By Rob Shaul
We’ve identified 5 Fitness Attributes/Demands for Correctional Officers:
- Relative Strength – or strength per bodyweight
- Work Capacity – specifically sprinting, and explosive movement
- Upper Body Hypertrophy – can be an intimidation factor
- Grip Strength – Tactical Speed, Explosive Power, and Agility
- Chassis Integrity – functional core strength and strength endurance
In general, a solid fitness assessment should:
- Effectively assess the major fitness demands of the job
- Deploy simple exercises using common equipment
- Be efficient to administer and Easy to Score
- Not take all day
Below is the MTI Correctional Officer Fitness Assessment. At the bottom, you will find notes which explain the reasoning behind the events, what fitness attribute each assesses, and how to score the assessment
MTI’s CORRECTIONAL OFFICER FITNESS ASSESSMENT
Warm Up:
4 Rounds
- 8x Bench Press @ 65/95#
- 4x In-Place Lunges
- 8x Box Jump @ 20″ Box
- Instep Stretch
- Lat + Pec Stretch
Get on a scale and weight yourself. Record Bodyweight.
(1) Max Reps Bench Press in 60 Seconds (Men at bodyweight, Women at 75% bodyweight)
Protocol:
6x Reps Bench Press @ 50% Bodyweight, Then
6x Reps Bench Press @ 75% Bodyweight, (50% bodyweight for women), Then
Max Reps Bench Press @ Bodyweight in 60 seconds
Comments:
60 Second time limit. Athlete can “rest” in the up position, holding the barbell above his chest with elbows locked out. Once he racks the barbell, the effort is over.
The athlete must lower the barbell until it touches his chest. The top of the range of motion is elbows locked out. Only full Range of Motion reps count.
→RECORD YOUR REPS FOR SCORE
(2) Max Reps In-Place Lunge in 60 Seconds holding 25% Dumbbells
Protocol:
No warm up – go right to the timed assessment.
Comments:
60 Second time limit. Athlete can “rest” in the standing position, holding the dumbbells.
The athlete must lunge to the ground until his knee touches, then back up to both knees being locked out at full extension.
→RECORD YOUR REPS FOR SCORE
(3) Gi Grip Strength Assessment
Protocol:
No warm up – go right to the timed assessment.
Comments:
Effort ends when the athlete lets go of the towell.
→RECORD YOUR HANG TIME. SEE BELOW TO SCORE:
Hang Time
in Seconds Score
30 or less 0
31-40 3
41-50 6
51-60 9
61-70 12
71-80 15
81-90 18
91-100 21
101-110 24
111-120 27
121-130 30
130+ 33
(4) Box Jumps in 60 Seconds for Reps @ 20/24” box (20″ for women, 24″ for men)
Protocol:
No warm up – go right to the timed assessment.
Comments:
60 second time limit. Athlete must stand to full hip extension on top of box and step down each rep.
→RECORD YOUR REPS FOR SCORE
(5) Max Reps 30/10/30 Keg Lift @60# Sandbag and 48″ Ledge.
Protocol:
No warm up – go right to the timed assessment.
On “Go” complete the max reps in 30 seconds. Take 10 seconds to turn around and rest, then … Complete max reps in 30 seconds facing the other direction.
Every time the sandbag touches the ground counts as 1x Rep. Count total reps.
→RECORD YOUR REPS FOR SCORE
(6) Max Reps Prone To Sprint @ 30 feet, in 90 Seconds.
Protocol:
No warm up – go right to the timed assessment.
Athletes start down in the prone position. On “go” athletes come to their feet, sprint down 30 feet to the other cone, turn around, drop to prone, and repeat – sprinting back to the start. Each completed length = 1 rep. Count the total reps.
→RECORD YOUR REPS FOR SCORE.
SCORING
Bench Press reps x 1
In Place Lunge reps x .5
Gi Grip Strength Assessment – see scoring chart above
Box Jumps x1
Keg Lift x 1
Prone to Sprint x 1
Here’s an example on how to score the test:
Bench Press – 15 reps = 15 points
In-Place Lunge, 42 rep x .5 = 21 points
Gi Grip Strength Assessment, 88 seconds = 18 points
Box Jumps, 31 reps = 31 points
Keg Lift, 29 reps = 29 points
Prone to Sprint, 19 reps = 19 points
TOTAL: 15+21+18+31+29+19 = 133 points
SCORING STANDARDS
The minimum passing score is 60
Points Score
80-100 Poor
100-129 Good
130+ Great
The Chart Below shows how MTI Lab Rats did on the assessment on 1.16.19. the Video below the chart shows them completing the different events.
NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS
Bench Press, In Place Lunges
These exercises assess the athletes’ relative strength in a safe, efficient manner. Using bodyweight bench press for men for load, and 75% of bodyweight for women automatically “scales” the loading to the individual athlete.
Gi Grip Strength Assessment
Tests grip strength and grip strength endurance, and to a lesser extent, upper body pulling strength.
Box Jumps
The 60-second box jumps for reps allow us to test explosive power, agility and work capacity with one exercise. This is a deceptively hard event.
30/10/30 Keg Lift
This exercise assesses chassis integrity and midsection strength and strength endurance and to a lesser extent grip strength and grip strength endurance.
90 Second Prone to Sprint
Functional assessment of tactical work capacity.
Questions, Comments, Feedback? E-Mail coach@mtntactical.com