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PSNI Recruitment 1710 Campaign

gawa84

Thread for everyone who has applied this year. Hopefully this can be a useful source of information and we will all see each other on the other side as PC's. Best of luck to all!

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dani12345

NiK9 wrote: »

dani12345 wrote: »

Hey guys! I've been following this thread for ages but signed up to get everyone's thoughts on something.I got the email the other day saying I was being put through faster because I did well at the AC (side note I thought I did AWFUL. I came out and cried solid so don't worry if you haven't got an email you've defs done better than you think). I'm really happy obviously but also really concerned the PCA is going to be sooner than I thought. I'm currently not at the level I need to be to pass the PCA in my opinion (my PT thinks I'm not too far off but I'm not sure) - I started personal training in January and have been doing 3/4 sessions religiously per week since, so my fitness has improved a lot. My PT is tailoring my workouts to the PCA which is really good. Since I got my email, I have upped my sessions to min. 5 per week and will continue to do so but I'm 99% I still won't be fit enough to pass.Secondly, even if I'm lucky enough to pass I have a real fear of failing my medical because of my weight. My BMI is about 39 (awful I know) and I'm working on it as hard as I can. I'm petrified of getting through all the stages and then getting failed because of my weight. I'm very tall, and carry my weight reasonably well but obviously this means nothing when it comes down to the medical. Do you think this will be a really big issue? I'm partly thinking if I'm fit enough to pass the PCA then surely I have proved I'm in a relatively good state of health? I am fitter than most people would think by just looking at me. So basically what I'm asking is what is everyone's thoughts on this? I nearly make myself sick with worrying about it and I would really appreciate opinions please!Good luck to everyone

Hey Dani welcome to the group. BMI is a terrible thing to go by anyway. We have talked about it in the medical thread.
During the medical you are played into 1 of 4 areas.
3 are fit for service which different aspects,
1 is unfit for service.
So basically if they see you habe bad knees, you may not be suitable to have police healthcare if your knees go in the future. It's so you can't claim it's worked related.
The 4 groups are all in the student guidance document under medical.
Don't stress too much because as you said passing the PCA means you're reasonably fit to do the job.

Thanks so much! Feel a wee bit better already lol though that's what put the notion of BMI in my head, there was something in the guidance that mentioned you can fail your medical if you're overweight. Fingers crossed it all works out!

dani12345

Banterbus28 wrote: »

Without sounding weird, if you have kids and you go to the park. Yanno those climb wall things with the little footholds...

Thought you meant I should just get over it and stop being a baby hahahah good idea! No kids but there's quite a few high gates around my home so I'll practice on those!

Rossco22

I believe if your BMI is 30 or over then they take a reading for body fat percentage and can then fail you if it is more than 5% over predicted maximum. So if it's over 30 they will look more closely to determine wether you are fit for duty or not.

Banterbus28

If you wanna convert anything in your belly region to muscle. Sit ups, crunches and plank. That is all you really need to do. Be cwreful what you are paying a PT though. Some are there to milk you for cash especially if they are self enployed and so will tell you what you want to hear as theh can convert that trust into cash.

All you need to pass PCA is good cardio, a strongiah core and enough upper body wtrngth to pull yourself over a wall and a drag some weight.

Banterbus28

You dont need to be super human you just need to get through the PCA.

However once you get to that level keep pushing it. A high level fitness will help with dealing with the shift work.

NiK9

Banterbus28 wrote: »

If you wanna convert anything in your belly region to muscle. Sit ups, crunches and plank.

Lol thats not true at all, that's like saying I'm going to turn wallpaper into a car. You can't change something into something else.(as you train fat lowers and muscle grows,it doesn't turn into the other). And you can't lose fat from a certain area by doing certain exercises. It comes off all over and deoending where depends on the individuals hormones rather than food.
If you have a stressful job you're more likely to have love handles due to cortisol(stress hormone) in your blood.
If males don't eat right they get "moobs" due to high estrogen in the blood. Etc etc

dani12345

I'm doing about 30-40 crunches a day, don't find them too bad but I might add in a few more. Totally agree with the PT cash thing, though I go to a council gym that offers PT sessions in your membership price so im ok!

