Needs Analysis and

Program Design for

Police Officers
Matthew R. Rhea, PhD, CSCS*D
A.T. Still University, Department of Kinesiology, Mesa, Arizona

ABSTRACT
LAW ENFORCEMENT REPRESENTS AN UNPREDICTABLE WORK
ENVIRONMENT WITH A RANGE OF
PHYSICAL TASKS DEMANDING
HIGH LEVELS OF STRENGTH,
MUSCULAR POWER, ANAEROBIC
POWER, AND AEROBIC ENDURANCE. COMMON INJURIES AMONG
OFFICERS INCLUDE SPRAINS AND
STRAINS WITH BACK, ANKLE,
HAMSTRING, AND ROTATOR CUFF
BEING THE PREDOMINANT INJURY
SITES. RELYING ON PUBLISHED
RESEARCH EVIDENCE AND
ESTABLISHED SYSTEMATIC EXERCISE PROGRAM DESIGN
PROCEDURES, EXERCISE PROFESSIONALS CAN CREATE
EFFECTIVE, JOB-SPECIFIC TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR LAW
ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS. LAW
ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS REPRESENT TACTICAL ATHLETES
WHO NEED AND DESERVE
ADVANCED EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION TO SAFELY AND EFFECTIVELY MEET THE DEMANDS OF
THEIR JOBS THROUGHOUT THEIR
CAREERS.

NEEDS ANALYSIS

aw enforcement represents an
extremely unpredictable work
environment with a broad range
of physical tasks and potentially volatile
situations. Various resources have
examined the overall tasks and physical

30

demands involved in this occupation

(3,6,11), setting a foundation for the systems used to prepare officers for the job.
Furthering these evaluations is important to ensure that we are adequately
preparing officers for safe and effective
workplace service.
Law enforcement officers are tactical
athletes, varying in tasks and requirements, which need and deserve highly
organized and advanced training guidance. Not all law enforcement jobs are
the same. Special Weapons and Tactics
(SWAT) officers face different demands
than patrol officers or correctional facility officers. However, at some point, any
officer may face physical dangers or demands that require incredible feats of
physical performance. Some of the most
physically demanding tasks required of
law enforcement offers include pursuing
and restraining suspects, close quarters
hand combat, forcible entry, lifting objects, and rapidly maneuvering through
or around obstacles. These tasks demand
high levels of strength, muscular power,
anaerobic power, and potentially aerobic
endurance involving full-body, dynamic
movement patterns (6).
Injury trends among police officers are
a worthy topic of study and should
receive more focus among occupational researchers and tactical fitness
specialists. A 2008 analysis (4) reported
that the most common nonfatal injuries among police officers were sprains
and strains with back, ankle, hamstring,
and rotator cuff being the predominant
sites of injury. Although more research

VOLUME 37 | NUMBER 4 | AUGUST 2015

is needed to further examine injury

trends and predictors, this study provides us with much needed guidance
for injury prevention efforts. Specific
aspects of training should be incorporated to increase strength, flexibility,
and functional movement in these
body segments.
The demands facing tactical athletes are
exacerbated by the fact that many of the
most strenuous tasks may be preceded
by periods of inactivity. A vigorous foot
pursuit after several hours of sitting in
a patrol car represents an extreme
change in physiological state. Forcible
entry or subduing an unruly citizen with
no warm-up protocol may increase
the risk of injury. Thus, the training
approach for law enforcement officers
should be to prepare for the worst occupational demands that an officer may
face regardless of how often that
demand must be met. And by increasing the overall fitness in each officer, the
relative demands that these tasks present to the officer decreases, minimizing
the injury risk and maximizing performance potential.
In short, exercise professionals working
with police officers should consider the
specific work environment and job demands that this occupation presents.
Failing to do so may result in decreased
training value or simply fail to adequately
KEY WORDS:

tactical fitness; law enforcement; needs

analysis; exercise prescription; occupational
health

Copyright National Strength and Conditioning Association

prepare the officer for the job. We can

provide a valuable service to these men
and women by ensuring that training
programs are designed specifically
toward the tasks they perform.
EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION

One of the first items of consideration

when creating a training program for
law enforcement officers is the concept
of concurrent training, performing regular training for both strength and
endurance fitness development. Given
the fact that the various law enforcement tasks require high levels of fitness
in various fitness components; the initial
prescription challenge deals with noncompatibility of training. Past research
demonstrates that attempts to train
numerous fitness components simultaneously can result in diminished maximum fitness development in some
components (10).
A meta-analysis conducted by Wilson
et al. (10) examined the research investigating concurrent strength/power
and endurance training. This metaanalysis provides us with important
direction on how to minimize the detrimental impact of endurance training
on strength and power development.
According to the findings of this
meta-analysis, athletes needing high levels of fitness in strength and power
should avoid long-duration endurance
exercise (.2030 minutes per day) at
a high frequency (.3 days per week).
Rather, they should focus on very highintensity endurance training lasting less
than 2030 minutes. Interval training
may serve as the best endurance training approach for tactical athletes to
ensure very high-intensity demands
over shorter training session lengths.
The need for developing multiple muscular fitness components (i.e., power,
strength, and muscular endurance) is also
an item of concern regarding noncompatibility of adaptation. It may not be
possible to achieve maximum adaptation
in all 3 components simultaneously;
however, law enforcement officers need
high levels of fitness in each (3,6,11).
Therefore, a daily undulating periodized
training (9) program, with each training

