Agency Sponsored Fitness

**Cidp24** · 05-13-10, 10:50 PM

Our City recently began a fitness program. We had a health fair for all city employees which included cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, bone density, body fat/body mass index, carbon monoxide level for smokers, and gait analysis. The fair was free and voluntary and the turnout was great.

They also offered a greatly discounted gym membership at the local YMCA (premium membership at a regular membership cost for single or family membership). The membership is payroll deducted and if the employee attends a minimum of 8 times a month, the City pays an amount equal to half of a single membership.

They also removed most of the unhealthy snacks and drinks in the vending machines and replaced them with more healthy choices.

Does anyone else have any agency sponsored fitness programs?

**Five-0** · 05-13-10, 11:32 PM

Fit test every six months. Up for grabs is 2% on top of your base pay and 8 hours of fit time (paid leave).

**Bob Loblaw** · 05-13-10, 11:50 PM

Our city does a wellness program for everyone on the payroll. Points accrued by completing monthly activity logs, BP and body fat checks, etc etc. Max of $200 (taxed) per year per participant (if my wife would get off her can and do it, we'd get a check for about $325 for both of us after taxes) and it comes at Christmas time. Pretty sweet deal.

**pgg** · 05-13-10, 11:51 PM

We don't get anything. Though we have a gym here available for use. I think I'm the only guy that uses it

**SPD** · 05-14-10, 12:02 AM

We get an hour a day on duty to PT on duty in our really nice PD gym. It rules. Lots of guys use it.

**Bob Loblaw** · 05-14-10, 12:25 AM

Originally Posted by SPD

We get an hour a day on duty to PT on duty in our really nice PD gym. It rules. Lots of guys use it.

you guys do have a very, very nice facility....especially the gym. Didn't some lady die and leave some money for you guys to outfit it?

**Jks9199** · 05-14-10, 12:49 AM

We use LawFit; if you play the game and do the silly fitness test, you can work out for about an hour on the clock, if staffing permits. We've got a decent gym, largely supplied by the Police Association. Small & tight, though. More than two or three at once makes working out difficult.

Catch is the silly games of the fit test pretty much have always meant fighting traffic to do it or stay over for a couple of hours on mids, since when I was on patrol, somebody had to cover the street during the test... (attempts to have even a single test opportunity later in the day have been pointedly ignored...) And I rarely got to work out on the clock because my workout had to fit around everyone else's, as well as calls for service. Meanwhile, some folks "hour" was more like two. Because they needed to change to workout, then cleanup afterwards... and often they were people whose workout time was near-sacred.

You can use 1/2 hour for "wellness" by the municipality rules without the games ... but that's kind of useless...

Personally, I'd like to see them dump the silly fit test because they don't monitor the results, look for improvement or anything else. Our GOs actually encourage fitness specifically, and part of the annual eval is whether you complied with any doctor's orders on fitness. Bluntly, functional fitness is important. If it's important... with a 12 hour shift, it's hard to add an hour or more for a workout into a work day. And we all have crap we need to do on days off. So, why require a meaningless test to maintain fitness? I've never received a satisfactory answer to that... I think it amounts to a battle with the municipal manager that none of the brass has been willing to fight.

**SPD** · 05-14-10, 01:02 AM

Originally Posted by Bob Loblaw

you guys do have a very, very nice facility....especially the gym. Didn't some lady die and leave some money for you guys to outfit it?

Yeah - an old lady died and left a significant amount of money to the officers at the PD, and stipulated that it be used for what the officers wanted and not the admin. We all got together and pretty quickly decided we wanted a gym. I was injured at the time, and got the duty of outfitting it. We had a committee that decided what type of equipment we wanted, and I contacted several companies with our gym dimensions, and what we wanted to do. Got bids from several companies, and Cybex won our hearts and dollars. We kept a good chunk of money in an account to pay for maintanence and additional equipment if we decided we need it.

**Bob Loblaw** · 05-14-10, 01:37 AM

Originally Posted by Jks9199

Small & tight, though.

TWSS

**SPD** · 05-22-10, 07:21 PM

Since I was bored . . . . .

Our weight room . .

Then our "chokes and throws" room

Note that all of our "beating dummies" have Fire Dept shirts on . . . . .

**lewisipso** · 05-23-10, 12:40 AM

Nothing here. Get a workout when you can.

**213th** · 05-23-10, 07:19 AM

My work has a health survey that you can take through webMD, if you complete it its an extra 20/pay period. Complete the tobacco non-user form and that's an additional 20/pay period. Health insurance reimburses about 100/year if you have a gym membership at participating gyms

**Tango Zulu 22** · 05-23-10, 10:04 AM

We have access to local authority owned gyms at a discounted rate deducted from payroll and also the National Cycle to Work scheme which allows you to buy a pedal cycle of uo to £1000 value, pay for it monthly direct from payroll and offset tax against it - this gives a saving of between 40 - 48% on the price depending on your rate of pay / tax deduction.
There are also gyms at most of the larger stations paid for by our Sports & Social Fund which are free to use if you're a member of the SSF.

**pgg** · 05-23-10, 10:29 AM

If you want a good work out go out and buck hay

**CTR man** · 05-23-10, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by pgg

We don't get anything. Though we have a gym here available for use. I think I'm the only guy that uses it

So that's how you work off all those calories after eating those large quantities of food that I hear you have a reputation for. I knew you had a secret.

**Jenna** · 05-23-10, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by CTR man

So that's how you work off all those calories after eating those large quantities of food that I hear you have a reputation for. I knew you had a secret.

He probably eats the hay, too!

**Donut Aficionado** · 05-31-10, 11:35 AM

My departments idea of agency sponsored fitness is calling us fat. Other than that they'll do nothing to encourage any kind of physical fitness.

**ms1600** · 06-01-10, 07:50 PM

Originally Posted by pgg

If you want a good work out go out and buck hay

BTDT. Cut, raked, baled, and loaded (x2). Even if it was hotter than hell out you still had to wear long sleeve shirts and leather gloves. I still got slivers of hay in my arms.

**121Traffic** · 06-04-10, 02:19 PM

We don't have an agency requirement, but I'd say we're a decently fit department. Quite a few of us use our PD gym before shift. It's decent size, and well appointed. Good cardio machines (two treadmills, an elliptical, and a bike), a decent free weight set, and some machines. There's a fair amount of room for the P90x-ers, and our FOP donated the funds for a good TV/sound system. We don't have any real incentive, but there is a GO on the books that allows us to use our contract-mandated 50 minutes of code 7 time for a workout. The workout has to be "lighter in nature" because we are still subject to emergency call. That usually means just some lifting while wearing a t-shirt, uniform pants, and boots.

Our gym:

**SPD** · 06-04-10, 02:52 PM

Nice 121.

I'm a big fan of the PD having fitness equipment, and giving their guys time to PT. Frankly, I think if someone tracked the numbers, the guys who work out regularly seem to have fewer injuries on duty than the ones who don't.