Rolling Strong Helps Truckers Take the Road to a Healthier Lifestyle

There’s no denying that for a professional driver, the demands of the job can create challenges when it comes to making good decisions regarding food, fitness and sleep.

And while there is generally a strong cultural and corporate awareness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle, the tools available simply haven’t been adapted to fit the unique requirements of drivers — enter Rolling Strong (rollingstrong.com), an innovative wellness program designed specifically for truckers to help them improve overall health, pass their DOT exams and function better and more safely on the job.

Rolling Strong’s mission to impact the driver health crisis is straight forward — yet far-reaching, according to company president Steve Kane.

“Drivers, unfortunately, are among the most unhealthy people in the working population. There’s a real need for them to have a solution. We’ve built a program that offers solutions, not just for the drivers, but also for management to deploy something that works,” Steve says.

“Healthy drivers are safer drivers, they are less likely to suffer an injury on the job,” Steve adds, “and they are more likely to stay with a company when they know their well-being is a priority.”

The Rolling Strong platform can be utilized on mobile devices as well as in-cab computing systems and offers the following features:

• Nutrition Guidance including meal suggestions and predictive nutrition based on location though truck stop, restaurant and food item search capabilities, as well as daily food logging with calorie counts and targets.
• Exercise Programs including guided workout routines based on personalized preferences with duration and intensity choices, and daily step tracking with an integrated wearable activity tracker.
• Sleep time and pattern tracking with an integrated wearable activity tracker, and CPAP integration.
• Personal Health Records including biometric data from physicians, wellness coaches or health check stations, DOT certification reminders and the ability to connect with a wellness coach.

Rolling Strong isn’t just another diet and exercise program — it’s designed by truckers for truckers. Steve, a former driver and dispatcher, spent more than 10 years on the road and knows first-hand the challenges that drivers face. Hours of service regs, he notes, make it even tougher to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

“Carriers want to maximize the usage of those drivers, and for the majority of their hours drivers are sedentary behind the wheel,” Steve points out. “The lack of movement creates tightness around joints and ligaments. The lack of cardiovascular exercise, over time, can cause complications and put the driver at greater risk for heart disease.”

Getting regular exercise helps to reduce risk factors including lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, reducing stress, and achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight. But how’s a trucker supposed to pull their rig into the parking lot of the local fitness center?

Rolling Strong solved that predicament with an innovative Flex System designed to turn your truck into your own personal gym where you can build core strength, muscle tone, and improve flexibility and cardio vascular health. Flex, allows you to connect low impact resistance bands to various connection points in the truck and trailer or use a soft shell kettle bag or sand filled neoprene hand weights to get impactful workouts while away from home. The Rolling Strong App will even guide you through your workout.

“The workouts are low impact to shoulders, hips, knees, ankles, and lower back that are susceptible to injuries, and more focussed on promoting mobility, balance and light to medium cardio, so they can be more functional on the job and have fewer risk factors,” Steve says.

At some point, we all have to make a decision to be healthy. Because drivers have a greater challenge staying in the right lane, so to speak, Rolling Strong has lined up a network of wellness coaches specifically trained in the special needs of professional drivers. Answers and a boost in motivation are close as a call or text away.

As a driver recruitment and retention tool, Rolling Strong offers an exciting health-driven program that allows carriers to educate and reward their drivers, and interact with employees throughout their entire company. Ultimately, Steve points out, a healthier workforce positively impacts insurance premiums and workers comp costs.

“We really think of this as an accident reduction tool as we aim to keep the drivers healthy. We’re using our mobile application to deliver the right message from the leadership team as we allow everybody to engage in and create a positive company culture around improving health and wellness.”

At Drivewyze we’re all about promoting programs that better the driver experience. We encourage you to check out Rolling Strong and become part of the change.

“It would be really cool someday,” Steve says, “if a news article was released that reported that there is absolute verifiable proof around change in this industry as a whole towards better health and fitness and that we’ve really moved the needle.”