It is more complicated than ever before to be a police officer. Both the mental and physical stress of the job takes a toll on many officers. To combat these negative forces, officers must take positive steps to remain healthy. In this guide, we offer tips and techniques for maintaining your physical and mental fitness as a law enforcement officer.

Mental Health

While many people outside the law enforcement field do find themselves in stressful situations, police officers face duty-related stress daily. There are many positive ways of addressing workplace stress. It may first help, though, to identify the stressors unique to today's police officers as contrasted with traditional causes of police stress.

Traditional Causes of Stress for Police

Some mental stressors have always been present in the line of police work. These factors simply come with being a police officer, and they're difficult to avoid. These stressors are also generally far more taxing than what the average worker faces. Some of them include:

• The danger inherent to the job/fear of being killed
• Witnessing horrific scenes of violence and death
• Rotating work schedules and inability to maintain regular family activities
• Lack of sleep (mainly due to rotating work hours)
• Experiencing traumatic events leading to PTSD

Modern Causes of Stress for Police

The work of police officers has changed alongside society. While there are certain stressful aspects of the job that have always been present, many new ones have come along over the last few decades (or even just the last few years). Some of these include:

• Ineffective or inconsistent police management
• High levels of community dissatisfaction
• Internal complaints, investigations and civil suits
• Lack of backing by police leaders
• Political leaders seeking to defund police departments
• Civil unrest and violent protests
• Targeted, violent attacks on police officers
• Unfair stereotyping of police officers by media outlets

With traditional and modern stressors putting pressure on officers across the country every day, some in the field of law enforcement face great difficulties regarding their mental health. The first step in mitigating the stress, though, is to identify the cause. After you've done that, you can start to focus on alleviating it.

Methods of Managing Police Stress

While stress can be overwhelming and damaging, luckily there are plenty of ways to alleviate it. It can be tough to admit when you need assistance, but don't be afraid to ask for help. No one gets through life alone, so lean on your friends, family and fellow officers. Try some of the following.

Education

Many police officers experience stress in their internal work environment, including departmental politics, inadequate supervision and ever-changing policies. One simple answer to the problem is education. Know the rules and regulations, and continuously work to remain current on case law and departmental policy. Be the officer who can consistently make the right decisions because your knowledge of the law is sharp.

Communication

Communication is a critical key to dealing with stress, too. Officers find it helpful to communicate with other officers through a sense of camaraderie and share common experiences that others may not understand. It is also necessary to have a support system in place. This system can consist of one or more people that an officer can feel comfortable talking with openly. A spouse, a close friend, or a senior or retired officer may fit this role.

Sometimes, it's necessary to talk to a professional about a particular issue or incident that needs more guidance and help than your support system can provide. Many departments are now offering confidential support personnel for this purpose. The key is to talk about what you're feeling and resolve conflicts before they become overwhelming.

Try to maintain a positive mental attitude by focusing on some positive aspects of the job. Officers like to think back to that significant arrest they made, but a better area for them to focus on is the many people they have helped in their career.

Another type of communication that might lift the spirits is to talk to people within the community when not on a call for service. Police officers usually see and deal with people at their worst; no one ever calls the police to tell them what a great day they are having. Try having general conversations with citizens, if only to mentally reinforce the fact that most people are good, law-abiding and count on the police to keep them safe.

Healthy Sleeping Habits

While there is no magic formula for sleep, a sleep-deprived officer is a cranky officer whose judgment may become impaired. Sleep deprivation is a recipe for disaster, so making sleep a priority is essential. Determine what works best and stick to it. It is vital to have at least six to seven hours of uninterrupted sleep after each shift.

Professional Help

Police officers must learn what abnormal responses to stress look like and when it may be time to seek help. It's common for an officer to dwell on a critical incident; however, these thoughts typically lessen over time. When they interfere with an officer's daily duties, though, it may be time to seek help. Avoiding certain persons, locations or activities may also be signs that a traumatic experience remains unresolved.

