We have become a sedentary society; we sit far too much. Your job is also sedentary; you sit for long periods in the car or at your desk, and then it’s a change from “sit too full on power” with little to no warning. Suffice to say a career in law enforcement is 100% physical and to truly survive and thrive as a LEO an investment must be made; an investment in you. But investing in you is decidedly difficult, the job simply wears you down, some days it beats you down.
We know that repeated activation of stress responses and stress hormones coupled with sleep deprivation will cause a predictable cascade effect in the body. First your immune system gets zapped from the stress and fatigue so you get sick more. Then as you sleep less from Overtime shifts and stress your body naturally begins to add pounds, you actually crave bad foods when tired. So now you are chronically sleep deprived, gaining weight, eating foods that harm instead of foods that heal and now you need an extra drink after work to relax and help you sleep…..sound familiar? There is a reason that most LEO’s die shortly after retiring and it is 100% preventable.
On top off all that you just had your annual defensive tactics and SCAT training and one of your partners put you down a little hard during a drill, your back has not been the same since. As I go around the country teaching and coaching all aspects of public safety the stories and patterns are always the same, predictable but the same. As a coach & trainer though if it’s predictable then it’s also preventable and that is the point with these 3 three tips.
I can clearly recall working with a career LEO who absolutely loved his job. He could no longer do his job because of chronic and unrelenting back pain. By the time I met him he was on a lot of pain meds and was about to be medically retired. He could not sleep because of the pain and sitting was almost impossible for more than 15 minutes at a time.
We did three things to get him mobile; this allowed him to move better. Once he moved better we were then able to get his muscles to fire better. Once his muscles fired better we were then able to build back some proper strength and stability and he got better.
1. Move well: We know that in LE and LEO’s the hip flexors, glutes, neck and shoulders get very tight, profoundly tight actually. The best mobility too is the foam roller (except for the neck-no rolling your neck). Roll each body part for 90 seconds to improve mobility pre-shift, pre-exercise or just to manage pain.
2. Make it fire: When muscles become tight (from poor posture, sitting and gear/vest) they fail to contract properly. When they do not fire at the right time and in the right sequence injury occurs. We know that particular to LEO’s are poor firing patterns in the glutes/hips, mid-back and surprisingly too many the ab’s. These 3 exercises will help to reverse that.
a. Bridge: 3 sets of up to 15 reps. Keep your heels up the entire time.
b. Squat to Overhead pull: 3 sets of 10. No leaning back at the top, make sure that you drive through the legs not the back.
c. Pallof Press: 3 sets of 15-20. This is both an abdominal and chest exercise with a lot of leg stability thrown in. It’s NOT a shooters stance, keep your sternum up.
3. Nourish it: The old adage of “you are what you eat” is true. The battle is won or lost based on what food choices you make. Eat clean, eat green, eat small portions and educate yourself on foods that harm and foods that heal. A great place to start is too simply avoid sugars and starchy carbs, it’s hard at first because your body will crave the sugar but it’s awesome how good you will feel once all that processed junk and chemicals are out of your body.
I have lost count how many LEO’s I have worked with and taken them through the exact steps above. ALL of them had almost immediate reduction in symptoms, they got back to working out and they simply reported that they felt better. So what three things are you going to do to feel better?
