Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the chaos of "life", so you make things easier on yourself and begin following everyone else. Or, maybe that's not so easy.
What sparked this topic today on an early Sunday morning?
Most notably, I see a handful of law enforcement personnel training at the gym next door: alternate dumbbell curls with light weights, incline smith machine presses, lat pulldowns...the typical wimpy stuff.
Then, we have a few who train at The Underground in Edison, NJ.
The last workout they performed:
barbell clean and press, pull ups, kettlebell farmer walks, jumps on and off a 2' tire and sled dragging.
The clean and press was supersetted with pull ups for 20 minutes! Law enforcement personnel must be in great shape, and I have at least 2 reasons for this:
1) You must be prepared for anything on the job! Adrenaline may get the job done, but, with a poorly designed program they are likely to be injured and emotionally fatigues big time after a life threatening task. With a tough as nails program they will be in better mental and physical condition.
2) The public talks down on law enforcement when they see them fat and out of shape. They want to see men and women who look the part to protect and serve. I don't blame them, so do I.
It's about taking pride in what you do, having the discipline to get it done and finding the best ways to get the job done. The machine based program might be good for some people, but not for law enforcement.
I'd rather see heavy dumbbell cheat curls - we use these as a full body power and strength move with very heavy weights. We want to hit the traps, the back, shoulders, arms, grip and legs! Dumbbell curls with 20 or 30 lbs are not the way to go.
I want to see squats and deadlifts, dips and pull ups and I'd love to see a combination of these basic lifts with our Ancient Training Methods.
A phenomenal program can be built around a barbell, some dumbbells, a pull up bar and some strongman equipment. I think these tools should be mandatory at law enforcement headquarters and of course, the use of them should be mandatory as well.
In Strength,
Zach Even - Esh
