PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – He weighs 326 pounds, and wants to work in a local jail. Now he’s getting in shape to meet the challenge.

Aron Porter and 13 others are hitting the LawFit agility course at the Portsmouth Sheriff’s Office Training Center. the aim of the program is to design a better jail house deputy.

The LawFit program is part of a 13-week curriculum attempting to instill better health as a priority for deputies.

The goal is “to be more productive for us as an agency and to be better people, to live healthier lifestyles,” said Capt. Shane Roberts with the Portsmouth Sheriff’s Office.

The program covers both the physical and mental aspects of law enforcement. “We need stress in our life or we wouldn’t exist,” said Mark Ammerman who is an instructor on loan from Virginia’s Department of Criminal Justice Services. “Stress is what makes you get out of bed in the morning. Stress is what challenges yourself,” Ammerman added.

Aron Porter challenges himself everyday. While he can lift weights, it’s the LawFit agility course that’s giving him trouble.

He’s newly employed at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail, and at 326 pounds, he can’t get over the wall.

“Keep continue working,” Porter said of his efforts to defeat the course. “Keeping a positive attitude, team mates, getting enough momentum to go over the wall.”

The agility course includes all aspects of what law enforcement could be required to do: run, climb a wall, crawl on the ground in gun fire, climb stairs, climb through a window, identify suspects, drag a partner out of harms way, then, after all that, shoot a service revolver accurately.

Porter blames his diet for his current weight. Porter Weighed 305, then got in a motorcycle crash. on the couch, he gained another 180 pounds, eventually hitting 486. In 2008, he underwent Gastro-by-pass surgery. Now he says he’s a changed man. “Yesterday I ran a mile and a half in 21 minutes,” said Porter. “Unheard of for me to do before.”

Porter has left 160 pounds along the the side of the long road back. His agility course time the slowest at 2:26, but he’ll retest like all the others in 13 weeks.