Hope Zvara with MotherTruckerYoga and Linda Kreter
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Welcome to Wise Health for Women Radio with Linda Prater. Women are pressed daily to give more, learn more, and be more, often at the expense of mind, body, or spirit. Each week with intriguing guests and topics, we'll bring you fresh ways to view your limited time, encouraging a shift to new, healthier perspectives. Wise Health for Women Radio, helping women thrive. And now here's your host, Linda Prater.

Good morning. I'm Linda Crater and you're listening to Wise Health for Women Radio. We're going to talk today to a very interesting woman who has tackled a problem that I think we know about, but we don't think about very much.

And that is the health of those trucking all of our goods, services, food, you name it, across the country every single day, even during the pandemic. There was just no break for them at all.

And the health and well-being of truckers and those in the industry is so incredibly important. And I can't emphasize it enough. If we did not have those daily truckers, those bringing us all goods and services, we would come to a standstill. We saw how it almost happened that way. But thankfully, we have some very stalwart truckers.

more than essential people out there to do this. We're going to be talking today to Hope Zavara, who has developed a wellness program for truckers. Because imagine those long hours, you know, driving through the night, long, long times, maybe grabbing fast food at a trucking station when you pick up fuel, not moving, not being flexible and not eating right.

Here's a way that Hope has created to really give some wellness tips that are small steps that will add up to better wellness. So Hope, welcome to our program today. Thank you so much for having me on.

You know, it's a pleasure because I find that we often don't think about some of the most essential people in our world. We know their faces. We drive by truck stops, or if you stop on the, use as an example, the New Jersey Turnpike, you see the part for the truckers and the part for the domestic drivers. And we just don't give it much thought. And yet, without these people healthy and well and willing...

both mentally and physically, we would really be in trouble in this country. So how did you get involved? By the way, her company is called Mother Trucker Yoga. It's about movement and flexibility and what you can do in the cab of a truck and how she's built a whole community about this. So what started you on the line of this?

Yeah, well, I was struggling in my late teens and early 20s to get into recovery. I struggled with anxiety and depression, eating disorder, alcohol, and just was kind of

looking for answers and really hope essentially. And I was working as a lifeguard at the time. And one of my coworkers looked at me and said, you look like someone that would practice yoga. Interesting. So in the midst of turmoil, you still look serene? I still looked serene. Serene.

Yeah, I don't know if I looked serene, but she said I looked like someone that would practice yoga, whether that was my physical physique or it was just my personality. I'm not really sure. Interesting. But something in me just kind of tricked, and I went home, and I looked for a yoga class, and I found one at a local gym, and I showed up. I was half the age of everyone else in the classroom, but

something happened that day in that yoga class and when I rolled up my mat and walked out the door for the first time in years my mind was clear I was calm I didn't have all of that those

Those thoughts. And right after that yoga class, that Wednesday night yoga class really became those weekly rituals of second chances for me. I just, that was my space to feel what I thought at the time was normal, calm, at ease, at peace. And although it didn't last very long, I just kept coming back.

And eventually that led me to become a yoga teacher and open a yoga studio and then a school. But I always was kind of looking for something more. I never thought that that was my end game. I got into recovery. I've been in recovery for over 10 years now. Congratulations. Thank you. That's no small feat.

Exactly. And feel really good mentally and physically. And I have yoga to thank for that. But in my quest to kind of look for something more, who can I help? How can I use all my talents? Five years ago, I was at a local business mixer. I live in southern Wisconsin.

And I was at this little mixer here with my husband. And I look at this guy and I'm trying to pitch him corporate yoga because that's partly what I did at the time. And he looked at me and said, do you have anything for truck drivers like in the cab of the truck? And I think I'm funny sometimes. And I threw up my hands and I said, mother trucker yoga. Oh, my gosh. It came to you just like that.

Yeah, just trying to get a rise out of this guy and make the conversation, you know, move a little bit smoother. And he looked at me and said, that's brilliant.

do you want to go into business together? Stuck out his hand. We shook on it. The next morning, he called me up and said, well, are we doing this business partner? And in four months, we built a business from scratch. And a year later, I bought him out of the business because essentially I was kind of doing most of the stuff. And I appreciate him. And we're still, you know, we still are acquaintances and still, you know, connect once in a while. But he was kind of my connection into trucking. But when I stepped into trucking five years ago, I really felt like,

this is where I belong. These are my people. This is my home. I've always been a little bit more, maybe not politically correct. I would call it authentic and very direct. Yes.

