Albert Police is no stranger to health and fitness. The Waimea resident is a chiropractor by trade and his primary job — by definition — involves using hands on spinal manipulation and other alternative treatments to allow the body to heal itself without surgery or medication, which gives people a chance to live a more full and healthy life.
Albert Police is no stranger to health and fitness. The Waimea resident is a chiropractor by trade and his primary job — by definition — involves using hands on spinal manipulation and other alternative treatments to allow the body to heal itself without surgery or medication, which gives people a chance to live a more full and healthy life.
However, Police doesn’t just work to get other people healthy, he lives the lifestyle himself, and that work is taking him to places and a level of athletic success that surprises even him when he qualified for the CrossFit Games July 21-26 in Carson, California.
In 2012, a friend introduced Police to CrossFit, a healthy lifestyle workout that focuses on functional movements that are constantly varied at high intensity. The aim of CrossFit is to build core strength while also focusing on conditioning.
Police built a makeshift gym in his garage and for a year trained on his own. After that first year, someone from CrossFit All-Star in Waimea reached out to Police and recommended that he come train at the club.
It was there that Police ran into Cheryl Brost, a well known name in the CrossFit community. Brost competed in the top division of the CrossFit Games on three separate occasions, placing seventh, 13th and 15th.
Police began training with Brost in January at CrossFit All-Star and at CrossFit Kona. That hard work paid off for the 44-year-old chiropractor when he qualified to compete in The Games himself in the Masters (men 40-45) division.
“I was very surprised when I found out,” Police said. “This was the hardest thing I have ever done as far as athletic endeavors.”
It was not an easy road to qualify for the CrossFit Games. First, Police had to compete against 7,500 other athletes in his age division in the CrossFit Open. Police filmed himself doing five events and then submit the tape. The top 200 athletes qualified for the CrossFit Regionals in May and Police managed 31st.
In the regionals, Police again filmed himself doing four more advanced events in front of a certified trainer. The top 20 moved on to the games and Police managed to improve his standing to 13th overall.
Police will be joined in California by his family. He will also be joined by Brost, who qualified for the second time in the 40-45 division after she tore her Achilles tendon in a 2013 regional qualifier. She managed to complete a comeback in last year’s CrossFit Games, finishing second in the age division.
“The intensity she trains at is much higher,” Police said. “She helped me with more advanced skills and my technique.”
The master’s division will overlap with the open competition and Police is excited to stay and see what the top athletes can do once he is done competing.
“I will get to see the last couple of days and see what the big dogs can do,” Police said.
Police is a life-long athlete. He played several sports in high school, including basketball, soccer, wrestling, football, volleyball and track. In college, he played rugby on a scholarship at Life University. After college, Police paddled canoes for a few years, and then trained on his own before finding CrossFit.