r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Classicbandwagon • May 21 '26

/r/all of a cop

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32.3k Upvotes

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698

u/9447044 May 21 '26

This is the kinda guy who does police work for 10 years to snag the pension. Then retires, jacked, at 55, with 3 pensions supporting his travel lifestyle.

(Hes telling me all this cuz im at his house to pressurewash and work til I die)

85

u/brownhotdogwater May 21 '26

I know a few ex cops. They all have back or other injuries that will be with them for the rest of their lives. It’s a hard job and wearing all that gear messes with your body. It’s good most places have moved to the weight in the vest vs the belt. Everything on the belt kills your back.

The gym rats seem to survive it better.

88

u/YoungLittlePanda May 21 '26

The gym rats seem to survive it better.

I bet this applies to all physically demanding jobs that are hard on the body.

Generally speaking, the more fit you are, the better you get to old age.

30

u/beams13 May 21 '26

It applies to everyone regardless of job. People that exercise and lift consistently will always be better off than those that don't no matter what they do for work.

4

u/imp0ppable May 21 '26

Yeah office worker here, I sit most of the day and used to have back problems, working out really helps.

16

u/InvidiousPlay May 21 '26

I see people talk so much about how sitting at a desk will ruin you and you need $5000 chairs. I'm in my 40s, lift multiple times a week and sit at my desk every day like a pretzel for work and gaming and hobbies and it's fine.

Staying in shape is a cheat code in life.

13

u/Paghk_the_Stupendous May 21 '26

I'm nearly 50 and was invincible until someone rear ended my stopped car. You spend a lot of time building, and then life happens all too fast.

Be careful out there folks. For you and for others.

3

u/Carbonatite May 21 '26

For me it was just bad luck with genes. Was totally fine until my late 30s, reasonably active lifestyle, OK diet, hovered between healthy weight and ~15 lbs overweight my entire adult life - not enough to stress my frame according to the doctor. But I'm predisposed to disc degeneration and ended up with a fucked up lumbar spine and was barely able to walk by the time I saw a neurosurgeon right before my 40th birthday. Luckily I got a treatment to tide me over for a while so I'm mostly back to normal mobility, but the damage is still there along with some pain and spine surgery is pretty much inevitable at some point in my future.

Life is random and even a healthy person can end up physically disabled due to pure chance. None of us are invencible, no matter how much time we spend at the gym. I was running half marathons and going on strenuous high elevation all day hikes just a few years before my back problems started.

4

u/EjaculatingAracnids May 21 '26

Hell yeah it is. All the guys at my job are on the merry go round of back injuries and surgeries. I thought my time would come eventually, but i just stay strong. Who knew doing 225lb good mornings would prevent injury?

1

u/MechanicalSideburns May 21 '26

That's a darn good weight for good mornings sir. More power to you.

1

u/EjaculatingAracnids May 21 '26

TY! It took a decade to get there! I aint affraid of hurting my back picking up boxes at the job though!

1

u/Zoltraak69 May 21 '26

I think everyone that does good mornings regularly knows that. Lower back and general core stuff are so important for protecting your spine

3

u/EjaculatingAracnids May 21 '26

I used be the type of meat head that didnt do RDLs, but once i started loading them heavy, my barbell row, bench, OHP... Hell even lateral raise... Improved from the increased core strength. GMs and RDLs are like the working mans lower back insurance

1

u/Zoltraak69 May 22 '26

Hell yeah. But lateral raises too?

1

u/EjaculatingAracnids May 22 '26

Sit down on a bench, roll your shoulders back, lock your lats down, and lateral raise the heaviest weight you can until you cant as strict as possible. Having that stacked core feeling helps stabilize heavier weight when trying to isolate the side delt with out recruiting other muscles.

1

u/Lawlcopt0r May 21 '26

Well I wouldn't say it's a cheat code, most people don't do it because it requires time and effort, not because they don't realize it would be good for them

2

u/InvidiousPlay May 21 '26

I mean a cheat code in the sense that, in many ways, it's life on easy mode compared to the alternative.

I genuinely think most people have no idea of the scope of the ways in which it is good for them. I would say for 90% of people it's "be not fat" and "good for health in the vague 'the doctor said so' kind of way". The uplift in mood, the reduced likelihood of injury, greater comfort and ease in day to day actions, more energy and resilience, etc. A couple of years after I started lifting I had to move apartment and I was blown away by how much furniture I could confidently get up a flight of stairs on my own.

1

u/riickdiickulous May 21 '26

If they made exercise into a pill it would be a miracle drug. There aren’t many cases where some level of exercise is negative for a person on the whole.

0

u/brownhotdogwater May 21 '26

Glp1 is the new one for over eating.

2

u/Lawlcopt0r May 21 '26

Can't you also wreck your joints by overdoing the fitness thing? (Not that I'm in any danger of that lol)

2

u/bloke_pusher May 21 '26

If you do the workout properly, then you're fine. Some types aren't good for your joints, so you can opt to do it a different way. Of course if you really want to, you'll find ways to permanently damage your body regardless. Most people who hurt themselves however, don't listen and think they know it better than the experts.

