Tactical Fitness vs. Physical Fitness

When I plug in “physical fitness” to the Google search I am dumbfounded by the number of hits I receive back – 11,500,000 on the first try. That’s a lot of expert advice on the subject of staying healthy through some schedule of physical activity. Seeing that quantity of advice available to anyone, available from a few dollars per month to a thousand for a week’s worth of hands-on training, I have to wonder what I could possibly add to this extensive mix.

I would answer by over simplifying that I have survived and prospered in a daily fitness routine for over forty years. Most programs can’t say even that, as their lead expert may be a twenty some-thing year old that made his or her way through a few college courses and began a physical fitness routine less than a decade ago. Mine on the other hand has survived the test of combat, competition, police patrol, and so far, the debilitations of old age. I’m not using that answer to fault any legitimate weight loss or exercise program, in fact the diversification and variation of physical exercise programs is exactly one of the points I wish to convey to beginners as well as hardcore exercise participants.

This article is directed specifically at law enforcement tactical personnel but could become very handy for any military member, law enforcement person, and let me ponder the miracle for a moment, couch potato who might desire to change their life. Tactical teams, military, and common folks suddenly disgusted with their health or appearance, are notorious for fixating on one aspect of physical fitness and establishing a single minded goal. That’s a fine rule if you intend to only lose weight, become an Olympic swimmer, pro wrestler, marathon runner or world champ arm wrestler. There is nothing more boring though and more prone to be put in the dark attic with the rest of your memories than a humdrum, same old workout routine that you drudge out month after month, year after year. When you reach some predetermined weight or receive some medal for the effort you no longer find interest in the endeavor and subsequently give it up. The worst possible outcome for a tactical officer is to give up on fitness; which in turn can end up being a death sentence long before diabetes, heart problems or high blood pressure nails the coffin shut.

Tactical officers, as the main example here, usually live with a regimented exercise program. Once a week a tact officer dons his/her vest, sub gun and helmet and shuffles mechanically through a one mile run up some nearby hill. This may or may not be occasionally combined with personal or team scheduled weightlifting and more running. For us old timers, we would have to say even in this method to physical training, “we’ve come a long way, baby”. But not far enough yet to pat ourselves on the back and say we have truly found the key to survival and mission success through our exercise program.

Too many times in our exercise programs we all fall into that, same old thing, routine; that thing that our academy instructors warned us about from day one. I wish I had a dime for every time I’ve heard the statement, “I want to get fit to this point and then can just maintain that level”. Not only is a maintenance level of training or a routine boring, it’s lack of improvement and in law enforcement if we aren’t improving then we are falling behind the bad guys. That in essence should be the new goal, never establish a routine, never maintain or stagnate. Schedule to un-schedule your workouts. Every day build on three foundation blocks, Anaerobic, (Strength) Aerobic (Endurance), and Survival exercises (Fighting skills) and from there throw away the rule book. A method of training I’m going to coin as Tactical Fitness to replace the much loved but overworked Physical Fitness.

My motto has always been, and I am sure I borrowed this from someone who was smarter than me, “pretty muscle is just that, pretty, but if you can’t fight with it, it’s useless” – especially to a police officer. This was a reference to my bodybuilding days which was a fitness discipline absolutely disdained by my boxing coach, but the meaning applies across the board for police officers and their single goal exercise routines. You have to create and adhere to a physical fitness program that will keep you alive in every possible situation, not just through this week’s tactical training or the Police Games. This program has to physically prepare you for as many “what if this happens” situations as factors such as workout time, natural coordination and personal ability will allow. (Note that I don’t include age or present physical condition in there.) This is the foundation point I refer to as survival exercising.

Survival exercise is any, and as many, defensive tactics, martial arts, pugilistic, grappling and ground fighting, strikes, pressure points and joint manipulation techniques that can be incorporated into traditional exercise programs and tactical training. Never miss the opportunity to throw in a discretionary call such as, suspect with a knife or unarmed takedown into entry training, for example. Law enforcement learned how to build discretionary scenarios, shoot, don’t shoot techniques into range training, now it’s well past time to incorporate it into our fitness and tactical training. Warm your team up occasionally in the mornings with kicks, knee strikes, punches, pivots, counters and blocks, rather than the typical two mile jog with pushups and crunches. Teach your team how to survive as much without the firearm as with and produce a well-rounded physically capable tactical officer in the process.

