crossfit vol. 7 - mar 2003 - push up, worlds fastest lift, police training
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Push-ups - page 1
The Worlds Fastest Lift: A Review by Danny John- page 1
Police Training - page 2
The Lowly Push-up
The push-up, long a favorite among junior high school
P.E. teachers and Marine Corps drill instructors, is for
many, more closely associated with punishment than
anything else. Though common to group exercise
programs, its use in serious strength and conditioning
regimens is infrequent. In modern times the push-up is,like the jumping jack, relegated to outdoor programs
where the number of
exercisers and lack of
equipment make it a staple
due to necessity.
In an earlier time the push-
up was largely regarded
as a measure of a mans
strength and tness. In
more modern times much
of this reputation has been
passed on to the bench-
press, but the push-ups
passing misses the great
opportunity to master a
gateway movement to one
of the most developmental progressions in all of tness.
The push-up is more a family of movements than a
single exercise. In fact, it is a progression that starts
from the horizontal, which is the classic P.E. push-up,
and through gradually, incrementally, elevating the feetfrom the oor to a point where the athlete is eventually
in a handstand, becomes the handstand push-up.
The handstand push-up, at the far end of the progression
is a challenging exercise that when freed from the
wall becomes an extraordinary fete of strength and
balance that has no peer in weightlifting movements. At
the moment of performing twenty handstand push-ups
without benet of the wall the athlete has achieved a
level of strength and balance (continued on page 3)
Review: World Class Coaching LLCs Olympic
Lifting Videotapes
Editors note I rst came across World Class Coaching and their two
videotapes Worlds Fastest Lift on the Snatch and
The Worlds Most Powerful Lift on the Clean and
Jerk over a year ago. I was absolutely stunned, blown
away, at the depth and quality of instruction. We had
mentioned these tapes in the October 2002 CrossFit
Journal, What is Fitness?
where, on the subject of the
Olympic lifts, we stated
unequivocally, These
tapes are not only the
best instruction available
anywhere they are as good
as any instructional tape
weve seen on any subject.
I think we understated the
case!
There had long been
numerous aspects of
traditional coaching of the
Olympic lifts that seemed
to me to not only defy physics but deed what I thought
I was clearly seeing. Ill site one example. It is nearly
universal in coaching the clean and jerk to instruct the
lifter to follow through on the second pull by coming
up on the toes, but it looked to me like the photos and
footage of the great lifters showed that they were on
their way down under the bar when the heels lifted the
knees and hips seemed to have begun to ex again and
the hair on the lifters head was often seen rising! This
suggested that the lifter was not rising on his toes but
falling so fast that the heels rose. Id long noticed that
if an athlete were to drop suddenly from fully erect and
land in a squat the heels would briey lift as the hips and
legs exed violently allowing the athlete to plunge much
like what I thought I was seeing in the photos.
(continued on page 7)
THE
CrossFit JournalIN THIS ISSUE:
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POLICE TRAINING
The difference between combat and sports is that in combat you bury the guy who comes in second.
-Unidentied Navy SEAL on the Discovery Channels U.S. Navy SEALS II, 1999
Introduction
CrossFits work enhancing sport performance while exciting, and even gratifying, sometimes feels too much like
helping adults play childrens games. On the other hand our work with seniors and little kids while very rewarding,
lacks the excitement surrounding elite human performance.
Our recent work and acceptance in the law enforcement, tactical operations, and military special operations communities
has been both extremely gratifying and very exciting.
Increasingly, our readers are coming from the ranks of the professional combatant. They have come to CrossFit aware
of the reality that, on average, the tness challenges with which they are most likely to be faced will not be best met by
a specialized, narrowly focused, tness. That is the sole domain of the sport athlete.
Incredibly, the tness needs of professional combatants, police and military, have not been given the same quality
analysis, commitment, or even funding that is generally given to sport.
The resulting inadequacies in both police and military training are both technical, and nancial. But in the case of law
enforcement physical training programming the obstacles to better training are more profound due to a widespread
misunderstanding of the physiological needs of police work and the implications this misunderstanding portend for
funding police training.
