Q&A with SWAT/Medic, Firefighter Ryan Starling on Staying Fit

Today, Starling regularly competes in CrossFit competitions, most recently the 2018 CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisc., August 1 to 5. The competition itself is sponsored by a few familiar brands: Reebok, RAM, as well as 5.11 Inc. As described on their website, "The CrossFit Games are the world’s premier test to find the Fittest on Earth™. They are world-renowned as a grueling test for the toughest athletes on Earth as well as a thrilling experience for spectators." 

You can watch the results and results as athletes work through their events at the event's page at Games.Crossfit.com/Games.

Further, track Starling's efforts through his athlete page directly at Games.CrossFit.com/athlete/202727. He is categorized in the Men (35-39) group. At the moment of this writing, his overall ranking was 2nd in the West Coast region, 2nd in California, and 7th in the United States.

How long have you held your health and fitness a high priority? 

I've always been playing sports. I think I got my first weight bench when I was, like, 9 years old. That's what I wanted for Christmas...that's what my parents got me. I've always just enjoyed it. 

What do you do to eat healthier on the job? 

Meal prepping. I'll prepare my food at the beginning of the week and make those meals, that way you have them for the week. A friend of mine owns a food prepping company and I've used her services before. It makes it that much easier. So, either Sunday I'll do all my prepping for about two hours, have all my meals ready to go for the week and then I'm good to go or I use her services. They deliver the food right to your front door. The cost is exactly the same as a box. Going out and buying food and every time you eat out or something like that you're eating unhealthy and you're spending a lot more money.

JK - What type of food comes inside the box?

She'll have fried chicken, broccoli, whole wheat pasta with bell peppers with a marinara sauce, or a steak one day with sweet potatoes. They'll be a vinaigrette sauce and she makes a little ranch sauce that's healthy. It's actually really good. 

Did you start CrossFit when you began your public safety career? 

I started later actually, I was 30 years old. A buddy of mine opened his own gym with his wife. I kind of wanted to do it but at the same time, my kids were young. I have triplets. I have two girls and a boy that are 10 but at that time they were super young. There was just no way. So, I would run with them in a stroller. I had to work out at home.

Once they got a little older and started school, I was able to transition into CrossFit and by day one I fell in love with it. I'm so competitive, I love the competition side of it. That's what you do - our SWAT guys are always in competitions. We're always going "who can get in the door faster," "who can shoot better." It's always competition so it breeds competitiveness. 

How long is a workout session per day? How often do you go? 

I go about five days a week. A standard class is about an hour where you have some type of strength and a cardio session with maybe a little bit of gymnastics. You're in and out in an hour.

Just because I'm competing now on a competitive level, I'll do about an hour and a half. If I'm getting ready for the games, I'll ramp it up to about two sessions a day. But my typical day is about an hour to an hour and a half at the most. 

Do you have a favorite exercise?

There are certain movements that I like. Any type of thruster movement where you do a front squat into a press. I enjoy running a lot, so any time of running movement and pull up. There are specific workouts they call "FRAN" which is thrusters and pull-ups. It's one of the main workouts that are really hard. Where you're going do to 21 reps, then you're going to do 15 reps, and then you're going to do 9 reps. All of thrusters and pull-ups until you complete it. 

How do CrossFit exercises translate to your job as a firefighter and as a SWAT medic? 

It's the closest you can get to a real call. When you get that call that comes in, your heart rate internally spikes. If you're chasing a suspect or a run into a fire - your heart rate instantly spikes and you're working hard for about 10 to 15 minutes or it could be two to three minutes chasing a suspect. And then you have to control your breathing and relax. You could then have to do it again because now the suspect's "here" or the fire got too big.

You recreate what you do in a live scenario. In CrossFit, you do a lot of interval training where you have to do a movement for five minutes (burpees and kettle swings) and then you're going to rest for three minutes. And now you're going to do air squats and pull-ups for five minutes. Then you're going to rest for three minutes. Basically, you're training your body to do interval work and have your heart rate spike real high and then relax - spike then relax, spike then relax - so you can kind of recreate when that alarm goes off your body is used to it. 

