Sheriff celebrates 69 years with departmental crossfit workout
October 9, 2022
Predawn PT with the sheriff is an annual event
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott kicked-off his 69th birthday the same way he celebrates October 3 every year – with a challenging predawn workout at the Richland County Sheriff’s Department’s (RCSD) Crossfit Gym in Forest Acres: Not solely, but with many of his off-duty deputies.
The Sheriff (pictured front-row, kneeling and wearing an RCSD cap) says his “workout of the day” (WOD) requirements are simple.
“We always want our workouts to be both challenging and fun,” says Lott. “That’s why the individual exercises during my annual birthday workout may be modified depending upon one’s level of fitness.”
The exercises include air-squats, pullups, pushups, exercising with the kettle bell, burpees (a tough mix of dropping to the pushup position, completing a quick pushup, leaping to one’s feet with arms extended above the heard, then repeating the process), and crunches.
Because it was Lott’s 69th birthday, the set standard was 69 repetitions of each exercise.
A lifelong athlete and physical-conditioning expert, Lott has long instituted a demanding but doable fitness regimen for all deputies, everyone from the basic patrol deputy (expected to regularly pass the RCSD physical fitness test) to the high-speed workouts of the department’s Special Response Team operators.
Aside from regular PT tests, RCSD hosts department-wide and community physical fitness events throughout the year.
Will the WOD bar be set at 70 reps for his birthday next year? Lott says, “yes.”
