Since there is a need for Drivers to stay fit for the FMCSA, it would be convient for them to have access to basic excercise equipment and a fitness instructor. Im talking the basics equipment like jump ropes, minibar bells, and mats. The Fitness instructer could develop a simple excercise program for Drivers to do while they are on the road. Truck yoga would be a great way to reduce stress during extended load/unload times.
These excercise classes could be held at rest areas, truck stops, and scenic places once they become popular. This would be an extention from the main gym done a few days a week. Of course, with public areas there maybe redtape to work through, but it would be worth it.
Never saw this done before with truckers, but some companies have this at their offices.
This could be a great way to get people to the main gym to use the other equipment and get a nice shower afterwards.
Truck Stop Yoga: Embrace the roar of idling engines as white noise. Hear the sound of the sea in them. Inhale deeply and experience the life force that the smell of urine conveys (and please keep your yoga mats out of the puddles).
All joking aside, it is an interesting concept that you present, Jamin_Joe.
It is not uncommon for gyms to do outdoor classes at locations other than the gyms and to provide equipment like you describe above. The motivation that live instructors provide could very well produce a nice turnout. I can see a number of truckers who would then be available come out of their trucks to participate in a 30 minute exercise class (maybe not yoga but certainly a fitness class of some sort). If this was done at a rest area, a number of four-wheelers might join in too.
The idea is easy; logistics not so much. The closest rest area to our gym is 30 miles away. The closest truck stop is the Loves on I-95 near Daytona Beach but it is small. There would not be a lot of truckers parked there to join in a class if offered. So too with the rest area. Regular schedules are not something OTR truckers enjoy. Even if they knew such a class was available at a certain rest area at a certain time, making it on a regular basis would be tough.
Then there is the money to think about. When we have members willing to pay our personal trainers $60 an hour to work with them in the gym, what financial incentive does a gym have to send out a trainer and load of equipment to serve truckers at a rest area, truck stop or park?
Classes for truckers offered at gyms is another idea, but in our case, it would be tough because our parking lot space is limited and truck parking would be tight if a number of them came in. Also, if our merchant neighbors saw even a half-dozen trucks coming into the lot on a regular basis so drivers can take the trucker fitness classes, they would complain in short order and we would quickly be in trouble with the landlord.
One of the best things truckers have going for them fitness-wise today is the free fitness rooms that a good number of truck stops now provide.
Beyond that, there is the large network of Anytime Fitness clubs that some truckers join and use. Anytime Fitness is the best in that regard because no other brand has more locations. No other brand is even close. Anytime Fitness opens, on average, one new gym every 36 hours somewhere in the world. In North America, we offer 1,985 locations and your member key gets you into every one of them, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
Virtual training is a developing service in the industry but it has not taken off in a big way. That is where a personal trainer works with clients online to provide motivation, health and fitness coaching and accountability. Might virtual training for truckers be a possibility? It might, but the challenge is to find personal trainers who understand the trucker's lifestyle.
You know trucking. Diane and I know trucking. But is there anyone out there who is not a trucker that truly understands the trucking life?
Personal trainers have a hard time understanding why someone would want to eat a Twinkie. They have no idea how good it feels to find a safe parking place and pull that air brake valve. They have no concept of what it is like to walk into a truck stop restaurant with reduced will power because you are tired after a long run. They have no idea what is on that menu or laid out in the buffett. They have no idea what it is like to be only 50 lbs. overweight but you can feel good about yourself because you don't look as bad as many of the people in the same restaurant.
Matching personal trainers like these with truckers on the road under a virtual training arrangement of some sort is not a recipe for success, we are sorry to conclude. We think that a self-organized group of truckers who coach and support each other in an online community may be a better approach.
Diane and I are super-busy getting our first gym open now. After it opens and things settle into more of a routine, we may put more thought into fitness support for truckers on the road. One resource is
AnytimeHealth.com. Parts of it are open to the public. All of it is open to Anytime Fitness members. With Anytime Health, it would be possible to create a community of fitness-interested truckers, and it might be especially effective with truckers who use Anytime Fitness gyms.
Through Anytime Health, it would be very easy to bring a trucker's gym activities into the ongoing conversation and to connect truckers with personal trainers. That might work, but it remains the case that the trainers would understand little about the trucking life and work. For personal training to be successful, clients need to be understood by their trainers. That is a tough gap to bridge given the unique life truckers lead.
But even if we left the trainers out of it (and many truckers would because trainers charge for their time), an online, private fitness community in which truckers could bond around their common experience of using Anytime Fitness gyms might have some possibilities.