Really panicking about this, suppose im doing all i can at the minute and i can only hope it all works out!

Banterbus28

Mix up that tummy work out. Dont want it to get boring

I started to develop a dad bod since starting working at a desk. 4 weeks ago i decided i need to up my game. I do 80-100 sit ups a night. Belly gone. Never had the moobs problem though.

OllieA3

@NiK9 I’ve been reading the email and the updated news on the psni recruitment page and I’m starting to think the PCA might be sooner rather than later. What do you all think?

NiK9

OllieA3 wrote: »

@NiK9 I’ve been reading the email and the updated news on the psni recruitment page and I’m starting to think the PCA might be sooner rather than later. What do you all think?

Honestly.... I've no idea. I've said to a few different people who have pm me that I'd love it asap, but at same time im sure they would have to give people enough notice to make sure they are able to get it off work.
But rossco was contacted about their vetting 2 weeks ago, so our vetting could all be well under way and they are just organising the PCA dates to make sure there is enough of us for the familiarisation. Who knows lol.

Njim91

*Lurker Alert*

Good evening/early morning folks. I also applied for this campaign back in October and like you all very, very eager to make it to GV soon. I've only discovered this thread this eve while studying and going over the competencies. Completed the IST on the first go (before the system issues) and was progressed to AC but that is in the next few weeks for me. Im applying from ROI. Could this be a factor in why my assessment centre date is later, seemingly than others?
I appreciate that this may have been covered in previous posts but 139 pages and counting is a lot to sift through at 2am ðŸ˜‚

Rossco22

Njim91 wrote: »

*Lurker Alert*

Good evening/early morning folks. I also applied for this campaign back in October and like you all very, very eager to make it to GV soon. I've only discovered this thread this eve while studying and going over the competencies. Completed the IST on the first go (before the system issues) and was progressed to AC but that is in the next few weeks for me. Im applying from ROI. Could this be a factor in why my assessment centre date is later, seemingly than others?
I appreciate that this may have been covered in previous posts but 139 pages and counting is a lot to sift through at 2am ðŸ˜‚

Welcome! Good to have you on board. It could well be, although I noticed from talking to a few fellas on the day of my assessment centre that we all had the same score from IST, so if i had to guess I'd say it's based on score, but who knows!

NiK9

Njim91 wrote: »

*Lurker Alert*

Good evening/early morning folks. I also applied for this campaign back in October and like you all very, very eager to make it to GV soon. I've only discovered this thread this eve while studying and going over the competencies. Completed the IST on the first go (before the system issues) and was progressed to AC but that is in the next few weeks for me. Im applying from ROI. Could this be a factor in why my assessment centre date is later, seemingly than others?
I appreciate that this may have been covered in previous posts but 139 pages and counting is a lot to sift through at 2am ðŸ˜‚

Honestly no one really knows how they gave AC dates. Some people at each AC had similar scores, but it could also have been to do with you're UID(how quickly you applied after opening)
Good luck with you're accessment, just stay calm and watch the clock.

Any questions ask away, we will answer if we are able to/allowed to. All here to help

Banterbus28

OllieA3 wrote: »

@NiK9 I’ve been reading the email and the updated news on the psni recruitment page and I’m starting to think the PCA might be sooner rather than later. What do you all think?