Yeah. And my dad was a sewer pipe layer and I watched him break his body for years for his job and be very unappreciative. And that really stuck with me growing up. And I just see so much of my dad in the drivers I work with because they do go unacknowledged.

They do, you know, wreck their bodies and they do put themselves out there in a very thankless way where many of them. I mean, I don't want to say this is not their fault, but it's no one's really showing them how to live the lifestyle of a trucker. And I don't mean like show you how to do gym exercises in the front of your truck because go to YouTube. I'm talking about like the ins and outs of how to.

live this life and not just survive, but thrive. And this is really where mother trucker yoga comes in. I, I,

kind of that night when I met my former business partner, just like saw it in my mind, like, oh my gosh, I can build programming. I can help these men and women. And I just knew that that was where I was supposed to be. And five years later, I've single-handedly brought yoga to the trucking community. And I'm one of the leaders in health and wellness, helping trucking companies, truck drivers, CDL schools, really bring forth life,

lifestyle education in bite-sized pieces? Well, I think that's the most important part. Lifestyle is what I just jotted down in front of me, is that real change doesn't come about because you decide to take a yoga class. It doesn't come about because you decide to eat an apple instead of Doritos. It comes about from small steps that help you to sleep better, to be healthier, to have

Be at your more ideal weight to move each day. I hesitate always to use the word physical fitness or exercise, and I definitely don't use the word diet, but making good choices and changing the lifestyle one tiny step at a time, it really does add up. Would you agree with that?

Oh, 100%. And that's really when people ask me, like, how did you do what you did as far as recovery goes and kind of getting where I am today? It was because I realized through that process, yoga actually taught me this in a kind of roundabout way that the reason why I couldn't get and stay in recovery was

on that journey and that process was because I kept looking at recovery, like, I'm going to go to bed tonight. When I wake up, I'll be healed. I'll be better. I won't have these problems. And I just kept repeating, you know, the same things over and over again, because that's not how you get well, that's not how you make changes. And yoga kind of taught me like, okay, how about we just like focus on this one little thing? How about we just focus on this little thing over here?

How about on the yoga mat? You know, you're feeling this anxiety. You're feeling this, you know, this stress. You're feeling this overwhelm. Where else are you feeling this in your life? Like, where's the parallel? So I began to look at my yoga mat kind of like my incubator for my everyday life where I'd kind of practice what I needed to practice in a safe space. And then I go out into my life and I do the same thing. And I started taking those techniques into how I taught yoga. And now I've taken that into how I teach truck drivers

about living a healthy, active life, that it's these little things. When implemented correctly, they can make a profound impact on your life. What are some of the responses of the truckers after they have been doing this for a while? Yeah, so I think one of the first things I'll say is, I love the banter in the beginning because you always get the drivers where it's like, oh, I'm just fine right now. Like, I don't need to take care of my health. And I'm like, how's that working for you? Yeah.

And I welcome it. Like, I'm not turned off by that. But the drivers that I work with and the drivers that I have been working with, some of them I've been working with for several years now. Mm-hmm.

The number one response I get is, why didn't anyone tell me this sooner? I mean, these are about things like, here's how to have posture in the driver's seat. Here's how to improve your gait or walk. Here's, you know, how to shop at a truck stop and find healthy items when you don't have access to a Whole Foods or a Walmart or wherever it is. Like, these practical little things

really make a profound impact. One person that sticks in my mind is Idella. She is a matriarch in the trucking industry. And when I started working with her almost five years ago now, she had a lot of achy joints. She was told she had arthritis, her hands hurt, her feet hurt. By the end of the day, she felt as stiff as a board. And these tiny little stretches and movements that I'm showing her to do while in the driver's seat, some even while driving,

Her arthritis pain, quote unquote, had been reduced, if not gone. She was able to get in and out of the truck easily. I mean, the things I was teaching aren't rocket science, but I was showing them where and how and when to implement them. And then it feels accessible. Then health doesn't feel scary. And that's really the key. And that's where the magic happens.

Well, I agree with you. And I think that no change happens overnight. We didn't get to where we are overnight. And these small incremental steps really do help. And we want to live long, healthy lives. I wonder if you want to guess the answer is yes on this. But also mindful breathing is something that, you know, we breathe all day long every day.

But there are some things that truly help you. And I really resisted intentional breathing for a long time until I realized during the pandemic we needed to use all of the tools we had available. And if it works for Navy SEALs, it can work for me.