Officers who experience traumatic events should be given every opportunity to seek professional help with their department's full support. While times are changing, many officers are understandably reluctant to seek psychological services through the department. One potential alternative is an outside peer support group of other specially trained police officers who can confidently offer counsel. Many may share common experiences with the officer seeking help.

Outside Hobbies

Officers must have a life outside of police work. This includes interests and hobbies far removed from the job. Officers should also develop friendships with people who are not police officers. A police officer should establish a personal identity removed from their career. This will help them to truly be off duty and separate themselves from the job when the uniform comes off. The job should never totally define the person.

The Supervisor's Role

Police supervisors should receive training in recognizing the signs of officers experiencing elevated levels of stress. Officers coping with problems should be offered support and resources by their supervisor. This can include a change in assignment or a few days off to address any personal issues.

Supervisors may hold individual meetings with their officers, perhaps in conjunction with performance evaluations. Stress and stress management is a topic that a good supervisor will discuss often. The door should always be open for the subordinate officer to discuss any issues with their supervisor. These may include job-related stress issues, or off-the-job relationship issues which may affect the officer's performance.

An officer's assignment should match their strengths whenever possible. If the officer enjoys secondary investigations, they may not be the best candidate for a traffic assignment. Most officers are happiest and excel when they do the type of work they enjoy. While every officer will not enjoy every assignment, matching officers to areas in which they excel is a win-win.

Physical Fitness

Being a police officer is a physically strenuous job. Upon recalling their graduation from the police academy, most officers would agree that they were in the best shape of their life. However, few departments mandate continued physical fitness standards throughout their officers' careers. In most cases, it's up to individual officers to exercise regularly and stay in shape.

Physical fitness in police work refers to an officer's ability to perform at a high (or at least an acceptable) level in four broad fitness categories. These include:

• Muscular strength: The ability to physically exert maximum force, such as to overpower a person resisting arrest or pull a large, unconscious person from a burning auto-wreck
• Muscular endurance: The ability to use physical force until a confrontation has ended without extreme muscular fatigue limiting an officer's effectiveness
• Flexibility: Maintaining a complete range of motion during dynamic and explosive physical activity without injury, muscular strains or tears
• Aerobic Endurance: The ability to maintain cardiovascular exercise for an extended period of time without running out of steam. The most common example in police work is the foot chase: can the officer run five city blocks, climb several flights of stairs and still have the stamina to arrest a resisting suspect?

The First Important Step

A police officer has to maintain a healthy body weight and composition to preserve the other four fitness areas. During their time in the police academy, time was set aside daily for officers for physical training, running and calisthenics. However, on the job, many officers find it challenging to maintain a fitness regiment. Many gain just a couple of pounds each year. However, over time, an officer's physical fitness and overall health become jeopardized.

Here is the most critical and potentially life-saving recommendation you may ever receive: see your family doctor at least once per year when you're not sick. It's called a basic physical examination and is encouraged by both doctors and insurance companies. An ounce of prevention is truly worth more than many pounds of cure.

Police officers like to think they are indestructible. However, the opposite is often the case. Rotating sleep schedules, high levels of long-term stress, questionable fast-food diet choices and long hours seated in a patrol cruiser are a recipe for serious health issues.

Cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high triglycerides and high cholesterol are common conditions for police officers. These go undetected in some cases for many years because they often present no symptoms. Many conditions are easily controlled with a daily pill or even baby aspirin, but that's for a doctor to diagnose and prescribe.

Before beginning any new exercise program, always get a physical first and discuss a planned exercise program and diet with a healthcare professional. Most doctors are very receptive and provide helpful advice in this area.

Principles of Muscular Strength and Endurance

Lifting weights is the optimal method of gaining muscular strength. Calisthenics are also valuable; however, each person's body weight limits them. Push-ups strengthen the chest, shoulder and arm muscles, but muscular resistance is limited to a person's body weight. Plate carrier training is a good route, too, especially if your department requires you to own one. See our guide on how to train with a plate carrier to get started.

The body can be broken down into multiple parts to be exercised separately. These include the arms and shoulders, the chest and back, the upper and lower legs and the core. Workouts should always begin with a few warm-up exercises. Calisthenics such as pushups, sit-ups and jumping jacks warm the muscles and get the blood flowing.

