How to stay fit while trucking

Cut out the junk food and quit drinking carbonated beverages. If you smoke, cut that crap out too.

As for exercise, bring a jump rope or do jumping jacks for 5mins straight. Do some jogging/sprinting as well. You'll suck and will be slow for a little while but you'll pick up the pace once your body becomes used to the activity. Plus you'll feel a whole lot better and will get better sleep.

What I do outside of work is a mix of Dutch and Muay Thai Kickboxing. I started last spring and have dropped over 80lbs within that time frame. I have started putting some of the weight back on in the form of muscle with the weight training I also partake in.

 

This is a topic I actually have a lot of experience with. First thing I can tell you original poster is diet first and watching what you eat and exercise second. You can exercise until you’re blue in the face, but if you’re eating pizza, hotdogs burgers and fries and all kinds of carbs multiple times a day it isn’t going to matter you’re still going to gain weight because you’re sitting for about 12 hours a day.

my first piece of advice is to learn how to cook on the truck. Buy healthy food, stay out of the truckstop junk food section, and eat your own home cooked meals. It’s not that hard to do you just need a little organization.

get yourself on Amazon a foldable bench. And they set of adjustable dumbbells. You don’t need a full gym. If you have this set up you can exercise every part of your body. You can gain muscle. Try to walk 2 to 3 miles per day and lift weights 3 to 4 times per week. If you do this and keep your diet in check, you’ll be surprised how good you can get in shape.

there’s going to be some days when it’s just not happening. Due to weather, a super long bad day of driving, but if you can maintain an average of 4 to 5 days a week, you’ll do OK.

 

Walking, a folding bike, and even those adjustable dumb-bell sets for exercise. Diet is a big part. Stick to water, sugarless drinks when you need that fix, and the usual veggies and lean meats. Even Love's seems to be carrying fresh fruit and simple, green salads that are strictly vegetables and no meat/cheese/croutons/dressing(dressing is optional) crowding up 1/2 the package.

Also to keep your mind off of food, bring along some activities if it's too dumpy to exercise outside. I put together cosplay costumes out of EVA foam and other crafts store materials. All that cutting, shaping, contact cementing, and sanding usually eats up 3-4 hours easily in the sleeper.

 

Just throw your mattress out in front of your truck and walk around with a side limp while wearing a belt and doing bench presses with a bar and plates.

Then later in the day stand by the door with those sack looking weights kettle bells I think they are called grunting by the door saying hi to everyone.

I'll never forget that guy.

He was jacked as hell though.

 

You don’t need a whole weight set, but I’ve seen a few truckers do it. Lol I have a foldable bench. The thing barely takes up any room at all because it folds down compact. And it’s adjustable so it will go from decline bench to incline bench and flat. And then I have a set of adjustable dumbbells. I can stay in pretty good shape just with that. And walking.

dumbbells are 200 pounds. I had another company driver asked me if management had said anything because it was adding weight. Lol I weigh about 200 pounds, he weighed about 400 pounds. I thought if they took away my ability to exercise because of that 200 pounds, I’ll just gain 200 pounds in weight. Lol

 

Take a job where you unload the trailer. Get paid to exercise. I'm 48 years old, doing food service, and in the best shape of my life.

 

I'd LOVE to go back to food service but my knees couldn't handle the abuse after 6 years. If my knees weren't the problem, I'd be on my 12th year in that line of work. I do miss it at times.

 

Just before Covid -19 started in March of 2020 I'd personally started dieting and fasting while this is very different to actual exercise you will find it takes quite a lot of energy / exercise to in fact make the body lose weight in fact sometimes as a result of a person exercising can actually make you more hungry as the body demands to compensate for the energy expended during work outs. What works out really good i've found is a combination of a little exercise with eating a good diet low in carbs combined with fasting, I lost about 14 kg / 30 lb in about 3 months or about 1kg / 2 lb per week which was ideal.

 

It takes will power to accomplish that while living on truck OTR.