need some Police Academy PT info from LEO's

[Mikel]

Going into Police Academy a bit overweight and out of shape. (35years old, 6', 250lbs)
Q. What types of exercises will I have to face?

A. What should I do in the 3 weeks I have to prepare?

Thinking of sit-ups, push-ups and daily jog each morning until then... How hard will it be?

[stash]

Can't answer questions about the academy but I would be careful of the push ups and sit ups if you are out of shape bad. At this point you don't want to hurt your back and possibly put off your entry into the academy. Good luck to you at the academy.

[Keith B]

I am not a trainer, but here is what I recommend. Core exercise (stomach crunches, leg lifts, squats) 10 - 15 minutes a day and then some light cardio (jogging or fast paced walk), but don't overdo it. Keep your heart rate no higher than about 140 - 150 and about 30 - 40 minutes a day of the cardio. You may want to throw in a little light free-weight training for upper body building. I did this regiment 3 times a week this year at 49 years old and lost 15 lbs in 3 months. I was 5'9" and 210, and went down to 195 and lost most of my stomach overhang. Actually lost more than that in fat, but gained some muscle weight. That should help get you moving toward the PT portion of the academy.

[Kevinf2349]

...and don't forget the donut crunches

Good luck in the academy. I guess at 50+ and 220 I am way too old and 'rounded' to even attempt to ride along, heck I would be lucky to even do one sit up unassisted!

Have fun and be safe out there.

[joe817]

I have "the Army Daily Dozen" ingrained in my memory banks. We did them 3 times/week.

That would be a good, cheap way to go, if you ask me:

http://ask.metafilter.com/42174/What-ar ... aily-Dozen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[srothstein]

Any good set of calisthenics would help, along with jogging. Start easy and then work up to more. If possible, do ten four count exercises of each (and the daily dozen is a pretty good starting place) then jog at a slow to medium pace for as far as you can. Advance the numbers once per week but not more often. You will get a lot of running and push-ups in most academies.

The things you want to really work on are flexibility and cardio-vascular endurance. Both types of exercises are good for the cardio, and the calisthenics need to include flexibility exercises (like windmills).

One of the other big hints is to make this a lifelong change. If you are like I was way back then and only do it to make it through the academy, you will stop as soon as you graduate. You will gain all the fat back, plus some, and lose all the muscle strength and endurance, all in only a couple months. And then when you get old (like me) you have all sorts of problems losing it and getting in shape again.

BTW, congratulations on the academy. It can be a great life, even with the downsides. Which academy or agency are you going with?

[Mikel]

great advice guys.
Teex Central Texas police Academy

What are the "daily dozen"... it seems the internet is full of stuff that doesn't look right.

[Skiprr]

Steve isn't old. He's joshin' about that part.

I wish you had at least nine weeks, not three. Ninety days would be ideal.

You don't mention whether or not you have an athletic/training background. If you do, it helps. Some claim "muscle memory," but in truth it's memory of form and function; it's why we don't forget how to ride a bicycle: the movements--be they running, doing a bench press, guarding someone in basketball, or hitting a baseball--get "synched" or "tracked" much, much quicker for someone going back into training than in someone who has never trained performing them.

With only three weeks, my advice would be: "First, do no harm."

At 35, you simply can't appreciably improve your overall fitness in three weeks. You can, however, make some gains that will help you.

First is that you can get over the "rebound" effect. This is a typical, cyclical response in striated muscle fibers (voluntary muscles) of untrained individuals: once you begin loading the muscles with enough resistance to create a training effect, the pattern is soreness, partial recovery, new training where you now feel weaker than when you started, slightly better recovery, possible additional soreness, new training, slightly better recovery, and so on. For most males your age, it takes about four training/recovery sessions to work out the kinks and get to the point where you can start acheiving real benefit from the exercise.

There's a concept called "periodization" that structures training programs to take this into account. This is often referred to as the "accommodation" phase: low resistance, low intensity, moderate duration. But you'll need to compress this into just a few days.

Do you have access to a fully-equipped gym? If not, try to. And try to engage an experienced trainer to at least lay-out your three-week plan (and further, post-academy), if not train you the first two or three sessions.

At your age overtraining is not a huge issue, but if you are truly out of shape at your weight you'll need to be very careful about impact exercises like running. That "first do no harm" thing. If you feel you can go out to a high-school track and do an 880 in under five minutes, you're probably good to go with some running right away.

If a 10- or 11-minute mile sounds daunting, you may want to spend most of your "running" time on an incline treadmill that can maximize your skeletal-muscle and cardiac performance with lower impact on your knees and ankles...and can stretch-out your achilles tendon at the same time. As you start hitting your 40s, take particular care of your achilles tendon: the gastroc and soleus muscles of the calf stay powerful as you age, but the musculo-tendonal connection becomes less flexible.

After every training session, stretch. Cool down, wait five minutes or so, then do some light, slow stretches for your back, hamstrings, achilles, and shoulders. Don't bounce. Static, slow, pain-free stretches that you hold for about 30 seconds each.

If you're deconditioned, you can't start with a double-split routine: in other words, no two-a-days. No jogging in the morning and weights/calisthenics at night.