Online learning could start. They will want concurrent activity

jwhdkl5736

dani12345 wrote: »

Hey guys! I've been following this thread for ages but signed up to get everyone's thoughts on something.I got the email the other day saying I was being put through faster because I did well at the AC (side note I thought I did AWFUL. I came out and cried solid so don't worry if you haven't got an email you've defs done better than you think). I'm really happy obviously but also really concerned the PCA is going to be sooner than I thought. I'm currently not at the level I need to be to pass the PCA in my opinion (my PT thinks I'm not too far off but I'm not sure) - I started personal training in January and have been doing 3/4 sessions religiously per week since, so my fitness has improved a lot. My PT is tailoring my workouts to the PCA which is really good. Since I got my email, I have upped my sessions to min. 5 per week and will continue to do so but I'm 99% I still won't be fit enough to pass.Secondly, even if I'm lucky enough to pass I have a real fear of failing my medical because of my weight. My BMI is about 39 (awful I know) and I'm working on it as hard as I can. I'm petrified of getting through all the stages and then getting failed because of my weight. I'm very tall, and carry my weight reasonably well but obviously this means nothing when it comes down to the medical. Do you think this will be a really big issue? I'm partly thinking if I'm fit enough to pass the PCA then surely I have proved I'm in a relatively good state of health? I am fitter than most people would think by just looking at me. So basically what I'm asking is what is everyone's thoughts on this? I nearly make myself sick with worrying about it and I would really appreciate opinions please!Good luck to everyone

Hey, I want to offer some unconventional advice. There are plenty of people that aren't athletic that do manage to pull off the PCA by the skin of their teeth because they've developed a high amount of stamina. However, that is usually the exception rather than the rule. Assuming that your BMI is a result of high body fat bass rather than muscle, simply losing the weight will do more to improve your VO2 Max in such a short space of time vs cardio training. If you can do both, brilliant. However, my own personal reckoning says that it would be hard to do intense cardio and have the big calorie deficit you will need in time for the PCA.

A cynical person might say that your PT is telling you whatever you want to hear so you keep paying fees, so consider this. Do exactly everything he thinks you need to up until the time of the PCA. If you fail the PCA, you will get one resit 12 weeks after. During that time, I strongly recommend you adopt a Very Low Calorie Diet (google VLCD 600 cals) this will push your body into a state of ketosis after four days, basically turning off your hunger. It will also, helpfully, create a massive calorie deficit allowing you to drop 60-70 lbs over the 12 weeks
on the lead up to your next PCA. When your BMI is +35 weight loss is sometimes more vital than slowly building up cardiovascular capacity. For every extra stone you carry, it is the weight of a bowling ball around your neck. Picture that, you're running with 5+ bowling balls while someone else is bouncing over that wall like a gazelle. It's crazy. I want to build you up, I hope you can do this, god knows you deserve it but in my personal opinion (and that's all this is, I'm not a dietician) if you went on a hard core, VLCD like the Cambridge Plan, you can literally change (crash?) your body composition in a matter of weeks. If you want to do it yourself, you can google another plan 'Lyle McDonald's PSMF' - that will also do the trick. Someone in a similar situation to you, documented every day of his transformation on youtube and you can too.

After that's done, your performance will rocket because you will be training in what will feel like zero gravity conditions. If you decide to go down this route, you need to adopt a regime ASAP. Diets like this have a lot of critics but this is the closest thing to overnight results/surgery anyone can do.

Something to think about. We can talk via PM if you want about this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH5F4ZMhhTw

jwhdkl5736

Rossco22 wrote: »

What was found in those? I was under the impression the only things tested for are cannabis, cocaine and opiates?

Just with regards to the PSNI specifically they will be testing for the following:

(k) Substances that will be tested for are those listed in the Misuse of Drugs Act and include:
(aa) Amphetamines (including ecstasy);
(bb) Benzodiazepines;
(cc) Cannabis;
(dd) Cocaine;
(ee) Opiates;
(ff) Ketamine;

They do ask you to list any tablets/medicines/prescription drugs you have taken in case one of them creates a false positive. I've heard Sudafed pseudoephedrine can give an initial false positive reading for amphetamines.

Banterbus28

Remember though that if you go on any diet do include some good sugar. Glucose is the only thing that brain cells can metabolise. By good sugar i mean glucose from fruit.

Ketones can substitute this glucose dependence but cannot full replace thwm so if you are going to do the above include a good portion of fruit every other day. To give your brain that glucose hit.

NiK9

What types of fitness training are people doing? I was doing classes for a while because I'm competitive, so having others to try and beat made me work harder.