session focusing on one of those fitness

components is recommended.
METABOLIC FITNESS TRAINING

Wollack and associates (11) demonstrated that in tasks such as subduing

a suspect, energy costs of 7590% of
maximal work intensity were demanded
for arrests lasting more than 2 minutes.
Shorter bouts of near-maximal work
effort were also noted for tasks lasting
30, 90, and 120 seconds. Tasks such as
stair climbs, suspect pursuit, and forcible
entry most likely involve high-intense
effort for periods of less than 2 minutes.
This highlights the various metabolic
demands that an officer will face in the
field and metabolic training should be
designed to address these demands.
To meet the wide range of metabolic
demands of this occupation, officers
should perform interval training of various work:rest ratios. Work bouts should
last between 30 and 120 seconds with
intensity ranging from 75 to 100% of
maximum work capacity with rest periods ranging from 1 to 5 minutes to simulate possible field demands. In addition,
longer intervals of 510 minutes at intensities of 7585% and occasional long,
slow cardiovascular exercise should be
performed to develop maximal aerobic
fitness and recovery. Three to five metabolic training sessions each week, with
a mixture of interval times, should be
completed each week with each session
lasting approximately 30 minutes.
MUSCULAR FITNESS
DEVELOPMENT

General steps for creating a resistance

exercise program have been published
(1). These steps offer guidance for exercise professionals as they construct tactical training programs. Data can be used
from existing research and/or professional experience to make appropriate
decisions throughout this process and
when completed thoroughly, these steps
will result in an effective training program.
STEP 1: INDIVIDUAL NEEDS
ANALYSIS

The needs analysis should begin with

the evaluation of job-related demands,
injury risks and trends, and occupational

hazards as described above. The next

step in the needs analysis for the sake
of exercise prescription is to consider
the individual factors that each officer
brings to the training environment. Past
injuries, strengths, and weakness in relation to the occupational demands identified, muscular imbalances, functional
movement impairments, and exercise
tolerance are all factors that must be
considered for individualization of
training. Training status is also of
importance, and it should not be
assumed that each officer is highly
trained and consistently training. For
those who may be returning from periods of inactivity, a gradual progression
in training stress is recommended.
The process of gathering, evaluating,
and interpreting data is required at this
point. Exercise testing should be conducted with a distinct purpose in mind
to evaluate the individual needs of the
officer. This testing process is not conducted to evaluate job readiness.
Although departments may have additional testing in place to determine readiness, exercise testing is solely for the
purpose of gathering information that
can be used by the tactical fitness specialist in generating an individualized
program. Although many tests exist to
evaluate different fitness components,
Table 1 lists tests that may be of value
in a tactical fitness testing battery. Testing
protocols and scoring data for these tests
can be found in the Essentials of Strength
and Conditioning, third edition text (2).
Interpreting test data becomes challenging in this environment due to
greater than normal physiological demands of the job. Minimum fitness
standards may be helpful to ensure job
readiness; however, for the purposes of
this article, it is most important that the
tactical fitness specialist identify needed
areas of improvement and then track
changes in fitness over time. To establish needed areas of improvement, evaluating data in relation to population
norms may be a helpful starting point.
STEP 2: EXERCISE SELECTION

The movement patterns faced during

law enforcement tasks should drive the

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31

Analysis and Program Design for Police Officers

Table 1

Table 2

Sample tactical fitness testing battery

Sample exercises for police

officers

Test

Fitness component measured

Skinfold measures

Body composition

Sit and reach

Flexibility

1RM bench, 1RM squat

Strength

Vertical jump, standing long jump

Power

Pushup test

Muscular endurance

300-yard shuttle

Anaerobic endurance

1.5-mile run

Aerobic endurance

T test

Agility

40-yard sprint

Speed

Functional movement screen

Functional movement

Back squat
Front squat
Split squat
Deadlift
Walking lunges
Step ups
Bench press
Pull-ups
Dumbbell shoulder press
Dumbbell row
Hangclean press

1RM 5 1 repetition maximum.

