Overweight Cop Stories

In the news this weekend...

a study finds that 2/3 of Toronto cops are overweight and 20% are obese.

That's not good.

More info..."Almost 90 percent of respondents admitted they had poor nutrition habits and 65 percent said they were overweight - 20 percent said they'd been diagnosed as obese. Just under half reported an unhealthy fitness level."

So we probably can't hope they are just too muscular and that made them "seem overweight"...

For the full story: http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_5812.aspx

Now, I've helped a cop lose weight before, but he had a very difficult schedule. If I remember correctly it was 4 12 hour shifts in a row and then 5 days off. During his shifts he only had one break to eat, so it was difficult to stick to great nutrition.

So I will cut them a little slack. However, considering the other days off, the numbers above are unacceptable. I hope that each officer will take it upon themselves to improve.

It's common sense that this profession should have high levels of fitness and nutrition habits. There really is no excuse otherwise.

We all know there is a program or two out there that shows men and women how to get results in only 3 workouts of 45 minutes each week. I think one is called "turbo training".

All of this reminds me of a story from my graduate studies at McMaster. I was asked to do a couple of VO2 max tests for injured police officer cadets "hopefuls" that could not perform the aerobic beep test. (They needed to pass an aerobic fitness test to get into police college).

Each of the female cadets that came to the physiology lab at Mac had to score around 40ml/kg/min in the VO2max test done on a cycle ergometer.

Unfortunately for one woman, she didn't succeed. I felt bad, but what could I do?

Two nights later, the phone rings. It's the police cadet, half-sobbing, half-talking, offering a bribe if I would change her test results.

Quickest 50 bucks I ever earned.

Just kidding.

Of course I said no. And later I found out she ran the beep test anyways, despite her shin splints, and she passed. So she got into police college...but I always wonder what happened to this lady...and what type of cop she turned out to be...

CB