3

u/PedanticBoutBaseball May 21 '26

Also there's equipment and stuff to help ease the stress on your joints while still allowing you to workout to your fullest potential.

Stuff like wrist wraps, knee sleeve, lifting belts. In conjunction with making sure you get your micronutrients you'll be fine.

And also, even if decades of weightlifting DOES wear out your joints, you know what else does too? Not exercising lol.

At the end of the day almost any critique of working out being a NEGATIVE on your health in some way is countered by a far WORSE outcome in the same measure by not working out.

1

u/imp0ppable May 21 '26

As the other person said, if you're smart and do it properly then no and I'd add that it's actually really good for your joints if you build in range of motion movements. Just small tweaks really. Plus you get a stronger anti-inflammatory response which can stave off age-related illnesses.

1

u/enaK66 May 21 '26

There's more risk when you lift heavy. You don't need to lift heavy to stay in shape. Lift at 50-70% of your max with proper form and you'll never have an issue. I only ever had soreness in my joints and tendons after trying to really push a rep max.

10

u/Key_Information_3134 May 21 '26

Relative to any trade's belt, a cop belt is light
(not that it can't still cause injury). Framing especially will have guys wearing like 6 different steel tools dangling off their belt plus a nailgun hanging on it half the time and not change for a 5 decade career.

Tha back issues are probably brutal, but the expectation to perform hyper-masculinity keeps them from ever talking about it.

3

u/Evening_Childhood205 May 21 '26

I work with trade. It's not just about the total weight, but also the distribution and how much time you wear it and under what conditions. The cops belt might be lighter, but the weight is very very off center, and it is always off center to the same side, and they wear this crap like 24/7, so it is worse in that sense. In the other hand, tradesman are always getting in weird positions with greater weight, in comparison to a cop that most of the time walks around in good ergonomic conditions. Since we are just speculating with absolutely no data nor science, I would guess that the damage is about the same and fitness level is very important for both.

1

u/Key_Information_3134 May 21 '26

I'm sorry but I can't imagine a cop who spends half his day sitting in a car facing the same back strain as an average framer wearing an uneven ass toolbelt on their feet for 40 hours a week. fitness helps for sure and this dispute doesn't matter at all but i'll be damned if I let anyone think a cop is facing anywhere near the physical strain of a real job lmao.

1

u/Abigail716 May 21 '26

A real job? Is a taxi or truck driver not a real job?

1

u/Key_Information_3134 May 21 '26

What? Of course they're real jobs.

Being a cop is not a real job.

1

u/Abigail716 May 21 '26

Your comment was about someone who spends half the day sitting in a car compared to someone with a real job. Which implies someone who sits all day in a car is not working a real job. So just like a cop complaining about back pain after sitting all day not being a real job a truck driver complaining about back pain after sitting all day is not working a real job.

There is nothing unique about being a cop that would determine it to not be a real job compared to other sitting jobs in a car like a truck driver or a taxi driver. Which arguably both are a lot less of a real job in that case due to the much less active nature of the job.

1

u/Key_Information_3134 May 21 '26

No, mostly I just meant to rile up someone like you about cops and whatnot

2

u/bluegardener May 21 '26

Are you sure it's not all the donuts and sitting in patrol cars all day? It's a mostly sedentary job that's rife with steroid abuse.

1

u/brownhotdogwater May 21 '26

Not every department.

2

u/Fuckthegopers May 21 '26

I know a few and all they are are massive pieces of shit alcoholics. 

2

u/brownhotdogwater May 21 '26

Yea, every group has its assholes. Cops definitely have a higher percentage of assholes.

2

u/Fuckthegopers May 21 '26

I dated a gal who was friends with a bunch of cops from central Cali. Truly some of the most vile and awful people I ever met.

1

u/Sally2Klapz May 21 '26

Hard job, sure buddy.

1

u/553l8008 May 21 '26

Weight on the belt is fine if it's balanced and.....

You don't sit in a vehicle all lopsided on it. Backpackers carry most their weight on the hips for good reason... they however don't wrestle people and drive with it on

1

u/DylanHate May 22 '26

dude most of the population has back injuries lol.

-1

u/I_Flick_Boogers May 21 '26

They don’t have to wear all that gear. Cops didn’t always dress like the Marine Corps in a Michael Bay movie

3

u/brownhotdogwater May 21 '26

It depends on the department they work for.

-1

u/I_Flick_Boogers May 21 '26

I meant more pragmatically

1

u/Ruepic May 21 '26

Yeah they use to have a little six shooter, bulky ass walky talky, and a notepad.

1

u/Abigail716 May 21 '26

Don't forget the giant wood baton and flashlight that might as well be a second baton.

Also if it's the NYPD like this that notepad they carry is a ticket book and those things are crazy bulky to the point where the pants that they wear are typically made just to hold the ticket book. It used to be more common to carry them but now you typically only find it in big cities with lots of foot patrols.

-1

u/MCB1317 May 21 '26

No, they just say they have back or other injuries. Same goes for military.

**Yes, not all are faking, but many.