Standing chest press

Standing row

selection of specific exercises for each

workout. To enhance the transfer of fitness achieved during conditioning to
tasks performed in the field, exercises
should match as closely as possible the
demands of field tasks. In general, the
field tasks mentioned in the needs analysis are dynamic activities requiring the
officers to exert force while stabilizing
themselves. Free weight, free moving
cable machines, medicine balls, kettlebells, and bands are great resistance
modalities for enhancing muscular fitness that will transfer to enhance performance in law enforcement demands
due to their dynamic requirements for
strength and stability (Table 2).
Exercises should be selected that target
all major muscle groups, preferably in
complex movement patterns. Fullbody exercises may also help to ensure
proper muscular coordination during
intense law enforcement tasks and
should be the preference over singlejoint exercises targeting a small number
of specific muscle groups. Resistance
machines do not represent the preferred modality of resistance training
due to the artificial stabilization that
they offer and fixed movement patterns;
however, machines may be of value in
injury rehabilitation or when focusing on
weak muscle groups. Given the

32

propensity for injuries of the back, hamstring, and rotator cuff, specific exercises
should be selected to develop these muscle groups with added work performed
for injury prevention.

Cable rotation
Cable chop
Upright row
Ab crunch

STEP 3: TRAINING FREQUENCY

The number of workouts that tactical

officers should complete each week is
related to, and influenced by, the volume and intensity of training. Higher
volumes and intensities result in fewer
training sessions each week. Because
the goal of training is to prepare for
job-related demands, full-body workouts are advisable. Therefore, training
frequency as discussed here will relate
to the number of total body workouts
performed on a weekly basis.
Peterson et al. (5) published an extensive
meta-analysis examining the doseresponse for strength development
among athletes. This analysis becomes
vitally important to tactical athletes to
ensure that we are applying the right
amount of stress to elicit optimal training
responses. According to that analysis,
23 workouts per week represented
the most effective frequency for strength
development. If the tactical officer is well
trained, it is advisable to prescribe 3 fullbody workouts per week with each
focusing on 1 of those 3 muscular fitness

VOLUME 37 | NUMBER 4 | AUGUST 2015

Reverse crunch
Reverse hamstring curl
Planks

components. However, less frequent

training may be advisable for those officers initiating a training program or
recovering from periods of inactivity.
STEP 4: EXERCISE ORDER

Exercise order refers to the sequence

of resistance exercises performed during 1 training session (1). Generally, it
is advisable that police officers perform
exercises that target weaknesses early
in the workout sessions. This ensures
that the officer has sufficient energy to
get the most out of those exercises. If
those exercises are placed at the end of
the session, fatigue may detract from
the effectiveness of those exercises.
Once those prehabilitation exercises
have been completed, the officer can
go through a conventional exercise
order in which multijoint exercises
are followed by single-joint exercises. If

circuit training, a training system that

may help mimic some of the job demands of police officers involving
a sequence of tasks without rest, is used,
exercises may be placed in an order that
still places multijoint exercises early in the
circuit followed by single-joint movements. Table 3 provides a sample circuit
for police officers and variations of this
circuit can be implemented to ensure sufficient variety.
STEP 5: TRAINING LOAD
AND REPETITIONS

The athletic dose-response meta-analysis

(5) recommends average training loads of
85% of 1 repetition maximum for maximal strength development. Baechle et al.
suggest training loads of 80100% for
power and ,75% for muscular endurance. These loads correspond to approximately 26 repetitions for strength, 16
repetitions at maximal/near maximal
speed for power, and 1015 repetitions
for muscular endurance. Training loads
should be periodized from 1 workout
to the next with loads also periodized
within strength workouts, power sessions,
and muscular endurance training days.

STEP 6: VOLUME

The total amount of work performed in

each training session is a product of
training loads, repetitions, and sets per
exercise. Because training loads and repetitions will be altered each workout to
focus on 1 of the 3 muscular fitness components, the number of sets performed in
each session should be prescribed with
the total stress of training in mind. The
athletic dose-response meta-analysis (5)
suggests an average of 8 sets per muscle
group (or per exercise in the case of complex lifts taxing the entire body) over
a training cycle for maximum strength
development. Power sessions may
include 35 sets per exercise and muscular endurance workouts should involve
an average of 23 sets per exercise (1).
As discussed later, officers should follow
a progression in training, starting at lower
volumes if their fitness level demands.
Over time, as fitness improves and exercise capacity increases, progression to
higher volumes is advisable for continued
muscular fitness gains. In addition, maximal gains may not be the ultimate goal,
or even feasible due to concurrent

