crossfit vol. 7 - mar 2003 - push up, worlds fastest lift, police training

7/31/2019 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.

Coor

s

Bank

ofAm

eric

a

Ke

nnec

off

Equit

able

Life

Gene

ral M

ills

T

ravele

rs

M

otor

ola

P

epsi

Co.

EBC

-Indi

ana

DuPo

nt

Un

umLife

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

crossfit vol. 7 - mar 2003 - push up, worlds fastest lift, police training

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