So I laugh because you could certainly do that in the cab and nobody would even know. You can roll your shoulders forward and back. You can make your back stronger. Posture is huge. Do you see how many people hunched there are these days? I mean, I want to go and gently, you know, push their shoulders back and push their back forward because some of them look like they're in absolute pain and they're very young getting these humps.

Yes. Yes. Well, and that's where the kind of the basis of fitness for me is, you know, people go to the gym and they lift heavy weights or they go for a run for 10 miles and they're like, wow, I'm healthy. But the way I look at health and fitness is what are you doing?

the entire day. And for most of us, we do nothing, nothing, nothing. And then for those of us that we call ourselves healthy and fit, we explode in movement at the gym or on a run. And then we go back to doing nothing, nothing, nothing. Not only is that not the definition of healthy lifestyle, you're actually setting yourself up for some major injuries because you're going from zero to 60 at the snap of your fingers. And for drivers, you know,

This is really about where can I fit health in, in small doses, one minute here, two minutes there. Here's a stretch you can do that looks like you're tying your shoes when you're filling up with fuel. Here's something you can do when you step up onto the truck step before you get in. Here's a stretch you can do while you're, you're buckling your, your seatbelt. Here's something that you can do before you go to bed at night. And to, to talk about the breathing, I mean, this is one of the premises and one of the foundations that I teach drivers is how to breathe.

Most people breathe with about 18% of their lung capacity. That's clavicle breathing. It's no wonder we're anxious and depressed. And as a society, this is 100% fixable if we would just take the time to teach people how to breathe. Well, and they have to be willing to do it. So I imagine you build trust and rapport right away because I can feel it. But I'm also thinking that once these few steps start to become cumulative and the little steps become larger steps...

you get believers and then they're much more amenable. And they also will share it with their colleagues because I bet word of mouth is pretty strong in your business.

Yes, absolutely. Well, and for me, I mean, I don't want to do anything that takes a long time. I mean, I have three kids. I run a business. I travel. I don't want to take three hours out of my day. And for the people that have that time to go to the gym and do it, bless your heart. I am so happy for you. But that to me is just not practical enough.

in the life that I live and in the lives of a lot of my drivers, because they don't know when they wake up tomorrow morning, exactly the way their day will go. Will they be in traffic? Will they make it to the loading dock on time? Will there be snow? Will there be ice? Will there be collisions? No, it makes total sense. The other thing that I think people are becoming aware of is when you do that stop, start exercise. So the weekend warriors who do a 30 K trail run, um,

after sitting at a desk all week, you're really doing your body harm. Or if you're heavy lifting only and not doing stretching and other types of daily exercise, you build the cortisol levels in your body. Not good. It's going to put it on in the wrong places. And when you start to build the stress hormones and the gut hormones in the wrong way,

you're actually setting yourself on a spiral towards diabetes and overweight. And we already know what the risk factor and inflammation risk factors are for most diseases. Inflammation is at the basis of every condition.

100%. 100%. I agree. And I think for many people, for me, when I became a yoga teacher a few years in, I recognized a pattern that a lot of the trainings that I was going to, they were telling me the what but not the why.

And that kind of set me on a quest to step out of the fitness world and start learning about how the body moves, taking trainings that were more based in anatomy and kinesiology and physiology and really just the body in motion. And then I stepped back into the yoga and fitness world and I was like, okay, how do I apply what I just learned to what I'm teaching now?

And I kind of went through my library of moves and started throwing some things out, adding some things in, making my own stuff. And the results that I got, people were feeling better. People were getting well. People were not having pain because the opposite was happening to me. People would say, oh, this is great, but why do I still have neck pain? You know, I can do this, but this really bothers my knee. And I didn't have an answer for them. And that

really bothered me. And so when I stepped into the trucking industry, I kind of saw the same pattern. Like drivers know that they need to improve their health, but they don't know how and they don't know why. And so it's like, why? Yes. Why is this happening? How do I fix this? What does this make sense to me? And I think a lot of people that are

kind of looming around the trucking industry trying to promote health, which I think is great and I commend them, they're still trying to slap the idea of health and wellness that we all, the people outside of trucking, can easily adapt to and adapt to. They're trying to make drivers do that and it's not working and it's frustrating them. And then they just kind of revolt against health even more. I think what is also becoming much more prevalent these days is that less can be more.

