Siphiwe Baleka’s Four-Minute Fit Tips

Hi. My name is Siphiwe Baleka; I am the founder of Fitness Trucking and I am the author of the book “Four-Minute Fit.”

My mission, my passion is to help truck drivers stay healthy, fit and maximize their health and fitness while they’re out on the road.

So Four-Minute Fit is about teaching drivers how to turn their metabolism on before they start driving so that they can be burning fat while they’re behind the wheel and how to keep it on.

The easiest way to do that is to move with maximum intensity for four minutes. OK? Doesn’t matter what the movement is; it’s any movement you can do. The key is that you’ve got to do it with enough intensity that you’re breathing so hard, you can barely finish a sentence. Again, it doesn’t matter what your current fitness level is; it doesn’t matter what your current weight is. Whenever you open the door to get into the truck to start driving, you’re already outside your truck. You’re already standing. You’re ready to work out!

So what you’re doing is you’re moving, any movement you can do. One of my favorites is just shadowboxing, OK? You’re just moving your arms, you’re kind of bouncing, right? You’re throwing punches, you’re having fun — but you’ve got to turn up the intensity. You’re going as fast and as hard as you can.

So knee-crushers. You can do this anytime, any place, anywhere. It’s easy on the ankle, the knee, the hips. So what you do is you take a step back with one leg, reach up in the air across your body opposite that leg, and you’re grabbing something and you’re pulling it to your knee. And then you’re stepping your foot back, just setting it down. Now, you do this with whatever intensity you have. When you’re doing this, you’re going to work the abs, work these muscles here. It’s real good on the belly; it’s a crunch. But you’re using all the muscles in your leg, your arms, and here you go. No. 1 exercise you can do.

Another great exercise I like are squats because they work the major muscles of the leg and the core, and when you’re working those major muscles, it engages your fat-burning system. So with squats, you have your feet pointed forward, you’re going to bend at the hips, stick your butt back, ok. You’re just going down; you go as far as is comfortable for you. You may not be able to go all the way down like me, right? If all you can do is go this far, that’s what you do, but you’re doing it fast. Now, if you want to make it a little more intense, you can add a jump. 

The key to staying healthy, while you’re out on the road, is to build some effective behaviors into your routine. Take the four minutes, do ’em with as much intensity as you can, get to the point where you’re breathing so hard, so that you can be burning fat for the next few hours while you’re driving. You’re going to live a much longer, healthier, happy life.