Lets take a look.
CrossFits Perspective
It is CrossFits contention that cops and soldiers
are professional athletes. In fact, we argue that the
physical preparedness required of military combat
- and by extension law enforcement - matches
and regularly surpasses that required of Olympic
athletes. In light of this view, we nd it disturbing
that few police departments offer formal tness
instruction after academy graduation.
We further contend that a careful examination of the
physical demands of police work and the success
of CrossFits training model suggest a remedy to
inadequate training even where the obstacles are
seen as being primarily nancial or administrative.
(continued on page 8)
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(continued from page 1) that not one
in a hundred thousand gym goers will ever realize. The integration of strength and balance gives the handstand push-
up, even though limited to bodyweight, an athletic edge that brings this movement to at least peer status with even the
heaviest of presses whether bench, overhead, or jerk. Twenty handstand push-ups in the middle of the room or on
parallel bars, again without the wall, confers, automatically, a single rep military press of perhaps 150% bodyweight,
whereas a 150% bodyweight single rep military press suggest little or nothing about an athletes balance.
The possibilities and potentials dont end at twenty, thirty, or even fty handstand push-ups. Consider for just a moment
the hand, nger, and grip strength developed through performing these handstand push-ups on ngertips at rst ve
ngers, then four, and eventually three. Then there are the presses to the handstand that will come smoothly, easily, and
condently as a bonus to the handstand push-up, but were getting years ahead of ourselves here.
Mastery of the basic, entry level, P.E. push-up is a prerequisite to the handstand push-up. Very few people have
achieved mastery of the push-up though many of you think you have. The test is simple; can you do 100 perfect push-
ups? The standard for perfection, though simple, disqualies nearly everyone. A perfect push-up is slow and deep witha body absolutely perfectly straight and taut. Weve listed the most common push-up faults below. Not one in fty guys
with a 300-pound bench press can do 50 honest push-ups!
So, what is an honest push-up? An honest push-up moves slowly from full extension to a point of maximum depth
without reaching for the ground or perturbing the bodys taut, rigid, straight-line posture and return rigidly to full
extension. Done correctly, the push-up is a super demanding whole body movement engage as many stabilizers as
possible.
Reaching for the ground is trying to nd the bottom of the stroke early. The two most common reaching cheats are
done by craning the neck to nd the ground with the nose early or dropping the belly to nd bottom early. The ideal is
An Honest Push-Up
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to retard, not advance,the bodies parts from nding bottom nose, chest, belly, thighs, and
pelvis are each in a race to see which can reach bottom last not rst.
Perturbing the bodys taut, rigid, straight-line posture is evident when the butt sticks up
or the belly sags toward the oor. By our standards a drop of the middle - belly sagging or
lifting of the butt in the air terminates the set. So does stopping and resting at any point. The
standard is tough super taut straight body, full range of motion - without reaching - and
resting only when nished.
We do our push-ups on the oor, parallettes, and parallel bars, but the parallel bars or
parallettes are better than the oor because they allow for another six inches of travel.
If performing push-ups on the oor we start our athletes from at on the oor with the nose,
chest, pelvis, and thighs - as much of the body as possible - making contact and then begin.
The posture on the oor sets the posture for the entire set.
Progressing from the basic push-up to the handstand push-up is a simple matter of elevating
the feet in small increments over time. A chair, plyo-box, or securely racked bar all make
good platforms for elevating the feet.
At rst your handstand push-ups will require kicking your heels and posterior against the
wall for balance. If you are performing this on the oor you may want to place a small, at,
pillow on the ground, under your head, and lower yourself slowly until the top of your head
touches and then press back up. When you can do half a dozen or so condently remove the
pillow and the contact point is the nose not the top of the head.
The handstand push-up is very similar in feel and difculty on the parallettes and the oor,
but on the parallel bars the possible range of depth is several inches lower and consequently
much harder.
