Circuit training exercise is one of the best ways to get in shape for the law enforcement physical fitness test. I don’t care if your fitness test is for a federal agency like (FBI, DEA, ATF, Secret Service) or a local agency (city police, sheriff deputy or state trooper). It doesn’t matter what the fitness standards are because if you do circuit training workouts consistently, you’ll get into shape faster than you ever thought possible.
In fact, if you follow a professionally designed law enforcement specific circuit training system like the one outlined in Fit For Duty Workout Program, you can get more results in 20 minutes than most people get in 90 minutes!
One of the advantages of circuit workouts is you get to ditch the long, slow, boring cardio for good. You don’t need it; it’s a waste of time. Instead, combine resistance training and interval training into a circuit and you’ll get into shape faster for the law enforcement physical fitness test.
The best way to do your circuit training is by alternating between a lower body exercise and an upper body exercise. You also need to have the most difficult exercises placed at the start of the circuit.
Finally, make sure you use non-competing exercises placed back to back. That means you don’t want to have one exercise in the circuit that fatigues a muscle group followed by another exercise that fatigues the same muscle group. I call those competing exercises.
An example would be doing a dumbbell row followed by dumbbell split squat. Both exercises rely on grip strength, so that would be a bad combination. Instead, follow the dumbbell row with a single-leg reaching lunge (no weight), single-leg squat (no weight), or barbell split squat so that your grip muscles get to rest.
So let’s take a look at a solid police specific circuit training exercise routine. The first thing you need to do is a total body warm-up. Start with a mini-circuit of prisoner squats, pushups, and reverse lunges.
Now you’re ready for the real circuit ; although I suggest doing a warm-up circuit as well. Do one round, six reps per exercise and use 50% of the weight that you’ll use in the circuit. That’s a great way to prep for the circuit. The entire warm-up should take about 5 minutes.
In the real work circuit, you’ll start with a tough lower body exercise such as squats or split squats. Next, you’ll follow that with a pushing exercise. For simplicity, a bodyweight exercise, any pushup variation, will help you move through the circuit faster. Then move to a pulling exercise, such as bodyweight rows, pull-ups, dumbbell rows, or seated rows.
The fourth exercise in the law enforcement focused circuit will be a single-leg exercise or it could be an exercise for the back of the legs such as Stability Ball Leg Curls. Finally, the fifth exercise in the circuit should be a total body ab exercise such as Mountain Climbers, Stability Ball Rollouts or Hanging Knees Raises.
Overall, that’s a tough total body circuit that uses only five exercises. If you want to add interval training to the circuit, there are two ways you can do it. First, I prefer separating the interval training and doing it after you’re finished with the circuit. However, the second way to do it is as the 6th exercise (after the abs) and then repeat the circuit again.
Either way, you’ll get into shape relatively fast as you prepare for the police officer physical fitness test with these law enforcement specific circuit training exercises. If you leave the intervals for later, you’ll be stronger on all exercises since intervals will add to the fatigue.
Circuit training is fun, fast, and effective. You won’t get as strong as you would with supersets but you’ll still be able to sculpt your body and get into shape faster than you would with a long, slow, boring cardio exercise program.
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