All physical training should be looked at from the point of view that the three foundation blocks are bridged. One should never be built upon alone but always in unison. None should be focused on as the ultimate goal in T.F. For every heavy dumbbell curl there should be a set of strikes and kicks to the heavy bag. For every two mile run day there should be a follow up day of bench and back work in the weight room. Don’t limit your aerobic and anaerobic exercises to tunnel vision. Example, power lifting teammates need to step out of the gym and spend a week each month with avid runners, swimmers, mountain climbers, etc. Find the local expert in Krav Maga and inquire into a week long trial membership; next month, make your breakout to Taekwondo or boxing. Talk the chief or sheriff into allowing interested officers into a day on walking or bicycle patrol. Every day in T.F. should be an adventure in the unordinary. And here’s the great part, while you are gradually adding all the new stuff, you get to keep doing all the workouts you are accustomed to and already good at. When you finish blending in all the techniques, tactics and disciplines available to you, you start over. By the time you reach a 90 day point your daily program will have increased in length and volume of exercises as well as your strength, endurance and fighting skills. You don’t have to devote two hours together with T.F., though that’s always the most beneficial when you can spare the time. I might run in the morning and do my weight training accompanied with my survival exercises at the end of the day. I might even split my days and do aerobic/survival-Alpha one day and strength/survival-Bravo the next day. The idea is simply to bounce within and from one to another to the next foundation block.

Two of the best tools available to T.F. are the obstacle course and the circuit course. Whether built from blueprint or thrown up on the spur of the moment, the object being to combine a series of anaerobic, aerobic, and survival stations into one exercise session. The same rules for muscle recuperation still apply in T.F. If circuit training is done on Day One then there should be at least 24 hours of recuperation and allowance for (specific) muscle repair before Day Two. There are always large muscle groups, like that flabby belly, that may be worked everyday and there is always a muscle you missed the day before, even with circuit training. Feel free to work the unused muscles while you rest the depleted. With T.F. there is always another foundation block you can base today’s workout on.

I personally gave up saying to myself, today I will do this many repetitions of this particular exercise. In fact I gave up saying I was even going to do that particular exercise today. I go into the gym with a base plan, “today I will do an aerobics day accompanied with heavy bag survival work”. That may include walking out of the gym and going for a two mile or thirty minute run. That may end up being thirty minutes of skipping rope or even plugging in and following one of those tapes where some paper thin girl dances around in a two foot circle. It may end with a series of ten minute sessions pounding the heavy bag and following every rule the coach ever taught me about keeping those feet moving. Daydreaming the whole while about tomorrow when I can come back and see if I can still lift 315 on the bench and do 25 reps on the pull-up bar; joined at the hip with some speed-bag work of course. Remembering always that T.F. is physical, martial and tactical synchronism at its utmost.

The main concentration here has been toward exercise, however, it is just as important to give attention to those items that do not take place in a gym or on a track. Without proper diet any exercise program is destined to failure. While exercise is an excellent stress reducer it is not the last word; relaxation whether yoga or sitting in a rocker on the front porch should be considered as just another form of survival exercise. Proper sleep, a healthy diet and a few minutes a day of quiet meditation will increase the benefits of your T.F. program exponentially. Simple things like concentration on the core, posture and balance all play a role in our daily lives and T.F. No aspect of physical wellbeing stands alone.

Tactical Fitness, it’s a bit harder than our old favorite physical fitness. Let’s face it, physical fitness was never that much fun in the first place and this way you never have to take your log book with you to the gym again. There are no flow charts, matrices or text book routines in Tactical Fitness; only tomorrow’s non-routine. You wouldn’t build your team’s training solely around dynamic entry; why would you build its physical training solely around running? It’s asking a lot of a tact officer, but if you want to survive with the best you have to train yourself to be the best.

In any event where federal, state laws, departmental general orders or policies conflict with instruction or techniques featured in the above article it is understood that those laws and policies take precedence over said instruction.

For more specific information or scheduling classes on Tactical Fitness Programs please email Gary Burns at mgysgtburns@hotmail.com (please include Tactical Fitness in the Subject line).