In future issues we are going to detail the most common presses to a handstand. Youll want
to get the upper hand on these presses by improving your push-ups rst.
Greg is half way
to the handstand
push-up.
10 Push-up Milestones and Challenges
Here is a progression that should keep anyone busy for a couple of years.
1. 50 Honest Basic Push-ups
2. Ten Handstand Push-ups
3. 100 Honest Basic Push-ups
4. Fifteen Handstand Push-ups
5. Tabata Interval Basic Push-ups with 20 reps in each of 8 intervals
6. One Handstand Push-up without use of wall
7. Ten Handstand Push-ups without use of wall
8. Fifteen Handstand Push-ups without use of wall
9. Twenty Handstand Push-ups without use of wall
10. One Handstand Push-up without use of wall and on ngertips
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A Cheaters Guide to Lousy Push-upsAvoid each of these and you are nearly guaranteed an honest push-up.
1. Sagging: Dropping the belly in an attempt to hit, or reach bottom early
2. Pikeing: Sticking the butt up in the air. This is usually accompanying a rest
(see resting)
3. Resting: Coming to a stop. This is usually tried at the top, often while pikeing,
but may manifest as a collapse at the bottom
4. Bouncing: This cheat is, exactly as the name implies, bouncing to rise to topagain without effort. This is a big hit with fat guys
5. Yogaing: With this cheat the head and neck lead followed by the chest then
belly. It is a dynamic variant of sagging, but often performed as though it were
a plus or artistic
6. Reaching: Reachings most common form is with the head and neck. Some
cheaters can extend their head and neck an extra six inches in an attempt to
nd bottom early and avoid the pain of a real push-up. Look for the nose a foot
below the chest
7. Speeding: The count should be a slow one-two up and one-two down
unless doing timed efforts like the Tabata Interval. For reps, they have to be
slow and controlled
8. Shorting: This is the worst and most common cheat where the cheater
typically doesnt go all the way down. Not rising to the top is less common butstill cheating
Push-up Links
1. Push-up records:http://www.recordholders.org/
en/list/pushups.html
2. Charles Linster was an early world record
holder with an inspirational story of courage and
perseverance:http://www.recordholders.org/en/
list/ulysses.html and http://www.rehab.uiuc.edu/
archive/ss/9697/ulysses_yield.html
3. Here is the ultimate guide to parallettes and
an excellent source for some of the coolest
parallettes ever. Learn these skills and your
tness will skyrocket!
http://www.american-gymnast.com/technically_
correct/paralletteguide/titlepage.html
4. Or, you can make your own - this is one of our
favorite sites on the Internet. At the end of this list
of some beautiful skills and drills are instructions
for building a perfectly suitable set of parallettes
for practically nothing:
http://www.drillsandskills.com/skills/cond
The CrossFit Journal is an elec-
tronically distributed magazine
(emailed e-zine) published monthlybywww.crosst.comchronicling a
proven method of achieving elite
tness.
