How Can Truck Drivers Stay Fit While Driving?

Hey guys, I'm Hunter Nelson. I know staying in the truck and, uh, with as busy as you guys are, it's really tough to go out there and stay super healthy on the road. You guys don't have time to go hit the gym for an hour or two a day. You guys can't meal prep and really do everything you want to unless you're, you know, getting home at night. But if you guys are on the road for a while, I'm just gonna give you guys some basic tips on staying healthy, on just making sure that, uh, you know, you guys are, you guys are looking good out there because it's you guys, um, have a 16-year less lifespan than any other industry or the average person out there. The average trucker loses 61. And so it's pretty serious stuff to stay, uh, in shape and just be healthy and, uh, you know, just how to handle that stress and, and, uh, help with your body. So I'm gonna get into some of the basic supplements, eating, uh, all that stuff, because you guys are sitting down for hours and hours throughout the day and a lot of your options come from the truck stop. So I know it's really tough out there, but I'm gonna try to keep this as basic and, uh, kind of meet in the middle, you know, so you guys can actually implement some of these options if you guys are looking to stay healthy and, uh, you know, hopefully not give that 61-year-old stat a, uh, another person there. That's obviously not, not what we're looking for. You guys are, you're just working hard to keep the country moving. So here's what I've got to just, uh, kind of give you guys an idea on it. All right, so with this, I mean, again, I know it's really tough to stay healthy. You guys are at a disadvantage on everything they give you. A lot of the stuff that I do is in this. I try to stay as healthy as I can right now, track my calories. I get to the gym every day pretty much, and most of my job's sitting. I'll work probably 12-14 hours a day, and insurance, so it's obviously a little bit different, but here's what I do. So I mean, just starting off with like the basics, so I'll get into diets, uh, or just like kind of good foods and like what are foods you guys should avoid. But I know hitting the gym or anything along those lines is actually really tough. You guys are in the truck, obviously. But I have seen a lot of you guys, uh, carry dumbbells, like a, like a bench, anything along those lines, something that can fit in the truck that's, that's gonna take up a whole lot of room and just some stuff that's, that's nice. You guys pull Pullover, or not pullover, but they'll be in the truck stop and hitting something along these lines and, uh, and, uh, rolling on the dumbbells. So push-ups are gonna be hitting the exact same muscle. Now without getting too much into like making this a workout video, lots of stuff's gonna hit your chest here. Overhead shoulder press and your shoulders. Same with dumbbells. You guys can just hit this. If you guys have those adjustable dumbbells, I mean, they're not super expensive. I've got them in my house and, uh, you know, they'll go from 0 to 60 and you can adjust it for your chest press, your shoulder press. You can do overhead tricep extension, or you can do like a tilted tricep extension where you put against something, you got your body at a 90-degree angle, and then you're pushing your, your arm back to hit the tricep. Chest flies, you know, anything, anything along those lines that you guys can hit, it's gonna be a huge piece. Lateral raises, where you guys are taking the dumbbells in your hand, putting them by your side, and you're almost forming a T. So you're gonna, you're gonna Lap, you're gonna raise your arms up, form a T. That's gonna hit your shoulders. You got 2 chest, 2 shoulder, 2 tricep. You know, you guys are really want to shoot for that 8 to 12 or 8 to 15 rep range. When you guys are doing this, when you guys are first starting out, the biggest thing I see people do is try to ego lift. It is going to hurt you guys. You guys are truckers. You do not want to be hurt and trying to do anything on these lines. So start very light, get your form down. And you will put on muscle very quick, and you will put on strength very quick, where you guys will increase your weights really, really fast. But starting off, the biggest thing is do not ego lift. Do not try to lift heavier. If you cannot get a full good rep, you want to, you know, almost overextend the rep. You want to be very, very good, and then just hit to failure till your muscles are burning. And even if you're doing lightweight and doing 15 reps, if you guys want to do 20 reps to be safe, With lighter weight. That stuff's good. That's what you guys want to do. It gets your heart rate up. It gets you guys burning calories. You got a lot of those calories now going to your muscles as well. So it's a big key piece. Even if you're only burning a couple hundred calories, a lot of it is going to be going to your muscles. And so it's nuts. I go work out, I have 500 calories burned, but I eat an extra 1,000 calories that day and almost lose weight. It's just crazy. So bodybuilding— or not bodybuilding, but lifting and working out is, is gonna help a lot. Pull day, I always do push-pull-legs. Now if you guys are going to try to get something like