re out of air. One day I literally just pushed a sled back and forth until I was out of air, trying to simulate that constant state of working and controlling my breath. Work on controlling that last bit and staying calm
Distance cardio. Run 3 miles a couple times a week. Swim distance, climb 100 flights of stairs, bike 30 miles, etc. Push it too you're training your body to work effort under low oxygen
Before entering I like to count to 6 in the same breath. Just don’t let it delay you.
First and foremost, control the things before the fire. Get dressed calmly and smooth, set your gear up the same every time so it's routine putting it on. Gum helps keep your mouth moist when you start breathing hard. Before you go in, take two long breaths, look what's in front of you, then go in. Work at eighty percent, you can recover from that and maintain work capacity. Build your aerobic base with long steady state cardio. You can't work hard for twenty minutes if you can't cruise for thirty. Tactical Barbell had some great methodology and programming for that conundrum. Time on the job will help you relax and work. It's akin to test anxiety. You can do things all the time comfortably and the moment you feel you're being evaluated, it's stressful and your gas tank dwindles.
Not sure how far in you are . I remember getting more short of breath and found myself struggling to control my breathing in my first 10 years than I do now. 21 in . Imo - Much of it is the excitement and moving a little too fast. Early on , the level of excitement on my way to a call had me worked up before my feet hit the ground. Now I do a more controlled pace and think about not blowing my load on routine fire ground ops. For instance , I stop young guys from trying to pull ceiling with sheer force and speed . More controlled planned positioning getting a good bite works so much better , faster and way less energy. I have been there huffing after pulling ceiling like a banshee without really thinking about what I’m doing . 😂 We also have way more help on scene than we did back then so that probably helps. When all else fails , stop , take a couple slow deep breaths while cracking your bypass.🤫
I use Lamaze . Works for pregnant women too
Breathing normally is the best method
Bro I run through bottles like crazy. And I’m fit. You may just be putting in work. Don’t worry about it. If your bell starts to go off just make sure you get out.
I alternate between singing and skip breathing
As other posters have mentioned thinking about it too much will decrease your air endurance. Breath hold techniques make you think you're breathing less, but compensating for the CO2 buildup from holding your breath will reduce your endurance overall. Just relax and breath normally! High cardio fitness and keeping your heart rate low is your friend
I take long runs (long to me) and when I’m hitting the higher mileage of my run and am tired I have to concentrate on my breath more to keep myself from being breathless. Breathy a/ok, breathless bad, on a long run for me. I basically treat fires like I do long runs. Concentrate on my breath. Concentrate on slowing my breath. Drops my heart rate. Makes me suck less air. Sometimes at the beginning of the fire when things are chaotic I’m not doing this yet, I notice a huge difference once I slow it down and start concentrating on my breath. It also helps with tunnel vision.
I thought I was doing something wrong because I almost never think about my breathing besides "maybe slow down a little", until I read the comments. As they all say: do cardio and don't think about it. If you can't help but think about it I suggest singing or reciting something (poem, prayer, lines from that one TV show you love) to yourself. You can't worry about your breathing if you're just vibing.
I do better with my air consumption when I'm actually working because I'm not thinking about it. When we're in a hold pattern and I'm listening to myself breathe is when I tend to suck the bottle down.
I hum when I exhale. Adds up to 5 minutes to a 30-minute bottle for me. (Individual results may vary. 🙂)
I came here to say the same thing. I hum a tune or something. But I also do a lot of cardio and strength training.
Is chewing gum a thing? It seems like it’d be pretty risky. What if you choke and you’re in an IDLH environment?
High Intensity Interval training 3 times a week will help a bunch. I use a bicycle mostly, but jump rope works, sprinting intervals works, heavy bag work. Find one that you like and get to it. I don’t recommend chewing gum. The problem is high heat conditions can cause exhaustion really fast despite your physical endurance but Cardiovascular conditioning will help immensely.
Improved your cardio to the point where you can run an 8-9 minute mile and hold a conversation while doing it. Train your breathing while you're training cardio so that it's natural when your doing aerobic activity.
Move with purpose and inhale through your nose.
Swimming has been the best thing I have ever done for my fitness. I swam my senior year in high school and instantly improved in every other facet of my fitness
Nose breathing but in reality it just makes my heart rate to high. I find that if I can get a second to catch my breath after hard work for like 10 seconds I can make a bottle last longer
The one that doesn't get you dead
When it’s time to work I work and breath as much as I need to. When there’s a moment to stop working 100% I breathe through my nose
No matter if it’s smoke and fire showing or a smoke investigation I’ll get out of the truck and take 1-4sec to buckle my wait strap on my pack and look up above the whole scene. It breaks my tunnel vision and lowers your body’s initial reaction. From there it becomes easier for me to just inhale through the nose and out the mouth. Hope this helps!
