CrossFit - Physical Fitness is a Requirement to be a Cop

In three months, Adam Oxendine lost 50 lb. doing CrossFit. More importantly, however, he can now keep up with his dog. "I think I've got more excitement than the dog does," he says. Oxendine is a K9 specialist at the Richland County Sheriff's Department in South Carolina. There, the agency has embraced CrossFit, dedicating space, equipment and a full-time trainer to general physical preparedness. "I think physical fitness is a requirement to be a cop—to be a good cop. If you're not physically fit, you can't do your job. I've always felt that way, and I've always tried to keep myself physically fit," says Sheriff Leon Lott. "But CrossFit takes it to a different level. And it's better." Original Firebreather Greg Amundson emphasizes to the group of officers that CrossFit is about more than simply working out. "When you really put your heart into these workouts, you're building more than just fitness," he says during this law-enforcement-officer training seminar. "You're building character, you're building trust in each other, you're building discipline. You're building all the values that the law-enforcement profession has historically embraced."