 Our next caller is Grace from Wisconsin. Hey Grace, how can we help you? Hi guys. First off, my question is, well I'm a truck driver and so I drive upwards of 11 hours a day depending on if I'm picking up or dropping off trailers and so I'm driving and sitting all the time and usually this doesn't happen but if it's like a stressful day like dealing with traffic or snow which actually no snow for right now but it's upper midwest so you don't never know that or high winds you know I get pain in my neck and in my shoulders and in my back and I was just wondering if like there was something I could do to counteract that see I've been driving for upwards of 12 13 years seven of those being truck and you know I just was uh I do have prime and I have prime pro but I looked over them and here was kind of like overwhelming and confusing I didn't know where to start but I was like hoping to maybe do something to counteract that like usually it would probably be like something that really fast like that I could do like when I go to a rest stop to use the restroom or something like that yeah no so Grace I trained years ago some really close some clients that ended up staying with me for a long time they owned a company with that that did what you did and they drove trucks quite a bit and this was a common complaint right they would get pain in their back uh one of the guys I trained would get pain in his hips sitting too long he's just brutal on the body it is and so here's the two piece of advice I have for you now one is yes definitely when you stop you should definitely get out and do five minutes of exercise and you can bring bands with you on your truck and you can do some light rows you could do some cable chops you could do some light squats just to kind of move the body or you can pick some movements for maps prime pro but here's the problem the problem a lot of people might not realize this but sometimes truck drivers especially when you're in a time crunch you don't stop for a while right you stay in there for a long period of time and so there are some movements you can do while driving now you talked about your neck and your upper back and your lower back so I'm going to give you a few suggestions okay so the first one is going to be for your upper back so what I want you to do when you're in your seat is I want you to sit real tall you're going to bring your shoulders back down and then I want you to push the back of your head the nodule that's at the bottom of your skull into the back of your chair and try to elongate your neck while pulling your shoulders down so you're pushing your head down up and put pulling your shoulders down and you're trying to elongate you want to do that for about 10 to 15 seconds at a time it's basically the seated version of our zone one test which I know that that's a common thing too with our prime programs is that it's a little bit overwhelming because there's so many different things to address but that's why we also tried our best to kind of condense that in webinars and so if you haven't checked those out yet like Adam and I both Adam did want a little bit more focus on prime pro I did want a little bit more focused on the compass test specifically but what what Sal's describing is you know what I had Doug kind of do against the wall and I think that that's just one that you want to repeat that as as frequently as possible based on you know the position of your head and leaning forward and grabbing the wheel and there's a really very stressful position you're placing your body in yeah so and then there's one more movement you said your lower back this is a very easy movement and it usually helps people with low back issues as they're driving you can practice pelvic tilts in your chair so this is where you're sitting down and so you start by arching your back and then you go to rounding your low back and you're just moving your pelvis back and forth and what you may find is the first few reps might be a little painful might be a little stiff but just doing this for five or ten minutes typically will loosen up the lower back so just those two simple movements that I gave you while you're driving if you do them you know once every hour can make a huge difference so I actually I do what you just said Sal but all in one thing so what I do and this happens to me a lot if I drive for longer than two hours if I fly on a plane for more than two hours this is how I feel my low back starts to kill me my neck gets stiff and what I'll do is I'll sit up in my chair I'll tuck my chin in and then head I'll drive my head back into the seat first that's the first place I connect so and I'm gonna keep that in that position I'm holding that tension then I take the shoulders like Sal said I'm gonna squeeze them back and down push that against the back of the chair and then the last cue is to rotate the pelvis like you said so I'm going to act so squeeze my abs and squeeze my butt so when I squeeze my butt that's going to rotate the pelvis almost get a little tiny bit of a lift yeah exactly you're gonna feel yourself kind of lift a little bit yeah and you if you do this correctly you actually will feel relief immediately yeah I always know like and then I'm gonna sit there and I'm gonna keep that I'm gonna keep tension in all those keep pushing the head back rolling the shoulders tucked down squeezing the butt I'm gonna keep intensify that for about 10 seconds then I'm gonna relax and then I'm gonna go through all those points again and I'm gonna do that as much as I can while I'm driving or while I'm flying until I feel complete relief so that's what I would do while I'm driving and then I would do some specific moves uh when I stop it like a truck stop to keep it simple quick because you don't have a lot of time I believe I've seen you before and I think you do have bands and you take them with you where you drive is that right yes I have a lot of equipment I have a adjustable dumbbell I have bands yes cable machine okay yeah I think I've seen you post and tag us before do you have a suspension trainer just oh yeah I do have a suspension trainer in here upper midwest it's been like like below below like sub zero temperatures but now it's like finally and getting into the 70s and 60s so I was excited to get back into doing the suspension training again yeah I mentioned that because I've had a um a truck driver that uh I got into suspension training was able to you know hook that up and anchor that to the truck itself and so when we go on like truck stops was able to do a lot of moves right there in place alongside so bands and and suspension trainer I would think would be a you know a decent fit for your your lifestyle so w's zone one which is in uh maps prime so I would do the move and that's a zone one move where you you press against the wall or press against the truck in this case I would do w's with either the suspension trainer or with a band uh and then I would do uh the hip thrusts get down on the ground for a minute just those three moves uh I would do those for five or ten minutes at a truck stop every time you stop between that and then what sal is saying right there you should get a lot of relief yeah great thank you so much yeah no no problem I love your podcast I listen to you all the time I have lots of time to listen to stuff so thank you my sister turned me on to you guys last year so we talk about you all the time we were on the phone awesome well thank you guys discuss thank you so much for your support and thanks for the work that you do you do a very important job for the country well thank you so much for you guys and I read your book so I listened to it twice already oh wow awesome awesome thank you great thank you that's a that's a tough job I know with with health you know when you actually you know I don't know if you guys have seen the numbers on truck drivers and their health and it's one of the most challenging jobs to do uh the food that you eat is often on the road it's so sedentary you're you're sitting all the whole time and you're and when you get done what does not sound good is going and hitting a gym for an hour right no your body you just want you want to crash yeah you're exhausted you're exhausted that's the worst part it's like you're exhausted but you've been sitting there you know for hours and hours and hours and so yeah to get to muster up the energy to then be physical which your body really needs and is craving for is difficult I would say one of the hardest positions to stay in shape that I've trained like when I think of clients that I've trained quite a few I mean now you got computer engineers that are pretty damn close right I'm working with them it's pretty here's the thing every hour if you do like five minutes of just even squeezing a squeak you know a ball or working your shoulder like a turbo boost it improves your performance with your job as well not just improving your health