Exercise and healthy eating for the OTR truck driver

Nice link!
Bodyweight exercises are by far your best choice! I agree.

Walking, jogging and light running are all great exercise too!

Most folks begin loading their bodies with weights, dumbells and machine resistance before they're able and ready.

If you can't do a pushup with proper form -then you're really not ready to use weights or machines yet, right?

And what about a good old-fashioned pullup?
Sure they're hard -but you just can't beat the strength that comes from being able to control and move your own bodyweight through space.

Bodyweight squats are a great lowerbody exercise too! They really get your heart rate up and work your entire cardio-vascular system.

Simply take a shoulder width stance, slightly turn your toes out 45 degrees or so -break at the hips and knees simultaneously and squat down until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Stand back up and repeat for reps. Start with 4 sets of 10 reps -then work up in sets and reps as you improve. -Shoot for a total of 50 reps -75 reps -100 reps!

It's a great workout -add some pushups and find a spot to do pullups and you're all set! You'll be ripped, fit and in-shape in no time.

Hey Shifty,

Eating healthy on the road is a challenge -no doubt about it -but it can be done with some forethought and a little planning. After a while, it will become second-nature.

First, know what to eat and what to avoid.

Stay away from grains and dairy -anything made with flour and anything made from milk. That goes for at home as well as on the road.

And avoid potatoes too -waaaay too much starch. You don't need it -unless of course you tilled the field, planted the seed, weeded to rows, harvested the crop and hauled it to market -Then we figure you've earned it

Try to eat only lean meats, fruits and vegetables.
-Nothing more, nothing less.

Choose whole, natural foods without sauces, toppings, cheese and breadings.

Grilled is always better than fried and raw or lightly steamed veggies are best too.

Just like Inferno_AZ recommends -use a cooler to pack your own healthy choices. There's pretty slim pickens out of the road -and you don't want to get yourself in a spot where you're hungry and you have to eat whatever is available, right?

Eating healthy can be challenging if you're not prepared....but it can be easy and a heck of a lot more affordable if you plan ahead.

Best,

 

I suppose one should just use discretion. I wonder how many public rural roads have a "no bikes/no pedestrians" policy?

It just seems to me that driving is quite physically draining in the very way that exersize is energizing. A whole lot of sitting makes you feel like going to sleep, but I bet many a driver would benefit from a 2 mile walk/jog every day. I would suspect they would actually be more productive in the long run.

 

it isn't always poosible to do the same routine every day if you drive over the road. But being a local driver has given me the opportunity to sign up at a local gym (1994). but my schedule changes now every 2 weeks on what route i have. So I try to make the most of it.. My first stop usually lasted about an hour so i took up walking while waiting instead of just sitting. I also take time ti use my hand weights, hand springs, or stretch bands. Wearing legs weight on different days also helps. There were stops where I left an extra bike I had and went bike riding while waiting. And my lunches consist of fruits, vegetables, slices of turkey breast lunch meats, a made up trail mix of sunflower nuts with raisins, and a container with half frozen water or juice. Be creative and just do something . It's called resistance training, not resistance too training

 

I have lost 30 pounds and hope I never ever find it

 

To add to HealthyHoss's post, your exersize regimen will improve circulation. This doesn't just mean that your blood moves faster or easier, but that the actual ability of the muscle cells to uptake oxygen (Vo2 uptake) and for the cell walls to transfer nutrients (food) into the cell and waste (lactic acids) out of the cell will improve.
What this means is that your ability to regenerate energy (ATP production) under effort is improved, and the buildup of lactic acid (the "burn") is lessened, allowing you to do more, and have more energy doing it.
Back in the "muscle beach" days, Vince Goronda, famous Cally trainer and well-known hardbutt, used to tell the hollywood stars who wanted to 'bulk up' to go get in shape first, THEN he'd train them. That 'shape' is very important. Climb a long set of stairs or unload a truck fast...and you'll know what shape (condition) you're in quite quickly. You should be able to continue an effort without stopping for air or because of muscle burn. If not, you're out of condition, and statistically prone to medical problems.

 

Before I got back on the road, I was a powerlifter and trainer. I trained guys and girls. Girls are easier to train, but guys are hardheaded and just want to bench all the time. I would tell them if they wanted to be strong, they had to be strong all over.

The first thing guys want to do is look strong. Shoulders and back is where I had them concentrate on the upper body. I also had my guys do alot of exercises that I call heavy cardio. The first week with me, they would have to do the farmers carry with a pair of 80lb dumbells. Take your bodyweight, add 160 lbs, and walk briskly. The lungs burn instantly!
I amazed them as I had rigged a chain through four 45lb plates and a wooden handle in each hand and carry them around the gym.I'm 210, add 360 lbs and walk! 570lbs on the lungs! Thats heavy cardio. The heavy cardio and the extremely heavy shoulderwork and backwork allowed me to bench 515 lbs and deadlift 620 lbs in contests. No juice. It also gave me the wind to jog 2 miles, and spar for hours.