this, I'll get into diet and supplements and all that stuff will help out here quite a bit too here in a couple minutes. But push-pull-legs, very good. You have so many more muscles on your upper body than you do your lower body, and your lower body takes longer to recover. So you don't want to be hitting legs the other day. Don't do legs or do upper and lower. You just will— you'll get yourself too sore. You sit in a truck all day, it's gonna be very tough on muscles. So I would not do anything on those lines. Push-pull-legs is very, very easy, basic, and I've used it, and it's what most guys who take lifting very serious do. One-arm dumbbell rows— this is just put your hand up against something like the bench or the truck, whatever the case is, and you're gonna just be pulling the weight from the ground to your hip, and it's gonna hit your lats, which are the muscles on the side of your back. Rear delt fly— this is a little tougher, but you just You're going to sit down, you're going to put your chest almost to your knees, and then you're going to do lateral raises and try to make that T again. This is going to hit your, your delts or your shoulders in the back there. Bicep curls. I think a lot of people know what a curl is. This is very good. It's going to hit your biceps, it's going to hit a little bit of your forearm, and you know, it's a very basic, easy workout to do. You guys are out there. Bent over dumbbell row, very pretty much similar deal. I had I had Claude create this thing. So, you know, basically just took that, that same piece there. Dumbbell pullover, be a little bit tougher one to do. Hammer curl, you can do overhand curls. So overhand curls, just instead of your palm being faced up, it's being faced down, which would hit a lot more of your forearm. Hammer curls also hit your forearm, a little bit of the side bicep, and just a very good arm workout to do. A lot of this stuff's been very tough with, uh, in back, you know, if you guys are trying to, you know, grow some of those muscles there, whether it's just being healthy or Or just actually trying to put on some muscle. It's gonna be tough, you know, doing it in the truck. But if you guys want to do back, like a, like a band, you guys have a resistant band, throwing up against the truck, throwing up against something, and doing face pulls. If on those lines are actually really good as well, or putting them under your feet and going from there. Now legs also be kind of tough. The big thing with legs that I do want to mention here is, is when you guys are pulling over to eat, grab diesel, whatever the case is there. Just taking a walk after you guys eat is a huge key piece, not only just because you get a little activity in and you get your heart rate up and you get some exercise in there, but also it helps digest your food a lot, a lot, way, way quicker. And so when you guys are doing that, instead of going and eating and sitting down, a lot of that, a lot of that, a lot of those calories can just be instantly turned into reserves, which, which is what gives you fat. So if you guys are trying to lose weight or anything along those lines, a 30— a pound of fat is about 3,500 calories. And so if you guys are tracking it on those lines, 3,500 calories is a pound of fat. So if you guys want to lose a pound of fat, you have a 500-calorie deficit per day for a week. You guys lose a pound a week there. Now you guys are going to lose a lot more than that because you're just going for a walk, will digest that food quick, and then you guys will actually weigh a little bit less after going on the walk. You know, if you guys are putting on muscle and actually having some resistance there, a lot of that's going to go back to your muscles as well. And so you guys will lose more than a pound a week. For legs here, goblet squat is just holding a dumbbell up to your chest and just doing normal squats. Romanian deadlift, you guys are probably not going to be doing deadlifts, but you can hold the dumbbells to your feet and do a deadlift there or an RDL. If you guys do want to know more about this stuff, it's all online or feel free to ask me. Split squats can be very tough. Actually, I don't really recommend that. Step-ups, if you guys have anything you can step onto or like a lunge, holding the dumbbells by your side and doing a lunge, anything along those lines. You can do normal squats with the squat bar, with the weights by your side. Calf raises, very good. It's a little bit of a you know workout here that you guys could do for legs. Now, big key piece I think a lot of people are going to want to know about is just just the health tips, the diet. You know, what does that look like? Sugar. Now, obviously, everybody knows sugar is bad. A lot of people think carbs are bad. The whole reason behind that stuff is because that's energy. That's what your body uses to give you energy. Now, if you don't do something with it, then yeah, it's going to turn to fat and it's not going to be a good deal. The reason sugar is worse than normal carbs, like Like, why is a candy bar worse than, you know, 200 calories in a candy bar worse than 200 calories of rice, for example, is because sugar needs to be burned off so much faster. It turns to fat quicker. And so I actually see people go