Maintain your fleet drivers’ wellness with these simple exercises

Driving a truck, you spend long hours sitting in one position, moving little more than one leg from gas pedal to brake and back again, while the arms do little more strenuous than turn the steering wheel and change gears on occasion. To call these  brisk exercises it is not.

But a brisk exercise is just what a driver needs on occasion to maintain personal health and wellness. Regular physical activity will keep your drivers more active and healthy, which in turn makes them better drivers, able to drive longer distances and maintain personal well-being in stressful situations than a driver who neglects such things and allows personal health to slide into neglect and sloth.

Your drivers need not be run a marathon or lift record amounts of weight to stay on top of their health, mind you.

For the simplest but best results, drivers and other employees can simply add these five exercises to their regular routine to keep personal wellness a priority.

1. Squats. Nothing complicated, a squat is just what it sounds like: you stand erect and then lower yourself, bending at the knee to lower your torso until you’re nearly in a seated position, then rising back to full standing position. This exercise targets the muscles in your thighs, hips, calves and buttocks, strengthening them, your lower back and the knee joint. It also is an excellent fat burning exercise, promoting both flexibility and weight loss. You need not do too many at one time, but for best results, five or six repetitions, done two or three times a week, is an excellent beginning. Work up to 150 in a week to reach your fitness goals.
2. Push-ups. We’ve all seen someone drop and do a dozen or more of these at the bark of a movie drill sergeant. Some of us may have done the same ourselves in practice for football or some other sport. The traditional push-up builds upper body strength, working the triceps, pectoral muscles and shoulders. With proper form, a push-up can also strengthen the lower back and core though working the abdominal muscles. Start with about 20 a day but start increasing that number as you continue. Maintaining good strength can be done with 50 a day, though more may be necessary to see greater improvement rather than simple maintenance.
3. Planks. Not that silly TikTok trend where teenagers lay flat in weird places, but a simple exercise where you simply extend your body outward, balanced only on your arms (or elbows, depending on your form) and toes, then maintain that position for a set amount of time. The plank works your core, which is to say it’s good for the whole body, though it especially strengthens the spine and your abdominal muscles. Doing three sets of planks for up to 60 seconds on a daily basis is recommended, though others suggest extending that to two minutes as you grow more comfortable with the exercise.
4. Mountain climbers. Despite the name, this exercise does not require an actual mountain to perform. Nor do you have to yodel while doing it like that little mountain climber guy from that one “The Price is Right” game. Instead, it stars like a plank, but then involves you extending one knee forward as if taking a step in place, then returning it before doing the same with the other. This mimics walking up at a steep angle, such as you might do on a mountain, working the shoulders, triceps, chest muscles and abdominals. Overall, they’re a very efficient exercise, working multiple muscles and system at once and improves mobility with regular sets.
5. Running/walking. The simplest of exercises, basic movement can burn calories like no other if pursued regularly. Whichever you pursue, there are benefits to both. Running burns calories at twice the rate of walking, but walking puts less strain on the joints through less intensive movements. Regular pursuit of either will lead to weight loss, combined with diet and other healthy habits, as long as you stick to it.

These are just some of the ways you can focus on health and wellness through active exercises.

For more fitness and wellness protocols, Fleet Risk Solutions can provide your trucking company with a roadmap to better health through a variety of plans and techniques.

Wellness is vital to your workforce. Make sure each driver knows what they can do to improve theirs.