Aerobic vs Anaerobic? What’s the Deal?!

There’s a ton of great and not so great information out there about all things fitness. The simple fact is there is no hack and no shortcuts exist to getting reliable and sustainable results. We as firefighters and emergency responders need to assess what is needed for the job, what the public actually expects us to do, and honor the oath that we took when we received our badge. Solely walking on a treadmill or just having a gym bro sesh everyday with deadlifts and bicep curls isn’t going to make you the most well rounded tactical athlete, let alone translate into actual fireground performance. Being cardiovascular fit is important. Being strong is important. Being adaptable without any warmup is very important. 

We need to train specifically for our job and a good spot to start is assessing aerobic vs anaerobic requirements of the job and use that as a foundational point to how these concepts impact our daily fitness.

So what the heck is aerobic vs anaerobic anyway? 

We’re not going to nerd out here too much so google it out to your heart’s content if you want to learn more. The basics are:

Aerobic = Endurance style work. It essentially uses Oxygen in the cells for fuel and is an energy system that supports long duration work at relatively high levels. This is commonly measured using VO2max. Breathing protocols while doing work can significantly impact the aerobic system and create efficiency. More to come on this in future posts. 

Anaerobic= Short duration (3 minutes max) high to extreme intensity work. This system essentially uses either ATP-PC or Glucose to fuel the cells and there is a delicate and very short dance with other chemicals such as lactate that make you slow down and revert back to an aerobic state.

So, with this extremely simplified explanation you can simply make the correlation that we need to be able to work consistently in both the aerobic and anaerobic systems. It has to match the call requirements and what your specific job functions on the fireground are.  Here is a great study/article that has some data in relation to which energy system is being used. (For those of you who are members of the National Strength and Conditioning Association you can get an even better study here.) Both of these studies took a look at what fireground task tapped into what energy system was being utilized.  It shows that some tasks like carrying equipment, overhaul, salvage, long distance hikes/rucks for wildland are mainly in the aerobic state and other tasks like hiking stairs with hose packs, victim drags and hose advancement can easily switch in the anaerobic state. None of this information is new to you I’m sure and if you think back onto your training and actual calls you can probably easily classify which system you were operating within based on the amount of work it was and how long you could perform at an optimal level.  

So How Do I Train My Aerobic & Anaerobic Systems? 

We’re not going to focus super heavy within this post about how to train these specific systems but would rather encourage you to take a solid self assessment based on what your job actually is. Within this self assessment try and figure out which system you should intentionally target through your fitness training.  The fact is if you’re a tactical athlete you need to be training both the aerobic and anaerobic systems and you also need to have a heavy focus on resistance aka strength training.  The good news is you will have some amazing variability within your fitness training so it shouldn’t get super boring or stagnant!  Love the bicep curls and deadlifts? Great! Make sure you’re throwing in a solid couple days a week of aerobic training to help build muscle endurance.  Love to run long distances? Awesome! Make sure you’re building some good anaerobic work into the week using shuttle sprints with calculated rest times or build some strength and resilience by doing a weighted ruck for distance.  The world is your oyster but you have to be ready for what the emergency scene is guaranteed to throw your way.  

We have designed 9 crew workouts with a free downloadable pdf here for you as a fun starting point or check out this past post about some fantastic groups who are putting out amazing and relevant workout resources for you as a tactical athlete.  Keep it fun, use the tremendous resources that exist out there on YouTube, your local gym, or your department’s peer fitness trainers. If you need more help don’t hesitate to reach out to us and we’ll get you pointed in the right direction.  

Stay smart, happy, healthy and strong!