For subscription information go to:http://www.crosst.com/shop/enter.html,
or
Send check or money order in the
amount of $25 to:
CrossFitP.O. Box 2769
Aptos CA 95001
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http://www.recordholders.org/en/list/pushups.htmlhttp://www.recordholders.org/en/list/pushups.htmlhttp://www.recordholders.org/en/list/ulysses.htmlhttp://www.recordholders.org/en/list/ulysses.htmlhttp://www.rehab.uiuc.edu/archive/ss/9697/ulysses_yield.htmlhttp://www.rehab.uiuc.edu/archive/ss/9697/ulysses_yield.htmlhttp://www.american-gymnast.com/technically_correct/paralletteguide/titlepage.htmlhttp://www.american-gymnast.com/technically_correct/paralletteguide/titlepage.htmlhttp://www.drillsandskills.com/skills/condhttp://www.crossfit.com/http://www.crossfit.com/http://www.crossfit.com/http://www.crossfit.com/shop/enter.htmlhttp://www.crossfit.com/shop/enter.htmlhttp://www.crossfit.com/shop/enter.htmlhttp://www.crossfit.com/shop/enter.htmlhttp://www.crossfit.com/shop/enter.htmlhttp://www.crossfit.com/http://www.crossfit.com/http://www.crossfit.com/http://www.drillsandskills.com/skills/condhttp://www.american-gymnast.com/technically_correct/paralletteguide/titlepage.htmlhttp://www.american-gymnast.com/technically_correct/paralletteguide/titlepage.htmlhttp://www.rehab.uiuc.edu/archive/ss/9697/ulysses_yield.htmlhttp://www.rehab.uiuc.edu/archive/ss/9697/ulysses_yield.htmlhttp://www.recordholders.org/en/list/ulysses.htmlhttp://www.recordholders.org/en/list/ulysses.htmlhttp://www.recordholders.org/en/list/pushups.htmlhttp://www.recordholders.org/en/list/pushups.html -
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(continued from page 1) This is but one of dozens of problems Ive had with the Olympic weightlifting coaching
orthodoxy. The Worlds Most Powerful Lift solved the dilemma permanently for me. I was seeing what I thought I
was seeing and the orthodoxy was wrong.
What I desperately wanted was to nd a coach and lifter who could substantiate what I thought I was nding in these
tapes. I made several efforts to get someone to review them and had little luck for quite awhile. And then our friend
Danny John came up to the plate and agreed to review the tapes. (They are approximately two hours each of non-stop,
high density, original information.) Danny is a champion lifter and a coach of champions. His website Dan Johns TheLifting and Throwing Page http://danjohn.org/coach.html is an informative, accurate, and honest reference for ALL
athletes. We couldnt have asked for a better informed, more honest or capable reviewer. The rest is history.
One more thing: if you are truly serious about optimizing your performance/tness, buy these tapes immediately. I cant
name a superior value in all of tness. We may not mention it again.
- Coach Greg Glassman
World Class Coaching LLCs videotape Worlds Fastest Lift.
by Danny John
Ill admit this: I have never seen a video that made me drive to the cobbler (or shoe repairman for you young ones)
the next day. Yet, I found myself trying to explain to Kim, the nice young Korean man who added heels to my Olympic
Lifting boots a year ago, to remove the extra heel. I dont need it...I suddenly got more exible.
Watching a video makes you more exible? Well, it should sound a lot more complex; actually, it is really quite
simple: Greg Glassman asked me to review World Class Coaching LLC The Snatch video. Coach Glassman had
been raving about it at the crosst.com forum...and I said I would review it. But, I just kept putting it off. What could
I learn? I mean, really, I have snatched 314 pounds in competition and I have a gold medal from last years Masters
Nationals. I mean, really, what could I learn?How about this: I dont know nothing. Throughout the entire production, I scribbled notes, pressed pause and leaped
up to try the right way to snatch. Steve Miller walks you through everything you need to know about the snatch.
Millers model, his wife, Loreen, has solid form, yet we keep ashing to images of the 1998 World Championships and
the road ahead for Loreen and the viewer.
One would expect an experienced lifter to know how to grip the bar in the snatch. Well, you take the distance from
the elbows and then you try it out, then you hope for the best, then you just make do then...
The video is worth the price for this one point. I went into my garage, exed a little, grabbed an empty bar and
started bouncing the bar off my belly in a standing position. I kept moving my grip in until I touch the top of where you
nish pulling the zipper up. In my amazement, Im not a collar to collar lifter...I am about three inches in on BOTH
sides! Yeah, right, I thought, lets see if it really works.
Miller is absolutely right. I nailed one snatch. My wife
commented: You are moving so fast. In addition, I was in ats (my Chuck Taylors!) and had a bottom position that
felt secure, tight, and easy to pop up out of the hole. I had instantly become more exible...all without yoga! Time to
take those extra heels off my shoes! My moving my hands in, my pullunder is easier and I have a chance to press
up while the bar comes down. Will this end the curse of my just out front misses in the snatch? Mental note: visit the
cobbler tomorrow!