JK - So, you're kind of desensitizing your body to that adrenaline dump when it happens afterward.

Absolutely. 

When I'm at the station with the guys, we'll put on our fire gear - with the SWAT guys we'll put our vests on. If that's how we're going to do our jobs, that's how we need to train. We need to have our bodies used to wearing that equipment - how high our arms are going to lift, how are we going to be able to do a push-up, how are we going to be able to get over a wall. We need to get used to that and train our bodies to get used to that. So, when it comes to an actual callout, it's easy, it's second nature. 

Yeah, it's starting to become a lot bigger. A lot of our guys do it now and I'll send them the Workout of the Day (WOD) in the morning and they'll try to do it sometime in the afternoon. So, we're all on the same page. So, now it becomes a competition where the guy is going to be held accountable. It's all camaraderie - that brother and sisterhood that drives you to get better because he's relying on you for accountability. It's a brother/sisterhood that you don't want to let them down. 

The cool thing about CrossFit is now they in partnership with 5.11, they have this whole public safety category. So, now you can register for the Open every year and you do your five workouts - they release one each week. And you can see where you stack up against law enforcement. You can see where you stack up against military. You can see where you stack up against firefighters. These are all the guys that are registered around the world. You could be the tenth fittest firefighter or the tenth fittest police officer in the world. It kind of gives you that "I want to be top five next year" and it pushes you to be better. 

They've created this category that basically allows you to measure yourself against other law enforcement officers around the world. There were, I think, 410,000 participants last year. You can check the box if you're fulltime military or law enforcement and then you're in that category. After week one, you can see where you size up against other [participants] and see if you're the fittest in that workout in the world as far as law enforcement.

It's the only thing like it in the whole world right now that allows you to see where you're at fitness-wise compared to other law enforcement officers. 

What would you suggest to officers if they aren’t interested in CrossFit or don’t have access to a CrossFit gym in their area? 

The great thing about CrossFit is that they program a lot of stuff in your garage. You don't have to have to have a gym - you can still compete in the CrossFit Open in your garage. All you have to do is video your workouts, submit them, and you get judged by an online judge. You can compete just like everybody else even if you don't belong to a gym. 

If you go on CrossFit.com, they actually have movement standards and videos you can follow the guidelines as far as the proper movement, the proper technique, the do's and don'ts of each movement. Then you can understand and basically learn from an online coach. 

You have said, “Once you take that oath, you lose the right to be out of shape.” What does that mean to you? 

It means that you're taking an oath to be a law enforcement or police officer or a public servant. The community is counting on you to be able to be able to perform your job to the best of your ability. Once you take that oath, your job is a physical job - you have to be able to perform it and function. We don't have that right anymore. The community and the tax-payers are paying us to be the best that we can be, we don't have that right anymore to be out of shape. 

You don't have to be at the competition level, but you have to be able to perform your job and function at a high level because that is what we are being paid by the tax-payers to do and that's what they are expecting.

We are held to a higher standard now once you take that oath. 

Any advice to officers out there regarding health, fitness, and workouts?

You'll start to lose a little bit of weight here and there but you won't see actual physical results and start feeling those results until about 21 days - so stick with it.

You can find a partner to do it with, somebody that will hold you accountable. And just start. It doesn't matter even if you're walking with like a vest on. You're starting somewhere and you're getting better. 

The good thing about CrossFit is their slogan is "Constant, Varied, Functional Movement." That's what I love about 5.11 and their tactical vest that they've done. They've created a tool that you can use and perform not only in the gym but you actually wear it in the field. Now, I get to wear a vest that I can train in, I can add weight to, I can functional fitness tests - lift your arms, you can lift weights, you can do dumbbell presses. Any type of functional movement, you can do in this vest, so there are no excuses.

You can find Officer Ryan Starling on Instagram, where he posts his WOD, at tri_starling5.