Originally Posted by
tanksoldier
First, if you meant to type "tear" as in you have an injury, get that fixed or find a work around.
I know what you mean by old age... I attended the police academy at 43, and I'm now 50. I can't do things the same way I used to, and some I can do but have to take the next day off.
I have an elbow injury right now. I want to go play at the Tactical Games, but it's pointless to train hard right now... I'll just make things worse. I have to get it fixed, if it can be, and then drive on from there.
If you're talking about a police academy, remember what they call the guy who graduates last in his class at medical school: Doctor. Once you graduate nobody will care whether you have the record for PT or barely passed... or the highest academic score or whatever. All anyone cares about is the diploma. You need to be fit to do the job, but there's no point in overdoing it. Do what you can, see the doc for any lingering issues, see the coach for ways to work around long term problems you may have.
For example, I know a guy who has shoulder problems. He can't do normal pushups very often, his shoulder can't take the full body weight routinely, without causing problems.
He does knee pushups and some other stuff and only does strict pushups when he has to... in his case every six months or so for his military PT test.
Solve the problems that can be solved, work around the ones that can't, don't give up. If you have to, find a different academy that does things differently... some are less paramilitary, others use drill instructors trained by a travelling USMC team. My academy was college-like: khakis and polo shirts more of the time.