Physical fitness testing…what does it prove?

A wise person once asked me, “what are you training for? You gotta have a purpose.” At the time, I was doing two-a-days 5 or 6 times a week, clearly overtraining, and didn’t give the comment much thought. Well, after years of experience (a lot of it trial and error) and instructing others, primarily recruits and officers, I have come to the conclusion that physical fitness training must have a purpose.

In law enforcement, even combat, PT (physical training) has to be planned and structured to support and prepare a person for a specific job. For LEO’s, the job is defensive or control tactics. I have been in many debates and discussions regarding just how PT should be implemented for recruits. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to be a part of some major changes and improvements in how PT is done regarding recruits and officers on my department. I have to say that these changes are a vast improvement over what it was. That does not mean that there isn’t room for improvement…because there is.

Lets take a look at traditional PT for recruits, both law enforcement and military alike. Traditional PT usually consists of run, run, run, push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups. I will admit that this type of training can lead to certain improvements in one’s level of fitness and allow units or groups to form as a team. The reality is that this type of linear training separates fitness in way that nature or the real world has no regard for. In other words, if a person was in a fight or pursuit, they would not have the luxury of performing the “cardio” and “strength” component separately. They would have to perform them simultaneously. It is easy to see where traditional PT has its limitations. It is this logic that helped make fitness programs, like CrossFit, so popular among military and law enforcement. PT programs that integrate shorter bouts of varied movements under high intensity result in a more direct translation to increases in job related performance.

Lets take that a step further. Since some of these popular programs have hit the scene, many agencies and military groups have implemented this type of methodology with great success. Quite often, in many recruit training programs, recruits are initially exposed to group runs and general calisthenics. I admit that group runs are a useful tool in developing marching skills and building discipline as a team. After some time doing the “basics” for several weeks, recruits are exposed to high intensity, varied, interval type training and even some basic lifts. After several months of this, recruits are allowed to some strength training, perhaps on their own, with some occasional running and high intensity training sessions. Sound familiar? For those who have gone through recruit training on my department in the last four years, this should sound very familiar.

This type of program has proven to be very successful and far superior in means of improved performance over the traditional programs. I think it can be improved even more. We have to understand the scale of persistence of adaptation. This means the rate at which, once a physiological adaptation is achieved, how quickly it will diminish. For example, muscle tissue, once attained or developed stays with us a long time. It takes a while to get it but we keep it for a long time. Conversely, cardio-respiratory endurance, once attained, will diminish very quickly if not trained. But it doesn’t take very long to make improvements.

What does this mean? Stay with me on this…below is a scale showing, in order, those things that stay with us the longest to the least. This also means that the things that stay with us the longest take a while to develop.

1. Muscle growth
2. Strength
3. Power
4. Speed
5. Skill
6. Cardio-respiratory endurance

There may be some other categories but I think you get the idea. Now that we understand this, lets apply it.

Since muscle growth and strength stay with us the longest and take the most time to develop, then its clear that this should be the first couple months of any training plan. Now that we got some muscle and strength, not to mention stronger and more stable joints which prevent injuries, we can move into developing speed and skill with higher intensity, interval type training. During this phase, which we will call the conditioning phase, in order to maintain the muscle and strength we gained from the first block of training, we will still do some strength work but only occasionally.

Finally, we move to the last phase…the finishing phase. Having a basic understanding of physiology, we know that we can attain “cardio” pretty quickly but lose it equally as fast so we begin adding more of this to our training along with more frequent and technical bouts of defensive or control tactics training. By the time we have started this finishing phase, we have gained a lot of muscle, developed more stable joints (better preparing us for the more dynamic/explosive blocks of training) and have had substantial improvements in our cardio-respiratory endurance from doing high intensity/interval type training.

In the final phase, we are basically “fine tuning” our skills and endurance, peaking us for our “contest date” which is graduation. Additionally, during this final finishing phase, again to keep the gains we have made, we will still occasionally do some strength and conditioning work.

I know what you are thinking, “wow, that is genius! Why didn’t we do that?” I can’t take all the credit. The type of phased training that I described is nothing new. This is exactly how professional fighters or athletes train, but instead of graduation they are peaking for an actual contest or sporting event. Athletes in the off season do a lot of strength training for several months which allow the adaptations to take place. Then after that, they start conditioning…a mix of higher intensity type training with occasional strength work and the introduction of skill work. Then, as the contest or opening season date approaches, they enter a final phase of sport specific skill work with occasional strength and conditioning. They stay in this phase until the season is over or the fight is finished.

