What's Right is Right

April 23, 2015
Fitness and wellness will save your life every day.

Every year the best tactical fitness and conditioning coaches from around the world meet to compare ideas and share best practices.  This is also a fantastic opportunity to see the newest research coming out of the public safety fitness world.  I have had the privilege of not only attending this conference for the past three years I have also been honored to teach at it and write for their peer reviewed journal.

One thing any good coach/trainer knows is that there is a never ending feed of fitness and nutrition myths and misinformation.  These myths often create a challenge for tactical coaches as we not only need to motivate and empower officer's to take care of themselves but we have often have to un-program LEO's from many of the misdirected pursuits of strength and fitness that often cause many of the injuries we see; injuries from training to not get hurt in the first place.

Lessons Learned

  1. Physical fitness /physical abilities testing is a very hot topic that has a lot of variability nationally.  There are many departments that have no testing past the hiring process and we learned from other departments that test all their officers annually.  One presentation that was very data driven came from our north.  Departments in Canada have adopted a very robust physical fitness and physical abilities test for all officers that is well designed and simulates the job effects on the body including heart rate responses.  One aspect I like is that instead of just testing they have put in place 4 other ‘tools’ to help officers and departments succeed.  They also teach and council on health education/communication, peer support, supportive environment and work life balance.
  1. Fitness will save your life.  From all the data and studies that were shared we know that a fit officer has a reduced chance of death.  Death from heart disease, obesity related disorders, job related traumas and stress.  Some of the most successful departments have invested in their workforce and provided fitness facilities in house along with peer trainers that can work individually with officers struggling to get back in or maintain job specific conditioning.
  1. How you exercise matters.  One of the biggest trends currently are the tactical cross fit ™ style and boot camp training.  While these high intensity workouts are very popular a major concern is risk of injury.  Some studies showed that up to 1/3 of all soft tissue injuries occurred from training to not get hurt in the first place, this defeats the purpose.  Other data shared was that walking, be it foot patrol or off duty, significantly increased officer wellness. One tidbit that resonated with me and one that we have discussed in this column before is that there is no proof that exercise must be 100% intensity every time.  In fact it’s better to train hard, job specific intensity, 1-2 days per week and the rest of the time good old fashion strength training reigned superior.  One thing that was apparent in the studies is that fit officer as a whole got hurt less then LEO's that do not train.
  1. Anaerobic rules.  While many of you have been lead to believe that distance training ie. Aerobic training is superior that is far from the truth.  Yes aerobic training is awesome for stress and some fat burning but it’s not job specific.  As humans it boils down to two things.  1) lift heavy 2) Sprint.  Both of these tasks are very primal and vastly superior for building muscle, burning fat, improving systemic functions (bowel & lymph) and is job specific.  As we have talked about at length here before; never sit to exercise, instead make it as realistic as possible and when in doubt lift heavy and sprint.  One side note, when it comes to strength training please get coached by a peer or tactical facilitator that truly understands the lifts.
  1. Take away exercises.  After almost 20 years as strength coach and trainer there are few exercises that I have not learned but the benefit of these high level conferences is that I get to see what other experts are doing and this serves as a great reminder of what I have forgotten over the years.  The six exercises below are some of my favorite and we have covered them at length in this column with the exception of the sumo deadlift (a new personal favorite) and the bridge with side raise.
  • Sumo Deadlift
  • Paloff Press
  • Kettle bell get up
  • Bear crawl
  • Bridge with leg wind mill
  • Battle ropes

The take home for me and the message for you is simple, fitness and wellness will save your life one day and every day.  As a profession, L.E. can literally not afford to keep unfit LEO's on the street, the cost to the department, the public and ultimately the officers family is too high.  All the data supports that fit and healthy LEO's are a bonus to the department not a liability and often the first step is to test annually.  Of course this needs to be tied to a valid and effective fitness program and it needs to be easy for LEO's to access it.  Public safety departments must stop being afraid to test and coach LEO's; it's in everyone’s benefit to get fit and stay fit. 

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