He can wha-at?" That question came from Bill Friesen, the manager of driver services for Winnipeg-based Arnold Bros. Transport. We were talking about Jeff Beckta, and I mentioned that the 43-year-old driver can bench press more than 400 lbs.
"That's amazing," Friesen added. "You'd never know it looking at him."
He's right. Beckta's 5'11", and he barely tips the scales at about 180 lbs. He doesn't look like your typical rippled body builder.
On a really good day, he can press 500 lbs. The self-effacing driver jokes that it comes in handy on those rare times when he has to hand bomb some freight. But that's certainly not why he does it. Beckta just really likes working out. He has since high school.
Most of the time, he gets his lifting exercise in the various gyms he visits as he makes his way around the Winnipeg-Montreal-central-U.S. triangle in the Pete 379 he drives for Arnold Bros.
Like the sailor with a woman in every port, Beckta's got a gym in every town.
In some places, he says, he leaves his rig parked at the local truckstop and cabs to town for his workout; in other locales he pulls up to the gym in the truck.
Wherever his job takes him, Beckta Googles a local gym, ponies up a day-usage rate and makes that his activity of choice, especially during downtimes and reset periods.
He also says it's a great way to meet people on the road and get to know different communities. "Some of these gym facilities are amazing and worth seeing in themselves," he says.
Mostly, he uses local YMCA's, but if they're not available, he goes to the commercial operations.
The brass at Arnold's doesn't mind, as long as he stays on schedule, Friesen says. In fact, the manager says the company would like it if more drivers stayed as fit and healthy as they could on the job.
"We have full gym facilities here in Winnipeg with exercise machines and medicine balls and we encourage everybody to take advantage of them," says Friesen.
An increasing number of trucking companies have similar gear for their staff. The link between fit staff and productivity has become an accepted tenet of the transportation business, and everyone knows that OTR driving can be very hard on your health.
Combine the sedentary lifestyle of sitting for days on end with the temptation to live on junk food and coffee, and it's easy to see how drivers can let themselves get out of shape really fast.
Problems associated with driving include heart disease, high blood pressure, back pain, fatigue, sleep apnea, and even deep vein thrombosis which is another way of saying potentially lethal blood clots in the legs. Also, if you've got a genetic tendency to diabetes you have to be even more cautious about your lifestyle and diet.
Beckta - and for that matter Friesen - is eager to tell you how working at your health and fitness makes you a happier driver, a more desirable employee, and even, as Beckta put it, a better family guy.
"I see some of those guys, especially south of the border," Beckta says. "And they're really badly out of shape and I'm thinking 'what's the long term hold for them?' Nothing against them personally, but you wonder how long they're going to be able to work."
"If you're fit and healthy you'll have better self-esteem," Friesen says.
Beckta is anything but a fitness evangelist. He's soft-spoken, (Friesen says he's almost shy), and works out because he loves it.
"It just makes you feel so great. At the end of a workout, you're full of energy and ready for anything," he says. "You feel like you can take on the world."
He also says living healthily is more economical. "I don't know how those guys who buy all their meals in truck stops afford it," he adds. Beckta certainly downs his share of grub. But it's on his terms.
The Breakfast of Champions
It starts with a couple of eggs that he nukes in the microwave every morning. He follows that with a couple of protein shakes; some cottage cheese and then winds up with a fairly hefty supper every day.
"Sometimes I'll buy one of those whole chickens and just eat the breast meat. That sort of thing's a treat for me."
He also says the protein shakes taste very good, even though they sound pretty unappetizing.
A relative newcomer to trucking, Beckta has only been behind the wheel since 2002. After working for his father's electrical contracting firm for many years, he decided to get into trucking and started with TransX out of Winnipeg.
"They had an awesome training program," he says.
His next outfit was Ayr Motor Express where he drove dry van around central and eastern Canada.
His decision to come to Arnold Bros., was based partly on his desire to work for somebody based in Manitoba and partly the company's ads.
"Their ads looked good and it turns out, it's an excellent place to work."
Arnold Bros. is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year; and more than 450 drivers, both company and owner-operators, haul for the carrier.
"The thing is, they're pretty flexible when it comes to time off," he says. "That gives me more time with my son." Beckta's 12-year-old son Joshua loves traveling with his dad, and, "he can name all the trucks," Beckta Sr. reports.
He also says Arnold Bros. "gives you all the tools you need to do the job well.
"They're constantly offering courses that will help you do your job better."
For his part, Friesen says the company's always looking at ways to keep good drivers. "We want our people to be healthy and strong and productive," he says.
"Jeff is a good honest guy and hard working and he's got a bright future here," Friesen says.
Good thing, too. Because Beckta intends to live to 100. At this rate, he just might make it.
Fit for Trucking
Jeff Beckta is unique. He has been an athlete since his days at Oak Park High School in Winnipeg, and he is such an avid body builder you might consider him a semi-pro. Still, his lifestyle can serve as an example for others in this business.
Norma Fairman is a Sudbury-based registered nurse and has competed in Germany and Australia as part of Canada's world-class dragon-boating championship team. She's an avid body builder, too, and says she knows a lot of truck drivers who have very noble intentions when it comes to following in Beckta's footsteps but find excuses to avoid workouts and gyms.
"When those guys take a break from driving they often do it in social circumstances where there's lots of tasty food," she says. "It's hard to turn down the tasty food at truck stops in favor of a gym. The thing is, that taste often means there's lots of fat in the food, too, and you know what that does to you."
Also, she says, people mistake psychological fatigue with physical fatigue and therefore skip exercising. "A fellow will say he's tired at the end of a shift, when in fact he hasn't done any exercise. He's tired alright, but it's from stress."
Excuses for skipping exercises are dead easy to invent, she says. Another dangerous and silent peril is age.
After you're 40, because your metabolism slows, you should eat half as much food and get twice as much exercise as you did before reaching the four-decade mark. Otherwise, you're going to get out of shape fast.
The cheapest and best way to win back some of that youthful fitness? Walk.
Taking a strong purposeful stroll around your truck stops or docking facility is energizing, healthy and it will make you feel good about yourself. Plus you'll get a good night's sleep.
