It’s common to put on a few pounds after starting a trucking career. Over time, however, those pounds quickly add up.
One driver refused to let that happen and now he’s helping others in the industry fight back as well.
Before his trucking days, Tony Blake was a champion Ivy League swimmer and was aiming for the Olympics. When that didn’t happen he went on a journey of enlightenment and traveled the world for 15 years.
He eventually wound up in Springfield, Mo. where his friend suggested he get a job in trucking. It took some getting used to, but Blake found peace with his new job as a driver for Prime Inc.
“I felt free,” he said. “Once I knew what I was picking up and where I needed to go, the rest of it was on me. I could do what I wanted to do.”
But it didn’t take long before Blake noticed he had gained a few extra pounds.
“Truck drivers are dying 10 to 15 years earlier than the average. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if I didn’t take control of my health, specifically my weight, I was going to end up like the 86% of America’s truck drivers that are overweight and I didn’t want to end up like that. ” he said.
Blake realized that he wouldn’t be able to find the time to go the gym on a regular basis if he was always on the road, so he started doing work-out routines in and around his truck.
He eventually gained the attention of other drivers.
“Drivers would come over, and they’d start talking to me, and they’d be like, man, I should be doing this. And sometimes, they’d work out with me, and I realized there was a real need, and I was out there setting an example, talking to drivers, and the light bulb went off.”
That’s when he went to Prime with an idea to implement his routine into a training program for other drivers at the company.
Blake is now the full time Prime health and fitness coach and is making a difference in many drivers’ lives. He once had a dream to be an Olympic champion, now his dream is to transform the health of the trucking industry — one driver at a time.