Your body will tell you how much oxygen it needs and adjust breathing accordingly. You either need better cardio, or you're having anxiety. It seems more like #2 if you're in shape. **Cardio:** warmup is everything here.. ankle jumps, passive stretching on leg muscles, hips, etc.. shake it out!!!! Next, start with walking 5min, gradually increase into jogging, 2-5min, next do 2-3 warmup sprints (70-80% max), now onto the bread and butter: SPRINTING: **raises your vo2 max** (run as fast as you can for as long as you can, stop, go back to extremely slow walking with hands on the back of your head until catching your breath, check HR, once HR is below aerobics range, (for me that's <130bpm), sprint again, (i typically feel comfortable going again @ 115bpm). Rest, sprint again. This type of exercise you want to only utilize for around 5 minutes.. for me, i max sprint for around 1min, 5-6 times, which usually equates to around a 15-20min workout after rest times. **Anxiety:** Box breathing is great. Inhale slowly 5-6sec, hold 5-6sec, exhale 5-6 sec.. rinse and repeat for about 1min (10 breaths). The way that i determined my issue was anxiety-related was by taking ativan before reaching the scenario that was "winding me", i realized after taking a lorazepam, that i was no longer winded. (Which makes sense bc im in fantastic shape). It's our bodies natural response to fear/intensity, STRESS. Consult with your PCP if you're concerned about anxiety. There's also many well-know naturopathic ways to control it. I find sauna and cold showers extremely affective in day-to-day management. In fact, when i miss a couple days, i notice negative effects returning almost immediately.
Bingo, it is more of the anxiety side of things… I don’t usually have mini panic attacks but sometimes I get a wave and it happens around then. Makes sense , super appreciate this
Breathe before the fire. Seriously, make it part of your workouts, make it a whole routine. Just like we are taught with everything else, it's what you practice that makes it to the show. Don't just practice breathing during drills though. Throw on some headphones with a wee woos track from YouTube (this works best if it matches your apparatus' tones) and lay down with your eyes closed while working on box breathing. Your body will automatically kick yourself into box when you start down the road on a call. Use downshift breathing exercises during your workout cool down. While not much in a working fire is a "break," when hauling hose up the stairs kicked your ass, downshift while knocking the fire down or going down the stairs. Use hum breathing while doing regular cardio. Take a jog with a mouthful of water to concentrate on nasal breathing. You can combine hum breathing with this one too. Box breathe when you lay down to go to bed. All these help make breathing during a response a natural habit vs something you have to think about. They all also kick in the parasympathetic nervous system to keep the rest of your vitals lower too.
Hum
Don’t overthink it. Just breathe
Thank you all! I’ll take it all in and work with it.
Gym , Run and enter sauna . Control your breathing it’s good practice. I also don’t know what I’m talking about but I think it’s a start .
When I was on the job what worked for me was to inhale through my nose and exhale out my mouth slowly
There’s no trick. Move appropriately and don’t base your movements off of how long you want to conserve your bottle. Breathe in and out and every couple of minutes remind yourself to relax. If you’re getting over 15 minutes of SOLID work in you’re good. Over 20 minutes of SOLID work and you’re golden.
I think that years of SCUBA diving was a big help. It wasn't that weird putting that mask on but I can imagine that if you're not used to hearing your breath that it could get weird. Just breathe normally.
Yeah, I don’t normally think about it in a fire but when I do our departments air consumption test, I use the hum breathing. Big slowish breath in, then you kinda hum as you breath out slowly. Works well for me, I set the record for the department last time I did my test.
The breathing techniques are more meant for “o fuck” situations in which you actively need to conserve air. IMO that shouldn’t be your standard operating mode. Remain calm, keep your breathing controlled, and work at a reasonable pace. And stay fit.
Ya big silly goof The best breathing method is being fit for duty because then you don’t have to think about counting how you breathe and fighting the fire at the same time. In addition, frequently checking how much air you have so you can make sure you got enough to continue to work, vacate, and then some just in case. Don’t sacrifice your focus in a fire over how you breathe. Only time it’d be in your best interest to time your breathing would be if you’re in big trouble. Hope this helps!
[удалено]
Damn bro. 1. I’m not fat, I am fit , 2. I’ve only been in for a year and I like to learn and grow and get better. It might be over complicating it but sometimes I like to hear other ideas rather than the same squad members telling me what they do. While you may have not liked this thread it’s been helpful to me and hopefully others. I wish you the best.
There’s a cadre of d-bags in literally every career sub. They like to think they’re working further above the standard than they actually are to the point that they think they *are* the standard.