Occupational challenges to the development and maintenance of physical fitness within law enforcement officers

Law enforcement officers must perform physically demanding tasks as part of their job duties. Consequently, law enforcement officers must possess an adequate level of physical fitness to perform these activities safely and effectively. Ironically, most of an officer’s shift time is sedentary. This, in addition to other occupational challenges, may make it difficult for officers to develop and maintain fitness across the occupational life span. This is concerning when considering that physical fitness is associated with their occupational task performance. In this column, the unique challenges law enforcement officers experience when trying to maintain health and occupational fitness are discussed.