How To Keep Active Whilst Trucking
In our last blog, we spoke about how important your mental health for #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth is and how to improve it whilst on the road. One of our tips included keeping active, as it’s said, ‘healthy body healthy mind’. Therefore, us here at Barnes wanted to delve into how important it is to keep active whilst trucking.
Get Active Whilst Driving
This may seem impossible, but we have devised a few ways to get active whilst driving. While sat, try engaging your abdominal by squeezing tight for two minutes. This step can be repeated every time you stop at a light to help you remember.
Shoulder shrugs are another way to keep your body moving, rotating your shoulders in a ‘shrugging’ motion both clockwise and anti-clockwise is a great way to relieve tension too.
It’s important to note though, to keep your focus on the road at all the time, and if these gentle ways of exercising whilst driving are going to distract you, then save it until you’re parked!
HIIT Workouts
The great thing about HIIT workouts is that they only last about 15 minutes or less – which means you can do them on your breaks if you feel so inclined! HIIT is a ‘high intensity interval workout’ where you give your all in a short session. It’s perfect for HGV drivers as you don’t need any equipment! Whilst on a break take some time to carry out a workout, for example a routine we would recommend is:
- Cardio HIIT exercise: 30-60 seconds
- Rest: 30 seconds
- Upper-body HIIT exercise: 30-60 seconds
- Rest: 30 seconds
Repeat this twice and you’ve got yourself a workout in under 10 minutes. Easy!
Compound Exercises
Body weight is all you need for a compound workout. Walks, lunges, and push-ups are excellent exercises for growing and maintaining muscular tone, and they require no additional equipment, making them ideal for on-the-go trucker fitness. The best part is that they are compound movements, which utilise multiple main muscle groups. This type of workout is excellent for maintaining and increasing functional strength.
You may even be carrying this on the job without even realising by lifting heavy boxes and moving around whilst moving goods from HGV to warehouse. This all helps in muscle growth and strength.
Gently Does It!
No matter what, we’d recommend you try to get in some exercise for at least 15 minutes a day. It could be as simple as push-ups, crunches or even a brisk walk during your breaks! Those 15 minutes add up to hours per week. Your body will be able to tell the difference.
If you have any tips for getting active that you’d like to share, please let us know on Twitter or LinkedIn, we’d love to hear from you. Or, if you like to read more of our news and blogs all about HGV driving and the warehousing and transport industries, please visit our website.
