Improving Driver Health for the Road Ahead

A few years ago I (jeff) brought home P90X for my wife and I to do together. I had no idea it would be so great for our relationship. I was just thinking we would both be able to get into a little better shape!

We were both the heavy kids growing up. Her self-esteem was shot because of it, mine had turned into an overcompensating attitude with something to prove.  This helped me for a while but wasn’t true confidence; it was more akin to a policy of “fake it till you make it.”

When we got married I think she was as fit as she’d ever been. I had slipped a little from my most active days in the Navy but was still in pretty good shape. Over the first 90 days of P90X we worked out together, we sweated together, and we both started reaching a level of fitness neither of us had known before.

Several times a day and nearly every night when our heads hit the pillow we discussed how sore and tired we were and how tomorrow we would do better; how we would BE better. In the gym we pushed each other to lift more, jump higher, and take shorter breaks to get back in the game.

We got into backpacking and were able to climb all the same mountains together. That’s not just a metaphor! If any of you blogger lovers are seeking a little more intimacy in your relationship, growing together through a program like P90X will take you out of your comfort zones together and that will translate into every other area of our life.

Later my Dad asked me to help him start changing his health the same way I had been changing my own.

Dad is a long haul truck driver. His diet is limited to what he can carry in a small mini-fridge. His exercise at the time was basically limited to what he could do inside the cab of his truck. His weight had gotten to be such an issue that he didn’t feel comfortable working out outside his truck.

For dad we tried starting with Power 90 but quickly realized that P90X was going to be a much better fit. His limited ability to get aerobic training inside the truck required longer sessions of weight lifting. Cardio would be done in the form of walks that would grow into jogs until he got his weight down enough to feel comfortable doing extreme workouts outside the truck. That time has come!

Dad had no prior knowledge of fitness or nutrition. We had to talk on the phone five days a week not only to educate him to better habits but also to keep each other accountable. The more the weight fell off, the more our relationship grew. The more our relationship grew, the faster the weight fell off.

I didn’t grow up with Dad around in my life enough. He was always on the road trying to make it as a driver, a drummer, or something else. I would see him from time to time for a weekend visit or to spend a summer with him. As I look back I feel like our relationship didn’t really get started until I was about 15 years old.

We don’t just talk about fitness now, though! We talk about family, my kids, his kids. We talk about business of him on the road, me being in college. We talk about politics and the economy, religion and sex. Through a decision and commitment to fitness and a mentoring relationship based on that, we have grown closer as father and son; we have grown closer as friends.

In each of these relationships we already had something bonding us together. Fitness was just another thing for us to talk about and work on together. Through our decision and commitment to do something about it every single today and to share that journey together, we became even closer. Don’t think for a second that I wasn’t inspired to continue my own fitness journey while helping the other important people in my life! There were also many others in my life who let me help them and every one of those relationships is now stronger.

Fitness is no magic bullet that’s going to make everything better in your life. But it will help your mind and body work together better in a synergistic relationship greater than the sum of its parts. As each of us began to feel better mentally, physically, emotionally, and we were able to share that with each other, we became stronger as individuals and on the teams we were a part of.

Truckin’ Fitness is just the natural extension of what we started a couple years ago when the kid who had been through some fitness challenges started helping his truck driving father get fit and healthy even over the road. Both father and son now help other drivers beat the same challenges to attain the best results they can get on the road by a mentoring relationship, support and accountability teams, and a few suggestions to get over the lack of knowledge or experience.

Join us for the ride and if you want the one-on-one conversation and support, get in touch with us. We’re here to help!

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