Joe
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fitness is important, not only for the physical demands of the job, but even more so, IMHO for dealing with the stress inherent in the job
I find your perspective very interesting. Some time back I ran across an article in the literature that I wanted to review more carefully and then discuss with Van. The main
raison d’être of the article had nothing to do with fitness, exercise, and the sympathetic response. But a serendipitous finding was that those who participated in a certain amount (on the order of a couple of hours) of
intense exercise per week were less prone to extreme response to sympathetic stimulation. For Joe or Sally Citizen, this means (s)he can use vigorous exercise to help deal with the inescapable stress of life on the job and in a less-than-perfect home environment. For the self-defense expert or law enforcement officer, it may mean a more
appropriate response to life-threatening situations. The short-term benefit is obvious. But there is a suggestion of a long-term benefit in terms of better health through avoidance of illnesses and conditions associated with a lifetime of stress or repeated stressful situations. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote
The mandatory completion of same allows the agents to take up to three hours per week of on-duty time to participate in authorized fitness activities ... However, you would be surprised at how few agents take advantage of this. Instead, generally speaking, these agents, in their desire to impress their bosses, etc., suffer additional stress and fall further out of shape.
In our business, the most expensive 1% of our members account for a quarter of the healthcare revenue spent on the population. The next 9% account for an additional 40%. When you study these folks, you see many are suffering from chronic illnesses that are related to poor lifestyle choices. We know what can make a difference. Most of them know what can make a difference. When we identify people with lifestyle opportunities and attempt to help them do they respond? Often no. When we send a general announcement out about wellness fairs and secondary prevention efforts, we are flooded with the worried well and those who read from the same hymnal.
Sigh
Research shows that the recalcitrant generally will not respond until you catch them at crisis moments in their lives. In the case of a law enforcement officer, can we afford to wait until that point? Often no. It is a difficult situation.
I think the thing to realize is that it isn't about looking a certain way. I have had the pleasure in the last few years of working with a
very large man. While he works for a large corporation and is presently in another city, my experiences with him show the complexity of dealing with "fitness" vs. martial arts and self-defense. You see ... part of what makes this young man so frighteningly good is his massive (315 lbs. +) "sumo" size. With some unusually powerful folks during body conditioning, they may bruise my forearms with their roundhouse kick. With this guy, I have sprained my elbow and pulled a back muscle on various occasions when we turned the volume up. So on the one hand I need to appreciate him for whom he is. Obviously he possesses a unique brand of athleticism. On the other hand, a little bit of questioning revealed that his father was dead and his brother had his first heart attack in his mid forties. So there are multiple issues to consider.
We have wellness benefits associated with our health insurance benefit where I work. I find them at time to be insulting. For example, they measure my body frame and height, and then tell me I must be within a certain weight range. Fine...except I am often darn near the extreme high end of my range -
because I train with weights. Go figure. Meanwhile someone else on my floor may make the cut because they regularly take one of these OTC "diet" meds with ephedrine that ravage their body mass without discrimination. Who is the better picture of health? In the case of self-defense, who is better capable of performing? In one fight that Muhammad Ali fought in the twilight of his career, he took some of these diet drugs to lose lots of weight before the fight. Just before the fight, he posed for the cover of Sports Illustrated. He
appeared to be in much better shape. Unfortunately his performance showed otherwise. Later after Holmes devastated him, he admitted that the drugs had caused him to lose a significant amount of muscle mass and strength. And the beating he took contributed to his present day trauma-induced Parkinson's syndrome.
Sigh...
My personal belief is that it isn't about any particular physical outcome as it is about proper
process. We each will manifest a fitness ideal in a unique way. We each have our own zone of physical "beauty." But from a bottom line perspective, the performance-related (as opposed to the measuring tape related) assessments performed by institutions like Hanover's Sheriff's Department are about as good as they get without getting overly impractical or abusive.
- Bill
There is no hyperbole here, folks. That's what my eyes see after spending so much time sweating with "the beautiful people." Ahh, but I don't mind having my eyes spoiled in that way. 
Having a healthcare practitioner and former competitive bodybuilder as a spouse further adds to my distorted world. We both add nutrition to our list of things we view with a perspective quite different from the norm.
I sucked in sports. Always the last one chosen for the team. My last sports involvement was basketball when I was in middle school. I won the (less than coveted) "most inspired" player award. This meant that I sucked but tried like hell! 