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| Bob using hand weights or gallon jugs would work also |
In my never ending quest to loose a few pounds, I have figured out that I can do some simple walking during my D.O.T. required "rest break". A few years ago our whole family got activity tracking devices. These are basically high tech pedometers, which track your daily activities along with your sleep. We have the FitBit brand and they seem to work well, using blue tooth to connect to our phones. We can also do challenges with friends and family to help keep us motivated. So here is the point, my daily goal is 10,000 steps. This is difficult to accomplish being a team truck driver when we under a load. We get our showers in the morning; we eat in the truck, as much as possible, so there is but one thing to do on the break. Walk
In order to achieve my goal, I need to walk about five miles each day. My pre-trip will get me some steps, parking as far as I can from the rest room will get some more. Dealing with customers, loading and unloading some more, but when on a long run as few as 1500 steps a day will be tracked. So here is what I did to calculate what I need to do to get my steps, or at least more of them than if I sat and worked on the computer for the 30 minutes.
Our truck is 40 feet in length and 8.5 feet wide, if we assume we will walk about a foot away from the truck, we will walk 42 feet each side and 10.5 feet across front and rear for a total of 105 feet. That means I need to walk 50 laps to get one mile in a forty-foot straight truck.
For those of you in a semi-truck, you have a 53-foot trailer and about 15 feet for the tractor. The math shows about 161 feet for a lap, making about 33 laps to a mile. If you were to do the laps required to get a mile that can be done in about 20 minutes, which leaves about 10 minutes to get to the rest room and prepared for the rest of your driving shift.
There is no rule that says you cannot do more than 30 minutes so two miles for me would be 100 laps. If I hurry a little I will burn more calories and hence more weight will come off quicker. This is something I started doing when we were on a secure load once and couldn't get more that 25 feet from the truck. It will also work if you are in a not so nice area and want to get those steps. The trucking industry as a whole has a problem with its weight so anything we can do will help.
I believe if we start "walking in circles" we can lower our health care costs and maybe keep some regulations from being enacted by reducing our weight. The D.O.T. has hinted they would like to see us (drivers) loosing weight or they will mandate certain health requirements that may or may not affect me but it will sure have a huge impact on many.
#TeamRunSmart is joining the fight against cancer. This month we will be donating $1 to the Cancer Research Institute for each new member that signs up