My Academy had some pretty rigorous PT. I came out of there in damn good shape. My department doesnt require PT after the Academy but does have nice incentives to keep up on your PT.
One problem is that police work in general can make you fat really fast. Most police work isnt the cool high speed stuff on TV. Its a lot of driving in a car, talking to people, and doing paperwork. Plus busy days mixed with weird hours makes getting good/healthy food not easy. A lot of guys pack their lunches but access to a microwave is not always an option. If you leave it in a fridge at work it might be hours past your lunch time before you get back to it.
I go to the gym 3 to 4 days a week. However I do exclusively weight lifting. I have found superior strength to be more of an asset in this work than cardiovascular endurance. The longest foot chase I have been in was probably about a third of a mile. Now that does kind of sound like Im making excuses for why I dont run much. And in a way I guess it is… but truthfully I just hate running.
Obesity is very close related to food choices, specifically sugar, and has little to do with exercise from what I’ve read. They’ve taken rats who are intravenously hooked up to a cocaine drip, and given them the option of cocaine or sugar, the vast majority chose sugar over blow. Sugar is highly addictive and has some devastating consequences.
My academy had virtually zero PT. My training officer and a few of my classmates would work out together after class in the weight room and cardio. We just had to pass the PT test to get in. I am in the gym (weights and minimal cardio) 4-5 days a week because I work nights and that is when the creepy people come out to play. I understand that there are guys in jail and prison who are bigger, faster and stronger than me.
Speaking in vast generalities we have seen a cultural shift with my generation (I’m 29) and the one before mine where it became more fun to stay inside and play video games instead of going outside and running around. It is also impacting those younger than me. They eat like crap, not saying I eat well, and sit around most of the day. I have friends who complain about being overweight but then go back to eating garbage and sitting around with their Playstations and Xboxes. Staying fit involves physical labor and so many younger people avoid that like I avoid Hi-Points. I blame the parents of today’s youth for coddling them in a risk averse life style where breaking a sweat is bad because you could be doing something that gets you hurt.
One of the first things to get cut in schools is PE. Even where PE still exists it has changed to “lifetime sports” that you can do throughout your years as opposed to high intensity competitive sports and exercise that can keep kids in shape. PE also leads to hurt feelings with competition and we can’t have that in schools. :mad:
Sorry for the rant, I just got home from a 12 hour shift and this topic touches close to home for me.
I know since fitness has become a priority in my life, I see things I never noticed before.
Things line, how many obese people the are pretty much every where. How most stores are 85% junk food. Gas stations are 99% junk food.
Problem is we start them young with shitty habits. My kids like corn dogs, chicken nuggets, and Mac and effing simulated cheese… All the time. See the problem?
You can cook similar, much healthier versions of all of those things. But it does take time and effort. There lies the problem.
American average diet is super high bad types of carb, high fat, high sugar, and low in good protein and vegetables. And eating out to much where it’s to easy to get extra fries with your double burger.
My kids like vinegar balsamic vinegar on their veggies. Make it taste good and they’ll it.
And don’t just sit on your ass all the time. Your doomed if you do.
I think the problem is in the high schools. They don’t cook most of the food. It’s just reheated food service products. Those are some of the most impressionable years. P.E. Not required and eating pizza and snack bar food five days a week…what could go wrong?
Fat and out of shape is a choice. I say this as a former out of shape fat ass.
Something that has always bothered me is the instances where the physical requirements for the Army do not make sense. I personally knew two outstanding Sergeants that had their careers cut short because even though they passed the PT test with over 200 points each (one got a 260, the other a 220 something), they were not allowed to re-up because they could not meet the height-to-weight requirement. It floors me to think that either a big Samoan or an of Eastern European descent ‘husky’ individual that could pass the pt test easily, and probably bench press a horse were seen as unfit for continued service where-as a 180 lb ‘soaking wet’ 18 yr old that’s fresh outta High School/Basic/AIT that can pass both the PT test and height-to-weight requirement, but would fold like a cheap suit with a good gut check shot, were good to go.
I understand both sides of the argument/problem, but there is room to improve the correct way, which in my opinion, is to allow people that pass the PT test with over 200 points (180 being the minimum, 60 points minimum per task) to not have to be held to the height-to-weight requirement.
The Army never has been and never will be “fair” from the perspective of the individual. We all know great people who were tossed for BS reasons, just as young folks who would have been great soldiers have been kept out. It does what it needs to do to keep the big green machine running.
Anecdotal evidence and small samples are pointless. The Army needs to go with the 85% solution for reasons of practicality. Losing a great SSG sucks from the small unit perspective, but in the big scheme of things it isn’t even a tiny drop in a very large bucket.
Over 90% of the guys on the overweight program are indeed fat. Attempting to come up with a secondary standard for the few who are both fit and chunky doesn’t make sense from a time/manpower perspective.
Back to the OP: USAREC has been beating this drum for years; the message just gets re-broadcast periodically.