(continued from page 7) This is just one point out of dozens that simply amazed me while viewing. The answer to
that elusive question from all throwers who start O lifting: When do I go on my toes? shocked me. When? Never!
Basically, if you want to jump high, jump off your toes. If you want the bar to go high, stay on your heels! I didnt
believe this, but I gave it a chance and the results will soon speak for themselves on the competition platform.
The visual and mental clues throughout this video are far too numerous to mention, but I must say that I came
away with not only a better image of the quickest movement in sports, but I also have the tools to break down faults.
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Miller teaches in a mixture of top down and bottom
up to learn the elements of the snatch, but what I found
refreshing was his ability to teach a part completely
in the context of the whole. One never gets away
from the idea that the Full Squat Snatch is the goal of
the video. He also offers an inexpensive way to biomechanicallycoach yourself at home (a video, a pen, and a piece ofpaper) as well as enough gym tricks to work by
yourself, if you end up alone like a lot of us O lifters.
So, am I recommending this video? Absolutely. Let
me make this point: it is a MUST have for the strength
and power athlete. Why? Well, I had a funny look on
my face after doing my snatches and Tifni, my wife,
asked me what was wrong. It is just so simple this
way...I could have been so much better. About one
hour of watching a video had completely restructured
the way I approach the bar.
Yes, Miller is contrarian, he is going in a different
direction. He spends a lot of time discussing the MartialArts, guys are tossed around the whole video, and he
recommends things (like jumping
back) that will drive some crazy.
But, it is the single best thing I have ever seen on
the most beautiful movement in sports.
(continued from page 2)
Combat vs. Sport
For ease of discussion and economy of words we refer
to the collective physical demands of police work,
including defensive tactics and arrest and control, ascombat.
The tness demands of the modern MMA/NHB
(Mixed Martial Arts/No Holds Barred) competitor are
extraordinary, but imagine for a moment that we were to
change the rules of the competition as follows:
1. The date and time of the ght are to remain secret.
The ght is on when the opponent(s) appear.
2. The number of opponents is unknown one, two,
threeten?
3. Therell be no referee.4. The ght may or may not include weapons.
5. There are no rounds, time limits, etc.
6. No information can be provided regarding the
opponents size, skills, or background.
7. Innocents are present that must not be harmed.
8. Your opponent may be intent on LITERALLY
killing you.
Now, we ask, have the physical demands for this sport
been lessened or heightened? Only the most punch drunk
of pugs would fail to recognize at once that both the
physical demands and the stakes have been terrifyingly
increased not lessened. This is the nature of combat as
compared to sport. Ultimately, we come to see martial
arts as tamer subsets of combat.
The fact that the ghters confrontation is certain
whereas the cops is only probable, only creates the
illusion of lesser demand an illusion borne out of a
comfort best seen in grazing Zebra: odds are it wont
be me. A police ofcer so comforted places himself,
his partners, and tragically the public unnecessarily in
harms way.
The fact that the requirements of combat are marked
by largely unforeseeable circumstances and combat not
being a game or sport has contributed to the exercise
(continued from page 8) science communitys showing
little interest in the training needs of police and military
personnel. One prominent exercise physiologist, in
reference to our training opined recently in his newsletter
that many of us could easily draw up a program for
Marines clearly implying that the programming needs
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of combatants are more easily designed than the needs of the sport competitor. If Olympic medals were awarded for
arrest and control the coaching community and exercise scientists would be climbing over one another to lend a
hand.
Combat Demands
What are the physical demands of combat?
Of the ten general physical skills (See CFJ, October 2002, What
is Fitness), cardiorespiratory endurance, stamina, strength,
exibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and
accuracy; it can readily be seen that success in combat, i.e.,
survival, could hinge on any of these ten components.
