{"id":22844,"date":"2026-03-11T13:43:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/this-truck-driver-got-fit-and-then-got-busy-helping-other-truckers\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:15:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:15:05","slug":"this-truck-driver-got-fit-and-then-got-busy-helping-other-truckers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/inspiring-stories\/stories-of-faith-and-hope\/this-truck-driver-got-fit-and-then-got-busy-helping-other-truckers\/","title":{"rendered":"This Truck Driver Got Fit and Then Got Busy Helping Other Truckers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know that truck driving is one of the un\u00adhealthiest professions in America? Obesity, high blood pressure, high cho\u00adlesterol, smoking, limited physical ac\u00adtivity, fewer than six hours of sleep per day\u2026 In a national survey, 61 percent of long-haul truck drivers<\/a> have two or more of these health issues. I know what that\u2019s like because for nearly four years, I was a truck driver myself, for Prime Inc., one of the largest trucking companies in the country.<\/p>\n

Now I do something different: I\u2019m the driver health and fitness coach for Prime. I also founded my own company, Fitness Trucking, designing health and fitness programs specifically for the truck driver lifestyle. An unusual occu\u00adpation, especially for a Yale grad with a philosophy degree. So how did I end up here? I\u2019m kind of surprised myself.<\/p>\n

Then again, I\u2019ve never done what was expected.<\/p>\n

Not even when I was a kid growing up in Oswego, Illinois. Back then, my name was Tony Blake. My family was the first African-American family in the neighborhood. I always stood out. My dad took what could\u2019ve been a neg\u00adative situation and encouraged me to turn it into a positive. Being different was my motivation to be the best at everything, from academics to athlet\u00adics. When Dad saw my competitive fire, he introduced me to a distant cousin, Hayes Jones, who\u2019d won the 110-meter hurdles at the 1964 Olympics.<\/p>\n

Hayes let me hold his gold medal, and I thought, I want to win one too. <\/em>I was good at football and basketball, but I\u2019d never have the size to go far in those sports. I turned my focus to swim\u00adming<\/a>. So what if there had never been an African-American swimmer in the Olympics? I\u2019d be the first! At age 10, I won my first state championship. I kept winning. By the end of high school, I\u2019d grown to 5’8″, 140 pounds. Though usu\u00adally the smallest guy in the pool, I made up for it with intensity and technique.<\/p>\n

I was accepted at every college I applied to, including five Ivy League schools, Stanford and the University of Virginia. I was also offered full scholar\u00adships at a few other universities. I opt\u00aded for Yale. No one could understand why I\u2019d chosen a college that doesn\u2019t even give out athletic scholarships. Not only that, the swim team had the worst record in the Ivy League, 5-7.<\/p>\n

Like I said, I never do what\u2019s expect\u00aded. But I had my reasons. At Yale, I\u2019d be a big fish in a little pond. I could lift the team from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the Ivy League. Each year I swam for Yale, our team got better. My junior year, we had a 9-1 record. I en\u00adtered the U.S. Open Swimming Cham\u00adpionships, my best chance of qualifying for the 1992 U.S. Olympic team<\/a> trials. I needed to have the meet of my life. But in my best event, the 100-meter freestyle, I missed qualifying by eight tenths of a second.<\/p>\n

My Olympic dream died in eight tenths of a second. A part of me died too. Senior year, I just had no desire to swim any\u00admore. The coach talked me into staying on to help our team win the Ivy League championship. At our meet against Harvard and Princeton, I swam the lead leg of the 4×100 relay and got us a big lead. We ended up winning the relay and, with it, a share of the Ivy championship. It was the culmination of my swimming career.<\/p>\n

Three days later, I left Yale, a few months short of graduation. No one un\u00adderstood, not even my dad. \u201cAll you\u2019ve got to do is take your exams, Tony, and you\u2019ll have your degree,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t going back. I\u2019d read about Jesus, Buddha, other spiritual luminar\u00adies. Now I needed to explore the world, to find out who I was meant to be.<\/p>\n

For the next 15 years, I was a nomad, traveling Europe, the Caribbean, Af\u00adrica, working odd jobs. I came back to the U.S. briefly in the late 1990s\u2014I finished up my degree at Yale, then worked at a few nonprofits. But I took off again, going to Africa to learn more about my ancestral heritage.<\/p>\n

I went to Togo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Benin and South Africa, where I had the privilege of meeting with tribal elders. They told me that when a son of the soil returns, he is given a new name. For my first name, they chose Siphiwe, meaning \u201cgift of the Creator.\u201d For my surname, Baleka, or \u201che who has escaped.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2008, I was in my mid-thirties and tired of scraping by. I couldn\u2019t imagine myself in a nine-to-five office job. A friend who was a truck driver suggest\u00aded I try his line of work. I liked the no\u00admadic lifestyle. I\u2019d get to explore Amer\u00adica. I\u2019d make good money. I didn\u2019t have many living expenses, and I worked out a plan where I\u2019d drive for three years, build some savings, then move on.<\/p>\n

I signed up with Prime Inc., which is based in Springfield, Missouri. I got my commercial driver\u2019s license, then went on the road, training with an experi\u00adenced driver. After two months, I had a break and went to go visit my dad.<\/p>\n