So what is the difference between recruit training and how a professional athlete trains? Ahhhh, enter the “argument”. I can only speculate as to why it is different. It shouldn’t be. Professional athletes have done this for decades and know it works. My guess is that at some point in the past someone made a decision, based on whatever available knowledge they had, and figured a whole lot of running, push-ups and sit-ups…maybe some strength near the end (which is backwards)…would best prepare someone for the “real-world.” Once that type of linear, physiologically backwards training was in place, it remained unchallenged because “that’s just the way we have always done it.”

Putting strength training in the last few weeks of any long term program doesn’t make any sense. First, it doesn’t allow any time to make substantial gains and by then, a person or recruit already has some type of joint related injury that they are nursing that could have been diminished or avoided if they had done some strength training earlier to make their joints more stable.

So how does all this relate to the title of this article, “Physical fitness testing…what does it prove?"  Well, now that we have a better understanding of types of recruit training it is easy to see that PT tests may seem a little silly. First let me start by saying that I understand and agree that there needs to be a measurable fitness standard that provides a means to track progress in a large group in a relatively easy manner. When we test someone on a run, push-ups and sit-ups we are only measuring their ability to perform those events, which is quite often an unreliable way to determine a persons performance in combat or a fight. Well nothing is perfect, and I think many departments are beginning to recognize this and incorporate more scenario based training and timed obstacle courses with job related tasks in to their testing process.

I think PT tests are a necessary tool in recruit or military training and need to stay in as part of any program. Nothing is perfect but if we can more closely emulate the demands that are faced on the job into the test, then the better we can evaluate performance. So, I guess, we can say that a PT test only proves how well a person can do those events in a test. Testing should be a part of the progress, but I feel that the PT program is truly where a person will receive their preparation. Law enforcement agencies and military alike have made huge improvements in physical training programs for recruit training. I think we can make it better.

On our department, recruit training lasts approximately 7 months. I think the first few weeks of physical training should be dedicated to traditional team building calisthenics with a few sessions dedicated to teaching mechanics on basic lifts….deadlift, back/front squat, power cleans, push press and bench. This allows the group to form as unit, develop protocol/discipline and acclimate to “academy” life. Then enter the strength phase, about 9-10 weeks. This would consist of 3-4 weekly sessions of strength with one or two sessions of group calisthenics. This allows recruits time to build muscle, strength and strong joints to withstand the increasingly demanding defensive/control tactics training while maintaining team discipline. Next, the conditioning phase with 2-3 sessions of high intensity, metcon type training with an occasional bout of group calisthenics and strength training. This phase will last for another 10 weeks or so. Then the finishing phase, which would be a lot of high intensity job related skill work, occasional metcon, occasional strength and occasional group calisthenics.

I think this model better prepares a recruit for not only the job but also to better withstand the rigors of recruit training. Is this going to happen? Who knows. Maybe one day. As we all know, new ideas, no matter how sound, are often met with resistance because they go “against the grain” and require a new understanding and way of doing things. Regardless of the outcome, I can confidently say that physical training in the military and law enforcement world is on the right track and has changed for the better in the last few years. We have to remember, the physical training must have a direct translation to job related performance and should be structured and planned with that in mind.

Here is an article written by Major Damon Wells, who occasionally writes for Mark Rippetoe’s website, startingstength.com. It disusses ideas on how PT can be better programmed for specific roles or duties.  Here is another article by Major Ryan Whittemore, who is also an author for Rippetoe's website.  This one goes into "worst case scenarios" and explains that its important to tailor the training for those types of situations.  Both article discuss similar issues and bring to light some obvious flaws and make very convincing arguments. 

Until next time, make sure to get some sprints or strength training in this week, and again please let me know if there are any topics you would like to see discussed or questions you may have. I will be having more lectures and seminars in the near future so keep your eyes open for times and dates.
　



References:
Berg, Jeremy and L. Stryer and J. Tymoczko. Biochemistry 6^th Edition. W.H. Freeman and Company.      2007

Federal Bureau of Investigation. Physical Fitness for Law Enforcement Officers. United States Department of Justice. March 1972

Jesse, John. Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia. The Althetic Press. 1986

Rippetoe, Mark and Lon Kilgore. Practical Programming for Strength Training 2^nd Edition. The Aasgard Company. 2009