The Land O’ Lakes Detention Center has been outfitted with a state-of-the-art, 24-hour fitness facility equipped with top-of-the-line resistance machines, exercise bikes, ski machines, adjustable weights, kettlebells, plyometric boxes, battling ropes, medicine balls and more.
Known as the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office Resilience Center, it’s the initial phase of the agency’s newly formed Human Performance Program.
The program aims to improve law enforcement officers’ career longevity, injury prevention and overall fitness for on-the-job tasks.
The Resilience Center opened last month in partnership with EXOS, a worldwide human performance company that primarily services professional athletes, the military and corporations.
The Human Performance Program is eventually expected to staff dietitians, physical therapists, a sports psychologist, and strength and conditioning coaches, to better address the specific needs of members.
The sheriff’s office is using grant money to fund the wellness program, which is free to its members. It is believed to be the first time EXOS has partnered with a law enforcement agency.
At the Resilience Center, the physical training regimen utilizes “functional techniques,” such as Olympic lifts and quick, explosive movements, said Chris Jacquard, who’s contracted by EXOS to serve as the sheriff’s office human performance advisor.
In other words, it’s not the conventional workout routine you’d find at your local gym, whether it be jogging on the treadmill or throwing up some weights.
Instead, many of the prescribed workouts are designed to best translate to the everyday environment of a law enforcement officer, said Jacquard, who offers one-on-one wellness consultations and organizes group trainings for the agency at the Resilience Center.
That includes, for instance, exercises that strengthen lower backs and lower legs — important for deputies who wear burdensome gun belts and bulletproof vests throughout the course of a 12-hour shift.
Jacquard explained of the fitness program: “Running 5 miles, you’re not going to do that on the job (as a law enforcement officer). You’re going to sprint a quarter-mile as fast as you can and then non-lethally subdue a suspect. How do we train for that type of task? That’s really what we’re going to try to mirror in our approach.”
The Resilience Center also features a body composition scanner, so users can track muscle development, fat levels and so on.
Jacquard noted the machine “is definitely not cheap,” but “mirrors the investment of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office in terms of the health and well-being of their members.”
Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said the Resilience Center and Human Performance Program is all about giving the agency “the best tools possible to be successful.”
Said Nocco, “This is a physical job. You know, we’re expected to jump over fences, to chase people down, to run in somewhere to save somebody, have to get into a fight sometimes, and so, we have to be in the top physical performance, so this is going to help our deputies in the fact that we’ll be in a better performance to go out there and save people.”
He continued, “When you have a good regimen, when you’re exercising the right way, sleeping the right way, drinking plenty of water, and physically exercising, you’re performing at a much higher level.”
The sheriff said about a quarter of the agency has already begun to utilize EXOS programming and the Resilience Center in the short time it’s been around.
It’s been well-received thus far.
“The reaction we’re getting is they’re very excited about it,” Nocco said. “As the word spreads, as success spreads, people want to get involved in this.”
“We’re seeing a lot of interest,” Jacquard added. “The deputies, for the most part, have been highly receptive. You look at an opportunity to perform better, and accessing resources like this that (you) wouldn’t typically see in a civilian setting. We’ve had a lot of participation in the program so far and we’ve really only been around for four weeks.”
The Resilience Center was instituted at the Land O’ Lakes jail, Nocco said, because of its centralized location in the county and because it features “the largest amount of members we have at the sheriff’s office congregated at one place.”
The agency, however, plans to add similar training facilities and related wellness programming to its other district offices in Dade City, Trinity and New Port Richey.
Published March 27, 2019