If you move five minutes every two hours, if you are flexibility and stretching is so neglected, if you work on flexibility and even balance, those are things that make a lifetime of difference. I personally don't want to fall down the stairs one day. I want to be able to avoid falls if, if at all possible. And they do a lot of strenuous work.

exercise and then peppered with hours at the wheel. Do you also help them with their calves? You know, do you talk about things like proper positioning or cushions or orthopedic devices that can actually help them keep their posture better? Because sometimes people are older and in their habits and they really don't know how to change things as readily as they might have.

Yeah, so one of the things that I love doing with drivers is not only educating them on what it is they should be doing and when and how and why, but also if I find something that I think is great, we partnered with a company called Backshield, and they are an amazing company that has created a back support specifically for truck drivers, but really anybody that's in a vehicle that has the right support.

structure and ergonomics and support for drivers. I actually had a driver that was in what should have been a fatal truck crash and the EMTs pulled them out and they said, you know, I don't know how you survived this. And then they picked him up and looked behind him. They're like, I don't know what this thing is, but it saved your life. And so I like,

I like recommending things that, one, I like, know, and trust. I know the history behind and the kind of input into it. But absolutely, things to support their posture, exercises that they can be doing, even different tools and techniques that they can do to support themselves, maybe not while they're driving, but be able to make driving easier. You know, it's funny. Years ago, someone said to me, when you stop at a stoplight, pull your abs in, tighten your glutes,

Little tiny thing to do. But as it becomes habitual, you realize that your core is stronger. And if your core is strong, you will be able to handle a lot more of everything else. Do you work on core specifically?

We really work on 15 different aspects of health and wellness. Anything from walking and feet to posture to ergonomics to the four essential movements everyone needs to do to age healthy, core work, how to activate your core, how to be able to support your core throughout the day with or without exercises. We go through walking mechanics.

We go through things that you can do to help improve sleep. I call it the, you know, one-on-one to, you know, eating and nutrition. I'm not here to create meal plans for people. I'm here to show you the basics so that you can have a foundation to understand what healthy eating looks like. So we kind of go through all of those aspects of health, whether it's in our app or we have a 90-day program as well that we work with with drivers. And then a lot of our stuff with trucking companies and CDL schools is all customized.

I think it's fantastic. And are you finding good uptake by the groups? I am unfamiliar, so forgive me this question. Are there unions for truck drivers or are they all independent truckers? No.

Oh, she's laughing at me. Okay. I apologize for that one. I think it's a great question. So really that's kind of two buckets of drivers. There's drivers that are, you know, driving for a company and then there's what's called owner operators where they're kind of their own beast or their own thing. Now there are associations and there are organizations that kind of help support these drivers in these two buckets to advocate for them and to help them get what they need.

But it's not in the same sense of like a union, what you would think of in like carpenters or in sewer pipe layers like my dad was a laborer. Sure. But they do have organizations to help them navigate things and support them depending on what type of a driver they are.

I figured that there was something, because it seems like we have so much regulation, there had to be something out there that was possibly hindering as opposed to helping. And I think the more independent...

You can make them at owning their own health. It often permeates into the family. So now you start to get the family eating better at home or understanding. Do you work with the families? Because understanding what their loved one goes through all the time is often a big help as opposed to focusing on you're never home.

Yeah. And so I don't directly target the families themselves, but I do have had spouses take my programming before and roll in some of our challenges. Many of them do team driving, but also the spouse is kind of

When you have a loved one that's a truck driver, you are really living the lifestyle. And it's kind of all over the place. You know, at home, sometimes at home, they are trying to be healthy and it is harder for the truck driver or vice versa. I've seen, you know, all combinations. And so I really think it's one when the driver is on board,

and the driver wants to improve their health, I just think that you, one, start changing the people you surround yourself with. But two, you're going to bring that home and you're going to voice those things that you're looking to do. And I have yet to meet someone where their family is not supportive of them when they're trying to improve their health. I think that's great because at the foundation of everything is good communication.

And so if you can help them learn how to express this to their families or to their fellow colleagues, it's a magical way of multiplying. You know, it's a force multiplier. If you can pass on, I hear it in your voice, the enthusiasm for what you do, the fact that you know you make a difference and they know they can make a difference in their lives. I'm huge into personal accountability and choices and

And I think most of these independent truckers are the same way, at least from what I have seen over the last four or five years as we watched some really difficult uncertainties and pressures come on board. So when you help these lifestyle changes, how do people work with you?