Next, take a few minutes to stretch muscle groups, elongating each particular muscle gently. This is no one's favorite part, but a few minutes of stretching will help prevent muscle pulls. Pulls and strains usually happen early in weightlifting sessions, when muscles are still tight because they weren't adequately warmed and stretched.

Determine which muscle groups to exercise, or if all parts will be exercised in a single session. The major core muscles should always be exercised first, as these are the assisting muscles for most other exercises. They consist of the lower and mid back muscles and the entire abdominal muscle group, including the obliques. Planks are an excellent static exercise for the core.

During weightlifting sessions, always start with the center of the torso and work outward. Exercise the chest and back muscles first, then the shoulders, and finally the arms. A common error during a workout is to work the arms first. As they fatigue, though, they will be of little use in exercising the back and chest.

To build strength, you'll have to lift relatively heavy weights using proper form. The appropriate amount of weight is that which the lifter can complete at least six correct repetitions. As muscles tire, the weight can be decreased while still completing at least six repetitions.

Building muscular endurance can involve the same weightlifting exercises with only about fifty percent of the weight. The goal with this strategy is to complete twenty to twenty-five repetitions of each exercise. Both heavy weight training and endurance weight training can and should be part of a police officer's training program.

Flexibility

By far, flexibility is the most overlooked and underappreciated part of fitness. Muscle pulls, strains and tears make up a significant portion of officer injuries. Lower back injuries alone account for a significant number of early disability retirements. In many cases, these injuries are preventable.

Lower body flexibility should be a specific goal. Consider an officer seated in their patrol cruiser for a period of three hours. They then respond to an emergency that requires them to leap from their vehicle and sprint at top speed toward a crime in progress or life-saving emergency. There is no time to warm up or stretch in this instance. That's why stretching regularly on your own time is important. The officer who regularly stretches and maintains good flexibility will be much less likely to suffer injury.

Equally important is a healthy, strong lower back. With twenty pounds of duty gear around their waist, an officer's lower back takes a lot of abuse. The risk of lower back injuries increases with age, so a regular stretching and strengthening program is essential for veteran officers.

Aerobic Endurance

The ability to exercise at a high level without becoming winded is essential. Aerobic endurance allows an officer to run and climb and wrestle without becoming exhausted. Building aerobic endurance can be described in one word: RUN! Officers should start slow and build up their distance over several months. After achieving a distance of several miles, the goal should be to increase the pace gradually. Some days will include long, slow runs, while others can feature shorter, quicker runs. The key is to run three or more days a week consistently.

Every officer is different, but a good rule of thumb is that after your doctor has cleared you for this activity, run at a pace where you can maintain a conversation. The goal is to elevate your heart rate within a specific target range, and keep it there throughout the exercise session. Aerobic training is taxing, but it should not leave the runner completely out of breath. If a person is exercising with such intensity that they can't speak, they need to slow down.

Putting it all Together

Both mental and physical fitness is essential in law enforcement. Traditional stressors and a long list of new issues generate stress and plague today's officers. Learn the importance of communication, have a support system or a trusted person to confide in, and seek help when you need it. Try to keep a positive mental attitude, focusing on all the good you have accomplished.

Supervisors should closely monitor their subordinates, especially when they may be showing signs of stress-related behaviors. Get involved and talk to your officers. Identify and recommend solutions and, when appropriate, support the officer in seeking professional guidance.

Physical fitness is more important than ever in the increasingly demanding role of the street cop. Step one is to get an annual physical. Everyone fears the unknown, but many hidden medical issues officers face are easily treated and even reversible.

Work gradually to increase both strength and muscular endurance. Remember to stretch, as flexibility plays a crucial role in keeping officers injury-free. Enjoy a good jog, or even a run. It is a great way not only to increase fitness but also to burn off stress.

Lastly, always remember that the vast majority of people in this country still support their police. They continue to see the bravery of first responders and haven't forgotten the countless heroic actions that define what it means to be a police officer.