On my days off I do weights (bigger muscles burn more calories so alot of squats, deadlift and barbell shoulder press.)
On my workdays I train at home with a circuit.
I have a punchbag, kettelbell, TRX, battle rope, tractor tyre and sledge hammer. Lol.
I usually do 5x exercises for 1min each max effort with 10seconds between each exercise to get ready for the next.
After all 5 I get 80 seconds rest. I do 3-5 rounds...depending on what shifts im working depends how tired I feel.

jwhdkl5736

Banterbus28 wrote: »

Remember though that if you go on any diet do include some good sugar. Glucose is the only thing that brain cells can metabolise. By good sugar i mean glucose from fruit.

Ketones can substitute this glucose dependence but cannot full replace thwm so if you are going to do the above include a good portion of fruit every other day. To give your brain that glucose hit.

That's not entirely true. Ketones can fully replace sugar as fuel for the brain. Some people live their lives following keto/paleo diets. Our ancestors spent most of their lives in ketosis. Carbohydrates are really only introduced into the diet relatively recently. Even cavemen struggled to find fruit/berries etc. From 2012-3 I done keto for almost a year (not a VLCD), sub 5g of carbs a day, more or less 0 sugar and was fine. The biggest drawback is the fact that it's anti-social but it's been demonstrated to reverse type 2 diabetes. Sugar/glucose is the last thing you 'need'. If your body wants to synthesise glucose it can do so from excess protein. You don't need to ingest sugar yourself.

If you're following a VLCD protocol, fruit is the last thing you want to introduce when following this specific protocol over 12 weeks. It will knock you out of ketosis, spike insulin and stop fat burning. He/she doesn't really have time to lose but that will be explained by a VLCD consultant. They're nearly always done under supervision. If you do choose to go down the VLCD route, I recommend seeing a Cambridge consultant.

**Let me just further clarify, the diet I'm suggesting is 100% product based. It's nutritionally complete. It contains all the calories, carbs, protein and dietary fats you need. What I'm suggesting is an actual break from food completely in this total food replacement program. No fruit, no nothing is required. Just 2 litres of water and 12 weeks.

Banterbus28

Maxi515 wrote: »

Banterbus28 wrote: »

Remember though that if you go on any diet do include some good sugar. Glucose is the only thing that brain cells can metabolise. By good sugar i mean glucose from fruit.

Ketones can substitute this glucose dependence but cannot full replace thwm so if you are going to do the above include a good portion of fruit every other day. To give your brain that glucose hit.

That's not entirely true. Ketones can fully replace sugar as fuel for the brain. Some people live their lives following keto/paleo diets. Our ancestors spent most of their lives in ketosis. Carbohydrates are really only introduced into the diet relatively recently. Even cavemen struggled to find fruit/berries etc. From 2012-3 I done keto for almost a year (not a VLCD), sub 5g of carbs a day, more or less 0 sugar and was fine. The biggest drawback is the fact that it's anti-social but it's been demonstrated to reverse type 2 diabetes. Sugar/glucose is the last thing you 'need'. If your body wants to synthesise glucose it can do so from excess protein. You don't need to ingest sugar yourself.

If you're following a VLCD protocol, fruit is the last thing you want to introduce when following this specific protocol over 12 weeks. It will knock you out of ketosis, spike insulin and stop fat burning. He/she doesn't really have time to lose but that will be explained by a VLCD consultant. They're nearly always done under supervision. If you do choose to go down the VLCD route, I recommend seeing a Cambridge consultant.

**Let me just further clarify, the diet I'm suggesting is 100% product based. It's nutritionally complete. It contains all the calories, carbs, protein and dietary fats you need. What I'm suggesting is an actual break from food completely in this total food replacement program. No fruit, no nothing is required. Just 2 litres of water and 12 weeks.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3900881/

I'll go by my mate who is a dietician. My sister was on a ketone diet for epilepsy and still required glucose every 2-3 days.

I'll go by what the neurosurgeon says maxi.

It can be supplemented obviously but supplemnenting is no par for glucose for brain cells.