He gave me the once-over.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

Dad smiled. \u201cI told you what would happen once you stopped swimming\u2014do you remember?\u201d<\/p>\n

I remembered. He\u2019d joked that I would get fat. I hadn\u2019t been getting much exercise behind the wheel of the rig, but my body couldn\u2019t have gone soft that quickly, could it?<\/p>\n

I checked out my reflection in his bathroom mirror. My face was fuller. I lifted my shirt. For the first time in my life, I couldn\u2019t see my abs. I got on a scale. I couldn\u2019t believe it: 155 pounds!<\/p>\n

I\u2019d weighed 140 pounds all my adult life, and in just two months of driving, I\u2019d gained 15 pounds. That doesn\u2019t sound like a lot, but I\u2019ve always been body con\u00adscious. When you\u2019re a swimmer, you spend most of your time in skimpy swim briefs, so you\u2019ve got to look good.<\/p>\n

At this rate, I\u2019d be 50 pounds over\u00adweight by the end of the year. I wouldn\u2019t look good, and I definitely wouldn\u2019t be feeling good. In trucking, it\u2019s all about the delivery schedule. Every second counts. Eat. Sleep. Drive. That\u2019s all you have time for. How was I going to fit in working out?<\/p>\n

That night, as providence would have it, I was flipping through the channels on TV and came across an infomercial for the Range of Motion exercise machine. It was like a spin bike, rower and stair stepper all in one. The inventor claimed that four minutes on the machine would give the benefits of an hour-long work\u00adout. That\u2019s ridiculous, <\/em>I thought.<\/p>\n

There was only one way to find out. I\u2019d have to try it. Not the machine it\u00adself\u2014it was massive and cost $15,000. But I came up with a workout repli\u00adcating its movements, using my body weight as resistance.<\/p>\n

Anytime I had a few minutes, I worked out. Burpees, mountain climb\u00aders, jump-tucks. Beside my truck at rest stops, I\u2019d do each exercise<\/a> at high intensity for 20 to 60 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, then repeat. \u201cGet it in where you can fit it in,\u201d I told myself.<\/p>\n

Drivers wait in line at the receiv\u00ading office for 20 to 30 minutes. I used that time to do squats and shadow-box. Some of the guys laughed at me. I became a running joke over the CB. It didn\u2019t bother me. I don\u2019t do what\u2019s ex\u00adpected, remember? Besides, I was used to standing out.<\/p>\n

But some drivers would come up to me and say, \u201cMan, I really need to be doing this. Can you show me?\u201d I dem\u00adonstrated and gave them exercise and nutrition tips<\/a> while exercising in front of my truck. The more I coached them, the more I realized my new routine wasn\u2019t just for me. It was meant to help other people find their way to health. There was a real need and a real busi\u00adness opportunity here.<\/p>\n

I drew up a proposal to become the in-house health and fitness coach and presented it to Robert Low, founder and president of Prime Inc. He was all for it. I studied corporate wellness programs and developed a 13-week pro\u00adgram for our fleet. Interested drivers had to fill out an application and come in for a day of orientation.<\/p>\n

Emily was one of the first to enroll. \u201cI went to an amusement park with my granddaughter, and they kicked me off the ride because I was too big to buckle the lap belt,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m ready to make a change.\u201d The average weight loss in that first group was more than 19 pounds. In the second group, I had a guy who lost 60 pounds in 13 weeks.<\/p>\n

Their success inspired others to sign up. Drivers use an app to log every\u00adthing they eat and drink. Once a week, we analyze their food logs and identify what\u2019s doing the most damage to their metabolism and show them how to fix it. Improving nutrition and fitness isn\u2019t complicated. What\u2019s harder than changing your behavior is changing your thinking.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll have people confess they\u2019re em\u00adbarrassed to exercise in front of others. \u201cI\u2019m 270 pounds. What if folks see me doing burpees and make fun of me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if they see you and think, Hey, if he can do it, maybe I can too?\u201d I say to them. \u201cWhy not set a healthy exam\u00adple and be a light, like Scripture asks of all of us?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I\u2019ve found myself doing. For once, I\u2019m doing what\u2019s expected of me\u2014in a totally unexpected way. And I\u2019ve never felt more fulfilled.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For more inspiring stories, subscribe to <\/em>Guideposts<\/strong><\/a> magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that truck driving is one of the un\u00adhealthiest professions in America? Obesity, high blood pressure, high cho\u00adlesterol, smoking, limited physical ac\u00adtivity, fewer than six hours of sleep per day\u2026 In a national survey, 61 percent of long-haul truck drivers have two or more of these health issues. I know what that\u2019s like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[373,185],"tags":[11,51,197],"ppma_author":[798],"class_list":["post-22844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exercise","category-stories-of-faith-and-hope","tag-helping-others","tag-inspirational-stories","tag-motivational-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Truck Driver Got Fit and Then Got Busy Helping Other Truckers - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Truck Driver Got Fit and Then Got Busy Helping Other Truckers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you know that truck driving is one of the un\u00adhealthiest professions in America? 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