Retrospective Analysis Of Muscle Fitness In Law Enforcement Cadets

The physically demanding, psychologically stressful, and unpredictable environments that law enforcement officers work in requires a law enforcement professional to have a high level of physical fitness. Therefore, muscle fitness capacities are commonly assessed in law enforcement cadets who are undergoing training at an academy. PURPOSE: The primary aim was to investigate the potential effects that completion of a law enforcement training academy had on muscle fitness capacities (lower body power, core endurance, and upper body endurance) in law enforcement cadets throughout an 8-year retrospective period (2015-2023). METHODS: Deidentified entry and exit physical fitness data of 2,888 cadets (age 27 ± 6 years) attending a law enforcement training academy between 2015-2023 were collected. All deidentified hardcopy data was transcribed into a digital spreadsheet in duplicate by two separate groups of researchers. In order to help ensure correct data entry, the two digital spreadsheets were then assessed for any different data entries for the same cadet using the conditional formatting techniques. Due to the data not being normally distributed (Shapiro-Wilk test), a two-way aligned rank transformation test was used to determine if year (2015-2023) and/or test (entry, exit) affected lower body power (vertical jump height), core endurance (one-minute sit-up repetitions), or upper body endurance (push-up repetitions to volitional fatigue). Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Vertical jump height (54 ± 9 cm vs 58 ± 9 cm, ES = 0.39) and one-minute sit-up repetitions (36 ± 6 reps vs 41 ± 6 reps, ES = 0.70) improved from entry to exit testing during all years. Push-up repetitions to volitional fatigue (38 ± 12 reps vs 44 ± 14 reps, ES = 0.42) improved from entry to exit testing for all years except 2020-2021 (p = 0.50). CONCLUSION: Completion of a law enforcement training academy resulted in small improvements in lower body power (ES = 0.39) and upper body endurance (ES = 0.42), while moderately improving core endurance (ES = 0.70). Due to the diverse training cadets are required to undergo during a law enforcement training academy, the results of the present study underscore the importance that law enforcement cadets attend the training academy with a high level of muscular fitness capacities.