Police Academy Workout Plan

i’m going to be entering a police acadamy shortly and need a new workout regimin. i’ll only have about a half hour a day from m-fri in which to workout. what i’m worried about is that i’ll be running approx. 3 miles a day and I want to keep my mass. can anyone point me in the direction of a good program that can be done in that short amount of time?

a buddy of mine who went through the same thing said he couldn’t really lift for the first 2-3 months, but i’d really like to avoid that, even if its only 3 days a week to maintain.

i’m 22 years old and have been lifting 3-4 years consistently. my diets there. any help would be much appreciated.
thanks

Congratulations on getting into the academy. I myself have been invited to a academy in August. I don’t really have any suggestions as for a workout. I myself have been lifting 3 days and running 3 days.

My background investigator told me not to worry about mass for the academy right now. He told me to focus on endurance. He said especially when it comes to a fight on the side of the road. Having the endurance to hold somebody off may save your life. He said that you could gain mass after the academy. He had a pretty good build as well.

[quote]matsm21 wrote:
i’m going to be entering a police acadamy shortly and need a new workout regimin. [/quote]

When I was in Karate, training 3-4 times/week, I could not keep my gains. Lifting weights just burnt me out… it was too much. I lost at least 20lbs of muscle (mostly in my upper body)

Others can do it, especially if you have an easier time putting weight on.

But I suppose you just need to accept that you can’t have everything you want. If you want to become a cop, you need to be able to complete their training program instead of worrying about your muscle mass.

You can be Ronnie Coleman after you make detective.

“When I first heard that Marge was joining the police academy, I thought it would be fun and zany, you know like that movie… Spaceballs. But instead it was dark and disturbing, like that movie Police Academy”. – Homer Simpson

well, i’m in shape for the acadamy, in terms of running and endurance. i don’t really care about making gains, maybe just minimizing losses. maybe i’ll just eat 7000 calories a day :slight_smile: i worked so hard to get where I am i don’t want to be a skinny bastard again!

[quote]matsm21 wrote:
well, i’m in shape for the acadamy, in terms of running and endurance. i don’t really care about making gains, maybe just minimizing losses. maybe i’ll just eat 7000 calories a day :slight_smile: i worked so hard to get where I am i don’t want to be a skinny bastard again![/quote]

I guess I should have finished my story…

After Karate, I returned to lifting weights and put the 20lbs back on in two and a half months.

It’s much easier to rebuild muscle once you have done it before, so my recommendation would be to focus on the endurance part of the training. Then simply rebuild after.

yea, ive heard that it won’t be hard to gain it back. thanks for all the replies guys.

[quote]matsm21 wrote:
i’m going to be entering a police acadamy shortly and need a new workout regimin. i’ll only have about a half hour a day from m-fri in which to workout. what i’m worried about is that i’ll be running approx. 3 miles a day and I want to keep my mass. can anyone point me in the direction of a good program that can be done in that short amount of time?

a buddy of mine who went through the same thing said he couldn’t really lift for the first 2-3 months, but i’d really like to avoid that, even if its only 3 days a week to maintain.

i’m 22 years old and have been lifting 3-4 years consistently. my diets there. any help would be much appreciated.
thanks[/quote]

When I did a police academy I went heavy on my lifts on sunday and I just fit in training when I could-just look at the bs running as something that tests whether you would quit or not-once you are on the job-in 12 or 16 weeks you can start lifting as you want to-trust me all the other cops will love you if you are big and strong-no one ever wishes they had a good runner with them when they are trying to cuff some asshole.

Another piece of advice I would give is have good written records of what you could do before the academy-and make it a goal of yours to try to maintain at least 80 percent of your strength while there-just eat lots-sleep as much as you can and you’ll have a great career for lifting in a matter of months-what PD is it? If it’s the federal academy in Georgia you will gain wieght there-great weight rooms and even gyms in the surroudning town-worlds and south georgia barbell in Brunswick

its up in NY. they have a great gym, but I heard they won’t let you use them while enrolled at the academy. they want you to go home and study…which makes sense. i’ll try and fit it in somehow, maybe saturday and sunday.

I’ll probably get flamed for this (since there are some anti KB people on here) but high rep kettlebell snatches, swings C&Js are great for wirey strength and endurance. HOC workouts are also great for building endurance. I would hit tactical style pulls ups alot also, in casr you have to climbs walls and the like. KBs will be much more specific, if you dont have or can buy one you can make one or use a dumbell.

I went through the same thing over a year ago when I first got on to the department.

Our training academy was all about running, stretching and calisthenics. We did tons of pushups, situps, leg raises and crunches. When I first started I could do 60 plus good quality pushups in a row. After I graduated and was sworn (not lifting during the academy) I struggled to hit 50 in a row. Sounds crazy but it happened. I’m not that big (180lbs at 5’8" with a bf% of 10-12 now).

During the academy, I dropped down to 168ish and bf% went UP to roughly 15%! It was the poor eating habits and lack of weight training. They stress the shit out of you and you have a very hard time sticking to a good plan.

I’d suggest having all your food prepared every day, buy a bunch of bars (we would get very short breaks and I needed something fast and convenient) and take in as much lean protein as you can. Your diet should be a bodybuilders diet and as clean as possible. Try and lift on both weekend days and stick to the big compound movements. If I could start over I’d do just that. Instead, I’d start my day with an MRP and go downhill after that.

My physique looks good now but like shit when I finished the academy. Took me a solid 3 months to get back to where I was before.

Oh, a ton of my fellow officers bodybuild, we have some monstrous guys working in Chicago/Cook County. Lots are juicin and they don’t test for that.

Good Luck!!

Based on this

…I would suggest volume training :slight_smile:

Sorry, couldn’t resist. My brother-in-law is a police officer. Best of luck to you.

When I was in the academy, lifting was sporadc at best. Mine was not a live-in academy so I commuted about an hour each way. I just made sure to lift on the weekend and try and get at least one session in during the week. You can maintain if you’re committed, and whoever posted about muscle memory and gaining ground quickly afterwards is correct.

it is a commutor academy, so hopefully i’ll be able to squeeze it in. i’ll make it happen. thanks for all the replies guys.