Exercise and healthy eating for the OTR truck driver

Great question, If you're running a dedicated route or running regional in the same areas every week then a gym membership may be a great way to regularly make it to a gym and keep your cost at a minimum. If you are running all over the country and have little or no control over when and where you run, it's really not wise to be paying on a membership that you will rarely get a chance to use.

I run basicly the same areas of the country year around and I know where certain gyms are that are easily accessable in a big truck. Another problem is that most gym chains are regional, meaning that if you join for example Golds gym, they're alot of Golds gyms in the southeast, but they are few and far in between in the northeast or midwest and vice versa. If you make a delivery in an area and you spot a gym in a near by mall thats easily accessable in a big truck, are you going to drive all over town looking for a Golds not knowing when you get there if they have truck parking or not?
You should be able to find gyms fairly easy anywhere in the country and normally it'll cost no more than $10.00 bucks a day. If you are into powerlifting, than the dumbells in the truck as I mentioned earlier in my post are better than nothing ,but it will not help you to maintain your strength levels. Getting under some heavy steel is not an option when you are doing heavy squats,benches and deadlifts as these are the staples of the powerlifters.
Hopefully the folks that you decide to run with will understand your lifestyle and be accomidating to your needs. Good luck.

 

Bittersweet88, Walking and running are great if you can do them safely. Walking is good if theres nothing else, it's great for getting the circulation going in your legs, but unless you're walking at a really fast clip(almost running) it has little or no benifits as far as cardio goes. Running is a great form of cardio exercise, but most truckers are not in the type of shape to be running for any length of time, jogging maybe.
You have to really be careful running and jogging, as both are impact exercises and if you are carrying extra weight, it can create all sorts of problems with the knees and joints from the pounding jarring motion of running, especially on hard surfaces like concrete or asphalt.
If jogging or running is something that you would like to try , I suggest starting slowly. Always stretch first and begin by briskly walking for a few minutes to warm up the muscles and joints before beginning to jog. This will decrease the likelyhood of injury. If you do run or jog , try to do it on a soft surface like grass or sand, this will reduce your chance of getting shin splint injury's.
Running can be a great form of cadio exercise if your health is up to par. If it is'nt than you may want too find a less strenuous form of cardio like cycling or walking stairs(stairmaster). I have seen drivers jogging and walking around truckstop parking lots from time to time so it is fairly common, just watch out for the big trucks.