The physical demands of defensive tactics and arrest and control
require a broad based general adaptation. This is not the domain
of the specialist. Survival will be awarded on average to those
men and women whove secured the most generalized physical
capacity. They will, by necessity, be strong, fast, quick reacting,accurate, and exible. This broad adaptation is well developed, by
design, within the CrossFit arena.
Derek Ray of the Florida Police Corps has developed, implemented, and tested (by independent agency) CrossFit
protocols and can give ample evidence of CrossFits successes in battle, on the streets, and in competition/testing.
Essential to our understanding and successes in police training is the understanding that police work is largely anaerobic
not aerobic. Though poorly understood, this is, nonetheless, a fact.
Time domain matching of task or sport to training is the rst step to effective, legitimate strength and conditioning.
Looking at police work ask yourself, where would an application of a twenty minute max effort be? Is it likely that
an ofcer would wrestle with a suspect for twenty minutes? An ofcer is about as likely to be struck by lightning asto be engaged in a twenty-minute ght. FBI stats show clearly that it just doesnt happen. Might an ofcer give chase
on foot for twenty minutes? Perhaps is the answer but this too remains unlikely and in any case one viable option
in this scenario clearly includes letting the bad guy get away, that is, the situation is less likely to be life threatening
to the ofcer than shorter, more intense, and more threatening encounters. It is the short end encounters, those lasting
from a few seconds to a few minutes, where an ofcer will affect most of his arrests and where police ofcers lives are
tragically lost.
When the men and women charged with training police ofcers come to terms with the unavoidable reality that
police work is by overwhelming preponderance anaerobic, the tness of police nationwide will begin to improve
dramatically.
To give perspective, basketball, wrestling, boxing, and football are each so predominantly anaerobic that the NSCA
(National Strength and Conditioning Association) in its epic Essentials of Strength and Conditioning recommends that
nearly 90% of the training time spent in each of these sports should be spent in anaerobic pathways. To do otherwise
would be to reduce the strength, speed, and power of these athletes and assure defeat. (See CFJ, October 2002, What
is Fitness?) Police work is substantially more anaerobic than each of these sports weve offered as examples.
Combat offers randomized challenges, that are largely anaerobic, completely functional, and mixed generously
between the lower extremities, trunk/core, and upper extremities. Any program that doesnt readily match and train for
these demands is woefully lacking.
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Flawed Models
It is typical of police academy training to mix bodybuilding style weight training with extended running efforts - the
intention being to improve both endurance and strength. While this works it only works in the sense that any exercise
is better than none. To a large extent these efforts are counter productive in that the marginal strength gains incurred
through bodybuilding movements are shed by distance running.
A typical client academy, prior to our arrival, has been working in the weight room with upper body isolation typemovements in a conventional bodybuilding split program on Tuesdays and Thursdays and running their cadets on
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. While they were getting results, they were functioning at less than half potential.
The model theyd embraced was awed on many fronts:
1. The program was too predictable. Combat presents unpredictable challenges and rewards those prepared
physically and psychologically to deal with unpredictability.
2. It lacked movements that elicit a large neuroendocrine response, which are the most potent tools known for
increasing strength.
3. It distinguished between strength and endurance in a manner for which nature has no regard.
4. It lacked functional movements that reinforce common recruitment patterns and efciently/effectively prepare
for any physical contingency.
5. It trained at intensities below the threshold for maximal adaptation. That is, the program was entirely aerobic!!
Weve researched the PT (physical training) programs in dozens of police academies and they nearly all share most
of these aws.
Floridas Success
Derek Ray at the Florida Police Corps in Jacksonville, Florida was the rst to ofcially implement the CrossFit model
in an academy setting. Floridas program by contrast to wide spread practice:
1. Incorporates workouts, each containing singularly unique qualities and demands.
2. Relies entirely on movements demonstrated to elicit a potent neuroendocrine response.
3. Blends traditional elements of strength training and cardio training as required for combat.
4. Utilizes functional movements exclusively.
5. Trains at intensities that optimize adaptation, i.e., are nearly entirely anaerobic.
6. Nearly halves workout time.
The net result of Mr. Rays program is an 80% improvement on cadet physical testing scores. This testing, by the way,
was performed by outside, independent agencies - nearly twice the result in half the time.