The first thing a girl would want to do is lose weight and tone up. "I dont want to get big like a man!" (sigh). Want to tone up? Hit the freeweights first and then the machines only when you are fatigued. The girls would always tell me that they could go 45 minutes on a stairmaster. I wasnt impressed. I had them buy gloves and we would spar. 45 minutes on a climber does not condition you to go 3 minutes with the gloves on.

I miss the iron. I do pullups by grabbing on to the rubrail of a flatbed. When I was in the gym, we used to do pullups with a girl hanging off our necks for competition. Still do the core training, pushups and situps. It seems that I can maintain a high level of fitness. And I eat til satisfied, not full.

Good shoulders, Red.

 

Lactic acid is not produced from aerobic activity like unloading an entire trailer. I think your confusing lactic acid with lactate. they are two different chemicals, and neither of them are a "waste product."

Crucially, lactate actually helps to produce energy. It is created during glycolysis, which literally means the breakdown of glucose. Glucose is derived from the carbohydrate we eat, and glycolysis kick starts chemical processes within our muscles that produce the energy required for sustained muscular contraction. Without glycolysis we would be unable to sustain exercise for more than a few seconds.


There are two types of glycolysis: oxygendependent and oxygen-independent; and these can be equated to the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. Each type of glycolysis produces lactate, although the oxygen-independent variant produces it as lactic acid.

Although we are still gulping in oxygen when unloading the trailer in a hurry, it becomes insufficient to furnish the required amount of energy. The areobic system of the driver is simply inefficient. This alters the results of the chemical equations taking place, and lactic acid is produced instead of lactate. Specifically, lactic acid is formed when pyruvic acid temporarily accepts two hydrogens (electrons) due the shortage of oxygen. Note, though, that lactic acid returns to lactate once it enters the blood stream. Lactic acid can be thought of as lactate’s metaphorical cousin. Lactate is the goody-goody, always able to get the energy creation job done (at least up to certain intensities – as high as 80% VO2max for the endurance-trained athlete). Unfortunately, lactic acid ends up getting the rap, despite trying to emulate its cousin; when trying to contribute to energy production at higher exercise intensities, its rate of production ultimately exceeds its rate of clearance, resulting in a loss of muscle power, pain and eventual exercise cessation.


So essentially, your pretty much right. Just not quite using the scientific terms in the correct fashion. In other words...we know what you meant.


The best way to develop good health is to stick to aerobic exersizes, not weights. A half hour 3 mile jog every day is better than puttin up a 300lb. bench if you ask any good physiologist.

 

"A half hour 3 mile jog every day is better than puttin up a 300lb. bench if you ask any good physiologist. "

That is, until you need knee surgery.

The number one thing thats going to take truckers out of the trucks is injuries. Back problems, knee problems, falls, accidents...etc. Resistance training and core training 1 makes you more resistant to injury 2 help you to recover from injuries faster.

 

M.E. - appreciate the upbraid, though I don't know how many times I've seen lactic acid referred to as byproduct or waste.
The new "use" for it is in curing joint problems: doing 25 rep sets of a 25 rep max: the burn so intense you HAVE to stop, but this method seems to really help. I use it for face pulls to keep my shoulder impingement under control, and once in a while for elbows.
I think the lactate/lactic situation depends also on what level of conditioning the driver has, as related to it's effect on his activity. I've always said that exersize is useless: it's progressive, cyclic, and consistent exersize that creates training, which the body responds to, as you know. So one driver won't break a sweat where another has a heart attack doing an unload. A couch potatoe walks around the truckumup and gets exersize: that wouldn't even be noticable to you or I, but where you may run 3 miles, I fall out at one because I don't do cardio. (except for the 20 rep sets at the beginning of a cycle!)
Triple six: I wonder how much mass and strength you lost on the road? PM me and I'll see if I can give you the ideas I have for keeping it up as best as you can out there. I've thought long and hard on this, not wanting to shrink away doing just callesthenics. A couple of toys that will help: I've posted it all in here somewhere.
Did you do the DL at 210? Tell me it ain't so!!! I'll be SICK! (I'm 215 maxing at 425x2)

 

Hmmm thats all true although I would not say knee problems should result unless your grossly overweight, in which case running should not even be an option. Obviously, a 1 mile walk is more pheasible for many drivers than is a 3 mile jog.

Even if I gain 10lbs I can tell the difference. It will definately make a difference in how fast you move on your feet.