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On a day to day basis, police officers around the world are lugging around 20-50lbs of gear on their body via their duty belt and/or outer carriers.

As you know, this is a necessary evil; officers need to be prepared for endless potential incidents, but this added weight can take a toll physically on the body and its structures/tissues, as well as impacting the officer’s mobility, speed, agility, coordination, heart rate, reaction time, V02 max, memory and cognitive function during operational tasks.

The good news is that we can optimize our body and brain to better handle this excess weight. Body composition and body fat percentage both play a huge role in load carriage ability. Having adequate strength, aerobic fitness and lean mass with a lower body fat content will improve your ability to carry external loads for long periods of time. This is known as Load Carriage Optimization. 

In this article, we will be reviewing the Top 4 Reasons Cops...

The majority of our Effective Fitness Team Members have endured the brutal night shift at some point in their career. The "night shift" is often referred to as dogwatch, graveyard, and midnights.

How can we make the best of it?

From experience, we have found some essential tools and tricks that have helped us stay healthy, both physically and mentally.

This article will break down these Night Shift Hacks in hopes of helping other officers around the world own the fact that working in the dark is probably one of the toughest things to do, but someone has to do it.

SLEEP

The most important aspect of working odd hours is a healthy sleep regimen.  Most folks are not used to sleeping during the day and staying up all night.  It takes time for your body to adjust to a different sleep schedule.  Especially if you’ve had a somewhat normal sleep schedule for 15-20 years before you work your first night shift schedule.

We have always...

We would like to preface this article with the definition of a supplement from Oxford Languages:

Sup·ple·ment

noun

/ˈsəpləmənt/

1. something that completes or enhances something else when added to it.

Ok, now that we got that off our chests…

Please remember that supplements are not magic. They are meant to be supplemental to a solid diet/nutrition protocol, 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep per night, a solid stress management system, good relationships with people, a fulfilling career, among other things that build well-rounded physical and mental health.

The point is this: If you are lacking any of the above, that are the true basis of healthy living, supplements will not be the solution to your problem. Master these things first, then take additional supplements, if you wish!

Below we will give a detailed breakdown of 3 supplements that are backed by scientific research and years of successful use! Each will have 3...

It is no secret that the world of K9 is not the easiest specialized unit to become a part of. 

Units all across the country typically only have from 1-6 K9 teams with the exception of your big cities such as NYPD, LAPD, Boston PD, and some of your larger Sheriff's Offices in Florida that may have 10-15 teams or more.  Notwithstanding those larger agencies that may have more turnover and positions available, the position of K9 handler can be very difficult to attain.

Your typical working K9 will have a working career of approximately 7-9 years based on the health of the K9, department retirement policies for K9s, department needs, etc.

This means that the turnover for a K9 handler position is about the same; that is if the handler chooses (or the department chooses) not have the handler work another K9.  

K9 is a position that it is either in your blood or it isn’t.  And when it is in your blood, you never want...

What Are "Macros"?

The majority of the foods we consume are classified as one of the three macronutrients or "Macros": Protein, Carbohydrate, or Fat. By definition from Precision Nutrition, macronutrients are “nutrients the body requires in large amounts.”

Now, that does not mean that a specific food is STRICTLY one macronutrient; most food is made up of 2-3 of the 3 macros, but the majority rule is what classifies it. Keep that in mind as you are learning more about macros throughout this article.

Aside from macronutrients, our food also includes micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), phytochemicals (nutrients from plants) and zoochemicals (from animal food sources such as creatine).

Seems silly to say, but all of this food contains ENERGY - energy and fuel that we need to

1) Stay Alive

and

2) To Thrive.

It is important to understand that what you consume each day will substantially affect your body composition (bodyweight, weight...

Grip is an essential strength and skill for Law Enforcement Officers.

To state the obvious, an adequate level of grip strength and grip endurance is needed for many situations that cops face on the job, such as hands on encounters, shooting a handgun or rifle, and picking up and/or carry people or other heavy objects.

What is less known and understood by many is the health advantages that come along with grip strength. We will break these down in this article along with 4 major reasons that having a strong grip is an advantage to the LE Professional.

1) Shooting 

Whether it's a handgun, or a rifle, using a firearm safely and effectively requires solid grip strength.

Trigger pull takes a level of grip strength in itself. But managing recoil, gripping and applying pressure to the gun leading to more accurate shots is another. Grip is one of the most important components of accurate shooting. 

In one recent study done with a...

As Law Enforcement Officers, we know that most of us have the following in common...

Time is limited due to the nature of the profession. Long shifts, night shifts, rotating shifts, mandatory overtime, working holidays and weekends, inconsistent schedules, etc.

These things can make getting to the gym on a consistent basis more difficult.

We also know that staying healthy and maintaining or improving your physical abilities can add up to a lot of time (and money) invested.

With that being said, it is an absolutely essential investment, because nothing else matters if you do not have your health.

Finding a way to keep yourself physically prepared for job duties, having personal time to improve and work on you and your health, and time for some "iron therapy" couldn't be a more necessary component of your life.

ENTER - Home Gym Essentials Giveaway - LEARN MORE

Common Excuses For Cops to Not Train

Either you've heard these before... or you have used...

As John Danaher, world renown Jiu Jitsu and MMA coach, puts it simply: “Jiu Jitsu is the science of control that leads to submission.”

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art and defensive tactic that is mainly focused on grappling. The art revolves around gaining control of an opponent and forcing the opponent to submit due to seizing their mobility with a joint lock, strangle, pressure technique, or some combination of the three.

BJJ can also be trained specifically for cops via what is newly titled Police Jiu Jitsu (PJJ). PJJ is technique and concept bypasses or shortcuts, picked from Jiu Jitsu, explicitly for cops. Leaders in the field are Jay Wadsworth, Chad Lyman, Craig Douglas and Renzo Gracie.

Jiu Jitsu For Law Enforcement Officers

The main objective for a Law Enforcement Officer is to get home safely after each shift.

BJJ should be a mandatory component of defensive tactics training to aid this mission - getting home safely after...

What is Agility?

According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, agility can be defined as rapid, whole-body movements that require single or multiple changes in velocity (acceleration or deceleration) or direction (vertical, lateral or horizontal) in response to an external stimulus.

In the Effective Fitness Program, agility is a routinely trained fitness trait that involves changing direction quickly and intentionally.

We include agility work every week in our training, and in some cycles, it is multiple times per week. We also have an agility specific assessment that is tested 2x per year.

Why is agility an essential component of a Law Enforcement Officer's training program? 

We know that training and testing our agility skills is essential for Law Enforcement Officers due to the nature of encounters on the job.

In 2018, the FBI collected assault data from 11,788 Law Enforcement agencies that employed...

"How do I make time to workout while having a career in Law Enforcement?"

This is a question we hear all the time in the law enforcement community.

It can be daunting and difficult to fit your workout routine into your busy schedule.

The 12+ hour shifts, night shifts, family time, and all other responsibilities we have makes it feel like there is not enough time in the day to consistently make it to the gym.

Oftentimes we end up sacrificing our own health and wellness for others.

If we want a long, successful career and life, we must prioritize our training and find a way to fit it in.

Use these 5 tips to help you make training a priority and consistently make it to the gym so you can become stronger, leaner, faster, and fitter!

1) Find the Right Time of Day

We all have a time of day that is best for us to workout. This is typically when we are the most alert and have energy to burn. The exact time of day is...