The truck driver lifestyle doesn’t inherently lend itself to health and fitness. Over-the-road (OTR) drivers spend long hours on the road. Tight deadlines make it hard to take a break to eat healthy and get adequate sleep, let alone get out of the truck and exercise.
However, exercise is essential for everyone looking to live a healthy life. Regular exercise promotes physical and mental health while allowing you to maintain a healthy weight (and feel good!).
Why Should You Exercise As A Truck Driver?
Exercise is especially important for truck drivers. Hours on the road and convenient food options can lead many to struggle with obesity and other health problems.
A CDC study showed that 7 in 10 U.S. truck drivers are obese—that’s twice as many as other U.S. adult workers. Not only is obesity bad for your health, but it can also be bad for business. Obesity increases the chance of diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer, which can all disqualify you from being eligible to drive.
You can combat these health concerns. Explore our quick guide to truck driver exercises.
Exercises You Can Do Sitting
You spend most of your time in the driver’s seat. You may feel like there’s not much you can do for your health while you’re sitting. However, there are exercises for truck drivers that you can do sitting down. These exercises help build your strength and endurance. Try some on your next break!
Shrug Holds
Tighten and lift the shoulders, hold for five seconds, then relax the shoulders down. Repeat until your shoulders begin to feel less tense. This can help strengthen the areas worked, reduce stress and alleviate neck pain.
Hand & Wrist Stretches
Repetitive motions, like moving the steering wheel and holding onto it for long periods of time, can have dire impacts on your hands and wrists. Stretching your hands and wrists helps you avoid problems like grip strength loss, carpal tunnel and early onset arthritis.
Tightening Glutes
Squeeze your glute muscles, hold and release. Repeat this a few times whenever it comes to mind. This exercise is great for general stress relief and building your glute muscles.
Pelvic Tilt
The pelvic tilt exercise improves posture and activates the rectus and external oblique muscles. Exhale, then use your lower abdominal muscles to press your lower back into the seat.
Breathing Exercises
Reduce stress by taking deep breaths. Square breathing is one of the simplest techniques to follow. Inhale for four counts, hold your breath for four counts, exhale for four counts, and exhale for four counts. Repeat until you’re feeling more calm. Core breathing can also help stabilize your abdominal muscles and improve your posture over time.
Exercises Outside of the Truck
Some exercises can be done in the back of your truck, depending on the type you’re driving, or right outside the truck. Whenever you’re able to take a break from driving, add some of these exercises to your routine.
Pushups
Pushups are one of the fastest ways to build strength in the back, chest, arms, upper body and core without equipment. (Perfect for drivers!) Doing 20 pushups every morning is a great place to start. Increase your repetitions as the exercise becomes easier.
Pull-ups
Pull-ups train the upper body, including the biceps, triceps and trapezius muscles. Many trucks have space where you can install a pull-up bar inside the cab. Carefully grip the bar, and pull up. If your arms aren’t aligned correctly, you’ll notice pretty quickly and be able to adjust.
Planks
The plank pose is similar to pushups, except that you hold the upper pose. This workout helps improve balance while strengthening the glutes and hamstrings.
Crunches
These exercises are simple to do, and to increase the intensity, you simply increase the number you’re doing. Lay back with your feet flat on the ground, put your hands behind your head, and sit up slowly with your abdomen engaged.
Squats
To do a proper squat, bring your hips straight down from a standing position, and slowly stand back up. These work the thighs, glutes and calves. Be mindful not to let your knees go past your feet, as improper form can cause undue strain on your joints.
Tricep Dips
You can do this workout if you can hold onto a solid object behind you, like a seat or a step on the side of your truck. Grip the object behind you, facing away from it, and carefully bend your arms to about 90 degrees, straightening them to finish one rep of the exercise.
Truck Driver Exercise Equipment
Many truck driver workouts can be done without equipment, but investing in easy-to-store exercise equipment, like exercise mats and resistance bands, allows you to do even more.
Below are some essential pieces of exercise equipment that are great for truck drivers to invest in:
- Exercise or yoga mat. Without this piece of equipment, you may end up exercising on hard surfaces, like the ground or the bottom of your truck. This can irritate your joints and muscles.
- Kettlebells. Even though you can do plenty of workouts using your body weight, adding kettlebells is a great way to help you build strength and bring variety to your routine.
- Resistance bands. Working out with resistance bands can be as easy as stretching them all the way out and bringing your arms back together. Adding one of these to your exercise arsenal allows you to stretch more and increase the number of exercises you can do.
Truck Stops & Terminals
During longer breaks, you have more options, like walking or running.
Walking as little as 15 minutes a day can improve your physical and mental health, strengthening your body and giving you a chance to clear your mind. Walking or running can also help you lose weight, improve your sleep and boost your energy levels.
Dedicating a few minutes to your health while stretching your legs between drives can have significant benefits.
Some truck stops and company terminals, like Prime’s facilities, are equipped with training centers, full-sized basketball courts and more to help you stay healthy and fit. Even if your stops don’t have gyms, you can find trucker-friendly gyms around the country.
Join Prime’s Driver Health & Fitness Program
Prime, Inc. has been one of the best places for truck drivers to work since its founding in 1970. Why? Because we care about our drivers and their well-being.
Our Driver Health & Fitness Program helps you focus on your health and stay motivated.
Prime drivers can start by signing up for a goal-setting discovery call with a health liaison. Our truck driver fitness program offers personal training, nutritional counseling and group fitness classes. Plus, you can access downloadable truck driver workout videos. You can follow along as trainers lead you through video workouts wherever you are.
Along with programs for physical fitness and health, Prime offers mental health programs to help drivers cope with lifestyle changes and time away from home.
Ready to Start Your Truck Driving Career?
Even if you spend long hours on the road, you can work toward improving your fitness and living a healthier lifestyle. Becoming an over-the-road driver allows you to break free of the 8 to 5 job cycle and explore this country’s amazing sights.
Find new opportunities at Prime. We offer industry-leading pay and 24/7/365 support for our drivers. For those new to the industry, the Prime Training Program helps you learn to operate a tractor-trailer and earn your Class A CDL.
Once you complete the training program, you can choose to be a company driver, pair up for team driving or become an independent contractor. It’s all up to you!
Start your professional truck driving journey.
Apply online today or call our Recruiting Department at 866-290-1568 to speak with our team.