Plan for exercise, rest, and diet each to play equal roles.

In general, until you're fit enough to separate them, do your resistance training first, followed immediately by your cardio. Resistance training is any muscular action against a resistance, be that your own bodyweight, an external weight, or an immovable object.

Ideally, you train for the activity you'll be performing. While I think you can get more conditioning out of incline treadmill work (or even running a hill if you don't have a gym) than flat-track running, you'll be doing a lot of pushups in the academy, so even though your first couple of workouts might be with dumbbells to get both arms synchronized, you need to train with pushups.

Keep things minimal. Squats for the hips and quads. Crunches for the abs. Pushups for the pecs and triceps. Bent-rows for the upper- and lower-back. Seated dumbbell presses for the shoulders and tris. In the third week I'd add barbell cleans: a whole-body movement where, keeping a straight back, the bar is hoisted from the floor to the shoulders in a standing position. As a "macro" resistance movement that enervates as many muscles as possible in a coordinated fashion, this one is just about king.

Something you can--and must--immediately change is your diet. I dunno what it is, but I'll guarantee it ain't right.

Five meals a day.

Your eyes buggin' out?

Thing is, a meal ain't a 16-once steak and a football-size Idaho baker. That's the problem.

Small, frequent, evenly-spaced meals is the key. Whether you want to be Mr. America or Lance Armstrong.

Your body can only take in and assimilate so much at one time. Stands to reason, doesn't it?

With no performance-enhancing drugs, that pace is about every three hours. Protein will be key, but you can't assimilate more than 20 grams at a time.

Hey, 500 calories at each meal, five times per day, and you have a healthy 2,500-calorie diet. And you won't be hungry. Trust me.

Most importantly, if you engineer those meals to each have about 20 grams of high-quality protein, you will be providing your body with the optimum condition to build muscle. Small, frequent meals containing complete, easily-assimilated protein is the magic bullet.

Last up, there is a "golden" period lasting up to about 30 minutes from the completion of strenuous exercise where your body can absorb nutrients at record pace, and incoming dietary sugars are more readily converted into muscle glycogen. This "golden" window applies to both proteins and carbs. Ergo the market for "recovery" drinks. Just be certain that you take in one of your meals within that "golden" window. If you have a good whey protein mix, that's the time to use it.

Finally, rest.

The cells in your body need time to recover, heal, and grow stronger. You simply cannot rush this process. Work hard, eat properly, and SLEEP. Muscle anabolism doesn't occur when you curl a dumbbell; it occurs while you sleep.

I've posted elsewhere about my martial arts background. That led, in part, to my first occupational incarnation.

If anyone on the Forum remembers Houston's President and First Lady health clubs (gack!) or the Nautilus of America chain, you may have met me.

I had the privilege of training Earl Campbell, Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, Moses Malone, Kenny Kennard, Darryl Joiner, Allen Ashby, Curly Culp, and other professional athletes.

My subtitle claim-to-fame was that I was the training partner of the first Ms. Olympia, Rachel McLish, for her 1981 title defense.


Seriously, your enrollment in the academy, your commitment to becoming a law enforcement officer, has my utmost respect.

Eat right, rest well...and fight like your life depended on it!

[Kevinf2349]

Skippr

Excellent post.

I need a rest after just reading about all those exercises! Great input though.

[CompVest]

I am taking a nap!

[TLynnHughes]

Outstanding post, Skippr!!!

So much of what you posted I had never understood before, but now makes perfect sense. And I can't believe you trained Rachel McLish. She was AWESOME!!

T.

[CompVest]

Skippr is one the Forum's great assets!

[Purplehood]

I have the resting and 5 meals a day parts down pat.

[srothstein]

Wow, we do have a varied group here. I strongly recommend you pay attention to Skippr's post, as it is one of the things I forgot. I gave my advice based on my experience and completely forgot the most important part.

Get professional help, trainers can be worth every cent you pay them.

I know most of us will give advice based on what we did and how we prepared. This is not usually too bad, though just because it worked for me does not mean it would work for you. What all of us have forgotten at times (and I did this time) is to know our limits and our expertise. We normally remember for some things (like the IANAL disclaimer) and then forget on other areas where expertise is just as important. This is true on everything from car repairs to plumbing to, in this case, physical training.

Thanks for jumping in on this Skippr. My expertise is very limited in this (basically a little training for police academy PT classes) and I am very glad an expert chimed in.

[Mikel]

Steve isn't old. He's joshin' about that part.

I wish you had at least nine weeks, not three. Ninety days would be ideal.

You don't mention whether or not you have an athletic/training background. If you do, it helps. Some claim "muscle memory," but in truth it's memory of form and function; it's why we don't forget how to ride a bicycle: the movements--be they running, doing a bench press, guarding someone in basketball, or hitting a baseball--get "synched" or "tracked" much, much quicker for someone going back into training than in someone who has never trained performing them.

With only three weeks, my advice would be: "First, do no harm."

At 35, you simply can't appreciably improve your overall fitness in three weeks. You can, however, make some gains that will help you.