Table 3
Sample circuit routines for police officers
Circuit 1

Circuit 2

Circuit 3

Warm-up

Warm-up

Warm-up

Back squat

Front squat

Deadlift

Hangclean press

Standing row

Split squat

1-min jump rope

3-min running

2-min stair climbing

Walking lunges

Cable chop

Shoulder press

Upright row

Reverse hamstring curl

Pull-ups

3-min running

2-min jumping jacks

1-min burpees

Step ups

Planks

Walking lunges

Standing chest press

Lat pulldown

Bench press

2-min stair climbing

1-min jump rope

3-min running

Lat pulldown

Cable rotation

Row

Ab crunch

Ab crunch

Ab crunch

10-min running

10-min running

10-min running

Stretching

Stretching

Stretching

Refer to sections on volume and intensity for recommended guidelines.

training, therefore, training volumes of

35 sets may be appropriate.
As with the other training variables,
volume should be altered in a planned
and coordinated fashion. The average
number of sets per exercise (as listed
above) should be calculated over
a 3-month training cycle with each session involving a different amount of volume. For instance, when prescribing
training for maximum strength development, the average volume per workout
should be 8 sets per exercise. During
a 3-month training cycle, some workouts might involve 12 sets per exercise,
whereas other workouts only involve 4
sets per exercise. Over the course of the
cycle, the average number of sets per
workout should be around 8 sets.
STEP 7: REST PERIODS

The occupational demands that police

officers face may involve high-intense
exertion in a number of different movements/stressors with little or no rest
between. For instance, a foot pursuit followed by attempting to subdue a suspect
may result in several minutes of intense
work. Under optimal training situations,
25 minute rest between sets for strength
and power, and less than 30-second rest
between sets for muscular endurance,
would be afforded (1). For workouts designed to address a specific fitness weakness, this amount of rest is advisable.
However, for general workouts aimed
at preparing an officer for job demands,
circuit training with very little rest
between stations can more closely mimic
the field stresses that an officer can face.
The training environment should be
setup in a way that allows the officer
to move very quickly from 1 exercise
to another with rest provided after
a series of exercises lasting up to 2 or
3 minutes. After sufficient recovery time
(25 minutes), the officer should repeat
the series for a prescribed number of sets.
One caution should be noted regarding
this style of training. Fatigue often results
in alterations in training technique. Officers should be monitored to ensure that
their training technique remains perfect.
Loads may need to be reduced and rest
periods extended when fatigue sets in as

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33

Analysis and Program Design for Police Officers

exercise technique must never be sacrificed in the effort to increase the amount
of total work performed in a session. If
the session cannot be extended to allow
for sufficient rest, total volume should be
reduced until exercise tolerance improves. As it does, exercise density (the
amount of work performed in a given
period of time) can be increased safely.
INDIVIDUALIZATION

Perhaps the most important aspect of any

training program design is the trainers
efforts to mold the regimen to the needs
and capabilities of each officer. The creation of general workouts sent out to the
masses regardless of training experience,
strengths and weaknesses, movement
abilities or limitations, and injury history
is not recommended. The steps to program design previously detailed offer
a template for creating a general program
for police officers; however, it should not
be viewed as the final product. Based on
the needs of each officer, the general program should be tailored to each officer.
PROGRESSION AND PROGRAM
VARIATION

A common training error, especially

when beginning a training regimen after
some time of inactivity or low activity, is
excessive initial training volume and/or
intensity in an effort to rush fitness improvements. This approach may result in
excessive stress and injury. The proper
approach should be a gradual progression in training loads as exercise tolerance improves.
In addition to proper progression of
training stress over time, overall training
stress should be periodized throughout
the year to ensure periods of recovery
after cycles of intense work. A significant body of research exists examining
the benefits of periodization (9) with
specific strategies to enhance different
muscular fitness components (7,8). Periodization represents more than simply
changing workouts or adding variety. It
is a calculated and planned alteration in
training stress, which requires significant attention during program design.
ON-DUTY TRAINING

It is not uncommon for officers to be

provided with time for training while

34

on-duty. Although this may enhance

participation in exercise training, caution
is recommended due to potential fatigue
that may result from the workout. If an
emergency occurred during or immediately after a workout, officers may be
less able to perform vital duties required
of them. If training is to be performed
while on-duty, volume and intensity
should be limited, and rest periods
extended, to avoid excessive fatigue.
CONCLUSIONS

These steps enable the tactical fitness

specialist to generate specific workouts
for police officers. This process is not
meant to result in 1 tactical training program that can be distributed to the
masses of law enforcement officers in
the field but rather serves as a template
for creating individualized programs.
Each officer needs, and deserves, a training program designed specifically based
on individual circumstances. Given the
extreme demands officers face, and the
vital community service that they render, tactical fitness specialists should
devote ample time and attention to the
prescription process to ensure maximum
effectiveness. Relying on the overall
needs analysis of the occupation, considering the individual needs of the officer,
and basing the program parameters on
evidence-based recommendations can
result in effective training programs that
enhance occupational performance.
Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding:
The author reports no conflicts of interest
and no source of funding.
Matthew R.
Rhea is an Associate Professor of
Kinesiology at
A.T. Still
University.

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