Tips and tricks for acing the police physical

amandzor

In college I had my mind made up to enter the police academy when I graduated and become a police officer. I dropped almost 80 pounds, was well on my way, and then life happened. I gained back 100 pounds and now, 5 years later I'm driven to start again.

Thanks to MFP and a regular exercise regime I've dropped about 40 pounds in two months, and am continuing towards my goal. I'm looking to take the civil service test in July of 2014, and if I pass that (I'm preparing for that as well) I'll continue on to the Physical Agility Test.

This, by far, as an obese woman is the most difficult test barring my entry. For the department I'm interested in joining they require:

40 pushups, no time.
45 situps, 1 minute.
1.5 mile run; 14 minutes
300 meter sprint; 50 seconds.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips/tricks for training that might help me prepare for one of the most difficult tests of my life.

Currently, I can do 2-3 pushups, 25 situps and my last mile was a terrible 15 minutes. I haven't clocked a sprint, but I imagine it's equally deficient.

I'm 5'7", female, 26 and I weight about 225 on a good day, 230 on a not so good day. I'd like to get down to -atleast- 180 by test time, but the closer to 150 I get, the better.

Thank you in advance, I could use all the help I can get staying motivated!

marie_2454

I'm, actually taking a Civil Service Test and 4 agility tests next month for a policing job :happy: This is my last semester of school and this will be my first job utilizing my degree, so I'm pretty dang happy lol. The 4 tests I have to take are all mini obstacle course type things that are more difficult to train for (climbing through windows, dragging weights, scaling walls, etc). I actually don't have to do pushups or anything like that, although there is a 1/4 mile sprint. Anywho, my suggestion is to just keep practicing. Do as many pushups as you can, take a break, then repeat until you get to 40. Maybe in between your sets of pushups do as many sit ups in a minutes as you can? Do this a few times a week. Also, I don't know if you're doing any sort of weight lifting, but if not I would highly encourage you to look into starting a lifting routine. I lift moderately heavy for 3 sets of 12, and this actually helped me improve my running times. Also, as you lose more weight thing will get easier.

I'm not a pro (by any means lol, but I have lost and kept off about 55 pounds), but if I were you I'd try something like lifting full body weights 3x/week and running 3x/week. I'd do the pushups and situps on lifting days and add in a few 300 meter sprints afterwards. Then on 3 nonlifting days I'd go for a 1.5 mile run. Once you get the distance down, your time will improve.

Feel free to add me on here :happy: and good luck!

Gordie580

When I started almost 8 years ago. I don't know if they still do a dummy drag, but we carried a 140 lbs dummy 30 yards to simulate a crash and unresponsive burn victim, we did an indoor obstical course, a 6 foot wall jump, 1.5 mile run, pushups, situps.

I would say, a mix of p90x insanity, and a 2 mile jog( every other day) will get you ready for pt tests.

marie_2454

I have to drag a 170 pound dummy about 25 feet. My little brother weighs close to that (probably a little more- crazy kid is 15 and 6' with solid muscle) so my plan is to talk him into letting me drag him around some :laugh:

RGv2

These are all endurance tests. What you need to do is make sure you do the minimum each day. If you need to get to 40 pushups to pass, can only do 2-3, you need to make sure in the time you wake up, until the time you go to bed you've done 40. As time goes, make sure that time gets smaller in between.

Same thing with the other exercises.

I'd actually train for the 1.5 mile and 300 meters at a bit longer distances.

SusanUW83

Highly suggest doing intervals as well as long steady jogs to improve your speed. You can do intervals on the road or on a treadmill by going faster for a short amount of time or distance and then dropping down to your normal speed -- you don't have to use a track, although that works well too. "Fartlek" is a name for "speed play" which is essentially intervals that you don't actually track -- just pick a place in the distance and run faster until you get to that place. I do a lot of timed intervals -- run slower for 2 minutes, run faster for 1 minute, that sort of thing.