work out, take a little bit of sugar like honey or fruit or anything on those lines, a little bit healthier sugar, natural sugar, and actually go work out because they're going to burn that off so quick that it actually gives them energy for the gym. So if you guys are not gonna do activity, try to avoid sugar at all costs because even though, yes, the calories are big key piece, it turns to fat quicker because it is quick burning carbs. So carbs are good. You guys still wanna have carbs. You guys still need to have energy. Otherwise you're gonna feel like crap all day. But you wanna be healthy with the carbs. If you guys have rice, sweet potatoes, anything on those lines, that's gonna be good stuff. You know, great options for low calorie, like high easy to make high protein, easy to make foods. You know, microwavable rice, rice cakes, low fat yogurt, tuna, eggs, chicken. There's only be so much you guys can find at the truck stops, but the stuff is really good there. Focus on protein, low calorie foods. Very good because then you guys really can take a meal a day where it's like, shoot, I really don't have a whole lot of options here. I'm gonna kind of just go with whatever's available. Well, if you're eating really healthy, another meal or two. You guys do want to be having as many meals as possible a day, still hitting the same calories, because the more meals you have actually increases your metabolism a little bit because your body starts thinking, when will I get my next meal here? Well, if it's once a day, what's going to turn a lot of stuff into fat, those calories into fat, because it's waiting for the next meal. But if you have 5 meals a day, for example, and they're both 2,000 calories, for an example here, then the 5 meals, the body's thinking, okay, I'm going to get my next meal here soon. I can just start burning this and I don't need to start worrying about reserving it. That's a big piece to know there as well. Take a 10-minute walk, you know, whenever you guys can, especially after eating. Take a walk is just really, you know, whatever, whatever time allows for. I've got some supplements here too. Supplements are very important. I take a ton of supplements, nothing too crazy, but, you know, protein powder. I don't even know if I'd really call that a supplement, but, you know, protein powder if you guys can take it there. Fiber is a big key piece. I mean, you guys are sitting for so long. It's something that's going to help your digestion. That's really pretty good there. Vitamin D3 is not really gonna help you lose weight or anything along those lines, but it is good, especially the workflow. It might help you live a little bit longer with, you know, not being in the sun all day, anything along those lines. So that's a good one. Creatine is not gonna help you guys lose weight, but what it does is it stores water in your muscles. And so that way it helps you recover quicker. And so that might actually help with some of the pain. I mean, you guys are sitting down all day, you guys got a lot of back pain, everything along those lines, cuz the, the, the roads are bumpy, the chair's just shaking all day. It kills your muscles. And so, you know, even with me just sitting in my chair all day, obviously I'm not on the road, nothing on those lines, but I just get sore. It aches. So fish oil and creatine can actually help a lot with that stuff so that way you guys aren't aching all day. It's not so bad. Even ashwagandha can help with that stuff a little bit. Trucking is an incredibly stressful industry. Ashwagandha, having something along those lines, can reduce your stress and boost your testosterone. It's just a stress reducer. And that's the number one factor what kills testosterone. And so having something like that is actually really helpful as well. So fish oil, it helps your heart, it helps hydrate the muscles. Creatine helps hydrate muscles. So that way you guys are just feeling good. You don't feel like crap after a long day in the truck, anything along those lines. These supplements are very, very good. There's magnesium and zinc and some other ones out there too. You know, beetroot is also a good one. It helps your blood flow. And so that way your muscles get the blood they need. Everything's getting the blood it needs. And you just don't have to worry so much about— actually helps reduce the risk of heart attacks and everything along those lines. And so that's a big, that's a big one there too. So that's what I kind of have here. It's pretty basic, but it's a starting point. It's good stuff. Some meals to eat, some supplements to take. Again, you guys keep the industry running, or you guys keep America running, not the industry. You guys keep America running, and it's a tough job. You guys are given a huge disadvantage on Making sure your body is feeling good and in shape. And you know, it's not a surprise that the the life expectancy of a trucker is so much less than the average with what you guys are dealing with. So here's just a little bit how you guys to stay healthy for your family, for yourself, everything on those lines. So appreciate you guys watching. Please like, share, and subscribe if you would, so I'll keep making videos like this. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to help.