First is that you can get over the "rebound" effect. This is a typical, cyclical response in striated muscle fibers (voluntary muscles) of untrained individuals: once you begin loading the muscles with enough resistance to create a training effect, the pattern is soreness, partial recovery, new training where you now feel weaker than when you started, slightly better recovery, possible additional soreness, new training, slightly better recovery, and so on. For most males your age, it takes about four training/recovery sessions to work out the kinks and get to the point where you can start acheiving real benefit from the exercise.

There's a concept called "periodization" that structures training programs to take this into account. This is often referred to as the "accommodation" phase: low resistance, low intensity, moderate duration. But you'll need to compress this into just a few days.

Do you have access to a fully-equipped gym? If not, try to. And try to engage an experienced trainer to at least lay-out your three-week plan (and further, post-academy), if not train you the first two or three sessions.

At your age overtraining is not a huge issue, but if you are truly out of shape at your weight you'll need to be very careful about impact exercises like running. That "first do no harm" thing. If you feel you can go out to a high-school track and do an 880 in under five minutes, you're probably good to go with some running right away.

If a 10- or 11-minute mile sounds daunting, you may want to spend most of your "running" time on an incline treadmill that can maximize your skeletal-muscle and cardiac performance with lower impact on your knees and ankles...and can stretch-out your achilles tendon at the same time. As you start hitting your 40s, take particular care of your achilles tendon: the gastroc and soleus muscles of the calf stay powerful as you age, but the musculo-tendonal connection becomes less flexible.

After every training session, stretch. Cool down, wait five minutes or so, then do some light, slow stretches for your back, hamstrings, achilles, and shoulders. Don't bounce. Static, slow, pain-free stretches that you hold for about 30 seconds each.

If you're deconditioned, you can't start with a double-split routine: in other words, no two-a-days. No jogging in the morning and weights/calisthenics at night.

Plan for exercise, rest, and diet each to play equal roles.

In general, until you're fit enough to separate them, do your resistance training first, followed immediately by your cardio. Resistance training is any muscular action against a resistance, be that your own bodyweight, an external weight, or an immovable object.

Ideally, you train for the activity you'll be performing. While I think you can get more conditioning out of incline treadmill work (or even running a hill if you don't have a gym) than flat-track running, you'll be doing a lot of pushups in the academy, so even though your first couple of workouts might be with dumbbells to get both arms synchronized, you need to train with pushups.

Keep things minimal. Squats for the hips and quads. Crunches for the abs. Pushups for the pecs and triceps. Bent-rows for the upper- and lower-back. Seated dumbbell presses for the shoulders and tris. In the third week I'd add barbell cleans: a whole-body movement where, keeping a straight back, the bar is hoisted from the floor to the shoulders in a standing position. As a "macro" resistance movement that enervates as many muscles as possible in a coordinated fashion, this one is just about king.

Something you can--and must--immediately change is your diet. I dunno what it is, but I'll guarantee it ain't right.

Five meals a day.

Your eyes buggin' out?

Thing is, a meal ain't a 16-once steak and a football-size Idaho baker. That's the problem.

Small, frequent, evenly-spaced meals is the key. Whether you want to be Mr. America or Lance Armstrong.

Your body can only take in and assimilate so much at one time. Stands to reason, doesn't it?

With no performance-enhancing drugs, that pace is about every three hours. Protein will be key, but you can't assimilate more than 20 grams at a time.

Hey, 500 calories at each meal, five times per day, and you have a healthy 2,500-calorie diet. And you won't be hungry. Trust me.

Most importantly, if you engineer those meals to each have about 20 grams of high-quality protein, you will be providing your body with the optimum condition to build muscle. Small, frequent meals containing complete, easily-assimilated protein is the magic bullet.

Last up, there is a "golden" period lasting up to about 30 minutes from the completion of strenuous exercise where your body can absorb nutrients at record pace, and incoming dietary sugars are more readily converted into muscle glycogen. This "golden" window applies to both proteins and carbs. Ergo the market for "recovery" drinks. Just be certain that you take in one of your meals within that "golden" window. If you have a good whey protein mix, that's the time to use it.

Finally, rest.

The cells in your body need time to recover, heal, and grow stronger. You simply cannot rush this process. Work hard, eat properly, and SLEEP. Muscle anabolism doesn't occur when you curl a dumbbell; it occurs while you sleep.

I've posted elsewhere about my martial arts background. That led, in part, to my first occupational incarnation.

If anyone on the Forum remembers Houston's President and First Lady health clubs (gack!) or the Nautilus of America chain, you may have met me.

I had the privilege of training Earl Campbell, Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, Moses Malone, Kenny Kennard, Darryl Joiner, Allen Ashby, Curly Culp, and other professional athletes.

My subtitle claim-to-fame was that I was the training partner of the first Ms. Olympia, Rachel McLish, for her 1981 title defense.


Seriously, your enrollment in the academy, your commitment to becoming a law enforcement officer, has my utmost respect.

Eat right, rest well...and fight like your life depended on it!

I have access to Gold's Gym,
Going tomorrow; starting the eating changes and everything else right now
:)