Banterbus28

I wouldn't advise a mental diet.

If you have a system that works now. Do it, not broke don't fix it. I'd do what maxi suggests only of you fail PCA which i doubt you will of you train right.

Banterbus28

NiK9 wrote: »

What types of fitness training are people doing? I was doing classes for a while because I'm competitive, so having others to try and beat made me work harder.

On my days off I do weights (bigger muscles burn more calories so alot of squats, deadlift and barbell shoulder press.)
On my workdays I train at home with a circuit.
I have a punchbag, kettelbell, TRX, battle rope, tractor tyre and sledge hammer. Lol.
I usually do 5x exercises for 1min each max effort with 10seconds between each exercise to get ready for the next.
After all 5 I get 80 seconds rest. I do 3-5 rounds...depending on what shifts im working depends how tired I feel.

Love this kind of circuit training. It's even better with a mate.

But then you still have to do ****ty cardio days

Slo85

Banterbus28 wrote: »

NiK9 wrote: »

What types of fitness training are people doing? I was doing classes for a while because I'm competitive, so having others to try and beat made me work harder.

On my days off I do weights (bigger muscles burn more calories so alot of squats, deadlift and barbell shoulder press.)
On my workdays I train at home with a circuit.
I have a punchbag, kettelbell, TRX, battle rope, tractor tyre and sledge hammer. Lol.
I usually do 5x exercises for 1min each max effort with 10seconds between each exercise to get ready for the next.
After all 5 I get 80 seconds rest. I do 3-5 rounds...depending on what shifts im working depends how tired I feel.

Love this kind of circuit training. It's even better with a mate.

But then you still have to do ****ty cardio days

Training for me is 3 sessions with my PT focusing on heavy weights.
I’ve started the insanity training too at home. Great for cardio which I hate. Then 4 mins at my fastest pace on the treadmill when I’m done.
Going to look into this climbing wall place in Boucher road for some climbing practise with the kids.

No idea if this is enough or even the right things to be doing.

Banterbus28

Do you have a garden fence?

Banterbus28

Do you have a garden fence?

jwhdkl5736

Banterbus28 wrote: »

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3900881/

I'll go by my mate who is a dietician. My sister was on a ketone diet for epilepsy and still required glucose every 2-3 days.

I'll go by what the neurosurgeon says maxi.

It can be supplemented obviously but supplemnenting is no par for glucose for brain cells.

What do you think Cavemen in the British isle done for tens of thousands of years when the nearest sugar was from cane in Jamaica lol. You don't 'need' it. You won't die from 12 weeks of keto dieting, however, VLCD plan is very different from a keto diet (although you can do a low carb VLCD if you wanted). I made the distinction earlier. A VLCD (such as Cambridge) induces ketosis because of a massive calorific deficit, not because it doesn't lack sugar. It isn't a made diet. It's a viable option for people who have quite a bit of weight loss to go. I'll be brutally honest, you can be fit and struggle at the PCA. Someone who is out of shape really needs to drop weight ASAP.

All these people you know Banterbus, you're like a socialite-freemason-phone directory. I would LOVE to just make one post without being second-guessed/having throwaway comments attached/the thrust of my information derailed by countless moot points/substanceless talking for the sake of it.

Banterbus28

Are you that literal? There are other sources of sugar...

Slo85

Banterbus28 wrote: »

Do you have a garden fence?

Not a fence but pretty high walls that I’ve flipping cut the knees of myself getting over.

Banterbus28

The increase is carbohydrates in human diet is clearly linked to the evolution of human intelligence.

Glucose allows you to concentrate, helps your brain recover when sleeping.

Hardly substanceless when i have had multiple healthcare and bio science experts eho have been researching the human body longer than I have been alive impress upon me the importance of glucose on human brain metabolism.

Banterbus28

Slo85 wrote: »

Banterbus28 wrote: »

Do you have a garden fence?

Not a fence but pretty high walls that I’ve flipping cut the knees of myself getting over.

Keep doing it. Wear jeans to save your knees