How many hours did you spend sitting on your bottom yesterday? Truck driving is a sedentary career and many drivers find themselves sitting a little, or a lot, too much. Aside from securing loads and walking across the truck stop many truckers spend the entire day sitting down. And when you’re in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from home, you may not have easy access to the gym, team sports, or other physical activities.
This can have disastrous consequences, not just for your waistline, but for your health in general. A 2014 study found that long haul truckers were twice as likely as the rest of the population to be obese (69% of drivers are considered obese, 17% morbidly obese). Break the cycle and take control of your health. You can exercise and stay fit on the road.
Why Should I Exercise?
Do you really need to exercise? The answer is a great big yes! According to the CDC, exercise has the following benefits:
- Controls weight
- Reduces the risk of heart disease
- Reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes
- Reduces the risk of some types of cancer
- Strengthens bone and muscle
- Improves mental health
- Improves your ability to perform daily activities
- Increases your chances of living longer I Haven’t Exercised in Years. How Do I Start? If you have health conditions that may affect your ability to exercise, talk with your doctor about what you can and can’t do before getting started. There’s nothing wrong with starting small and working up to a more strenuous activity level as you can. You may feel that you’re too busy to exercise, but the truth is, it doesn’t take much time to really see the benefits. The CDC recommends 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise each week, just a bit more than 20 minutes a day. You should also strength train your muscles two times each week. You can fit this in, even on your high mileage weeks. Ways to Incorporate More Exercise into Your Life on the Road
- Make the commitment today to improve your health and exercise a little more. You might drive a truck, but that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to a lifetime of poor health. Make a change today!
- If you’re short on time, work up to a more intense exercise regimen and you’ll only need 75 minutes of exercise a week, plus strength training two times. You can achieve better health in just 10-20 minutes a day.
- How Much Exercise Do I Need?
- If you’re like many truckers, it has been years since you regularly participated in physical activity. Start slow. The CDC explains, “Cardiac events, such as a heart attack, are rare during physical activity. But the risk does go up when you suddenly become much more active than usual. For example, you can put yourself at risk if you don’t usually get much physical activity and then all of a sudden do vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, like shoveling snow. That’s why it’s important to start slowly and gradually increase your level of activity.”
- It is never too late to start exercising and to improve your health.
- Break it Up– You won’t always have an hour to exercise, but you can find 10 minutes, even on a busy day. Try exercising for 10 minutes, or more, each morning before you start rolling and another 10 minutes each night when you finish off for the day. Alternately, you could take a 10 minute exercise break each time you stop for fuel or a bathroom break.
- Stock Some Equipment– Going to the gym isn’t generally feasible when you’re on the road, but that doesn’t mean you can’t bring your own gym along. You can easily fit some resistance bands, a kettle ball or weights, and a jump rope in your truck, everything you need to exercise on your own.
- Make Yourself Accountable– If you want to be successful with your exercise program, make yourself accountable. Ask a friend, fellow driver, dispatcher, or family member to check in on you often. Report your successes and failures. Accountability can help you to exercise, even on those days you don’t feel up to it. Exercising on the road can be tricky, but you can do it. These resources may help you to succeed.
- Resources to Help You Succeed
- Fitness Blender– Stream workout videos right to your phone, laptop, or tablet with Fitness Blender. Many of their workout videos are completely free and require minimal to no equipment. Daily Burn is another option, but does require a small monthly membership fee.
- Fitness Apps– Fitness apps can make accountability easier as you track and monitor your progress. PC World put together an excellent list of the top fitness apps of 2019.
- Have you gotten your exercise in today?