Yeah, there's a couple different ways that drivers can work with me. We do have an app. It's called the Lifestyle Jumpstart app. And essentially that allows drivers to kind of come into our tribe and they can access. We have about 200 videos on our platform. They're all, you know, right around five minutes or so. I just have the mentality that if it's, you know, too long. It's got to be digestible. No, I agree with you. Yeah.

And we have the attention span, the size of an ant in today's world. So anything longer, you know, we lose people quickly. And so they can kind of digest my content at their own pace and kind of navigate based on what they're looking for, whether it's

and what place in the truck they want to stretch or work out or what ailment they can kind of find what they're looking for kind of a la carte style. We have a 90 day program called Your Wellness Pit Stop and that really just week by week walks them through with me and a bunch of support, just really what it is they need to do to improve their health. It's kind of a deep dive. But on a corporate level, I'm working with trucking companies really in two different ways. One,

use my programming to help support their drivers, but to really working with audits with trucking companies because many of them have wellness programs right now, but they're not working. Drivers aren't using them. And so I'm able to kind of come in and assess and do an audit and help kind of revamp them

based on my experience, and just to be able to support them. So this does become an asset for the trucking company. I don't just want wellness to be a box that companies check, and for some it is. And what a shame to say you have a program and nobody's using it. And after talking with dozens and dozens of companies, even over the last 12 to 18 months, I've seen a trend, and I want to be able to help that. Absolutely right. And I think that

you know, this isn't often mentioned, but you're probably extending their careers. Oh, absolutely. If you can keep people healthy, you can extend what you're doing.

Yeah, turnover in trucking is like 340%. It's crazy high. And most of the drivers are leaving because they can't handle the lifestyle. You know, it's hard. It's no one's teaching them that. Sure, they can back up a truck on a dime or, you know, they can, you know, get the load where it needs to go or whatever it is. They're filling out their ELD logs appropriately, but...

What about them as a human living this lifestyle? And this is just something I really think I've zeroed in on and figured out. And I love the drivers I get to work with. I love when I see the lights go on. For me, I'm passionate about the underdog. I felt like that most of my life. I watched my dad be that person. And I just really love rallying for those people that no one's really rallying for. And I think this is where Mother Trucker Yoga comes in. Well, they're very much...

hidden heroes out there. There was some lauding of them during the pandemic because it was visible that our shelves were empty, but they weren't and they were being really truly applauded. There were a lot of pressures being applied as well, depending on where you lived. But it really is, you know, they deserve more appreciation. I know as kids, we used to ask them to honk their horn.

I don't even know if today's kids know to do that. Oh, my goodness. Well, my kids do. So where we live, my nieces and nephews and my kids would sit out on the front driveway and just make their arms go up and down. And they do that for hours in the trucks that come by, you know, because we live right by a stop sign. And it's like they're all honking and honking.

The drivers that I talk to, for those of you listening, they live for that. They live for acknowledgement. And so get your kids, my kids roll down the window on the highway, you know, and make that and the trucks honk. And so drivers live for that. So if you're listening, get your kids to do that because that can make the day of a driver that could be just having the worst possible day. And that helps them feel seen and noticed. And so get your arms out there and get those horns honking. Oh, I'm,

glad I said that then. Terrific. I want to make sure people know where to go to find out more information and that is at mothertruckeryoga.com and when you go you will see all sorts of resources from the blog to the videos to the programs that she offers. It is a wonderful service that you are offering Hope.

And I love your name and I love the way you went into this because it all comes together. And so I imagine you're also extremely positive for those who are, you know, fighting demons.

as well as keeping their jobs and working forward. So please go to mothertruckeryoga.com and find out how she's truly helping those heroes in our midst that we aren't even aware of. Anything you'd like to add? You have about 45 seconds.

Yeah, I'll just, I'll leave you with this. It's the small, simple changes that lead to the big results in life so that we all can feel our best. Today is that first day for every single one of you, whether you're a truck driver, a school teacher, a plumber, you can make that small change to improve your health. Now is the time to decide what that will be.

Very well said. Hope, thank you for sharing your wonderful company, the way it started, your inspirational recovery on your own, and what you're doing to help others nationwide and beyond. So thank you for sharing your time with us today. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it. Me too. Stay with us for another program next week. Make it a great week ahead. Thank you for tuning in today. You can find more shows at wisehealthforwomenradio.com.