Incidentally, and importantly, Dereks program has so captured the interest of the participants that a good number of
his cadets are returning to the academy for PT after graduation and drawing veteran ofcers off the street with them.
The efciency, efcacy, and popularity of Floridas program suggests a possible design for in house, on duty, PT
programming in police departments nationwide.
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A Modest Proposal
The chief obstacle to on duty PT programming is budgetary. Traditional PT models hold that effective training requires
an hour each day, ve days per week. This commitment of ve additional hours per week per ofcer ultimately translates
to a 12.5% budget increase to deliver the same manpower to the street. Budget, economics, and politics render this kind
of program untenable.
More effective programming technologies, like CrossFit, suggest that an in-house PT program comprised of threetwenty-minute workouts per week would be more effective. This totals to one hour per week or a 2.5% budget increase
to deliver the same manpower to the street.
The point must be made clear that expediency played no role in our use of abbreviated workouts. Our single design
consideration is maximizing physical capacity expediency is but a fringe benet. It is a misapprehension of
physiological response that has favored the traditional extended workouts.
Our workouts average twenty-minutes in duration and we have a group with which weve been working only three days
per week for several years. The protocol is proven efcacious.
Wed like to see police departments nationwide implement an in-house program supported by a simple web-based
application with a database that eventually supportes the ofcers with:
1. A proven tness protocol/technology.
2. Each workout assignment.
3. Detailed graphical and textual depictions of fundamental movements.
4. A simple data base that both grades performance and allows ofcers to compare their performance against others
by pools partitioned by station, department, state, or nation and could additionally be partitioned by age, gender,
weight, etc. for each, any, or all workouts.
5. An attractive interface that returns data in user-friendly scatter plots, pie charts, and bar graphs.
6. A program that offers and encourages challenges and competitions among individual ofcers, tactical teams,
academies, departments, divisions, states, etc.
7. A system that nds and details chinks in an ofcers physical capacity.8. A library of tness, nutrition, and health material selected and partitioned in manageable weekly doses.
9. A forum where participants would form a community where their achievements, questions, and concerns could be
addressed and shared.
10. Motivation to greater participation on the ofcers own time picking up another two or three days of workout per
week, thereby optimizing their tness.,
11. A method of storing, retrieving, and organizing personal data like resting heart rate, cholesterol levels, blood
pressure, body fat, girth, etc.
Individuals familiar with our website, www.crosst.com, and program know that this is clearly feasible. Our work
with police training programs nationally also convinces us that implementation could be done inexpensively and
incrementally so that the benets of the program could be touted to justify greater commitment and participation.
Secondary Benets
Worksite tness programs have a proven, well documented, history of measurably reducing health care costs, reducing
absenteeism, increasing productivity, reducing use of health care benets, reducing workers comp/disability, reducing
injuries, and increasing morale and loyalty.
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March 2003
Every study done on worksite tness programs has shown positive outcomes and of the thirty that have been analyzed
for cost outcomes, 29 have proved to be cost effective. Whatever benet is conferred on factory workers, insurance
executives, and ofce workers, it seems reasonable to expect that the potential benet for police ofcers would be
even greater given the extraordinary demands and risks of their profession. Coors measured a whopping $6.15 saved
for every
dollar invested in their program. Programs at Coors, Bank of America, Kennecott, and Equitable Life averaged a
return on investment of $5.86 for every dollar invested.
Interestingly, our experience with worksite tness programs suggests that most of them, while measurably efcacious
are far from state-of-the-art in their models for workouts, tness in general, and nutrition specically. It should be easy
to generate a return on investment that matched or exceeded the benets found in industry.
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Dollars Saved for Every $1 Invested
$6.15$6.00
$5.78$5.52
$3.90
$3.90$3.15 $3.00
$2.51$2.05
$1.81