On the latest episode of Taking the Hire Road, host Jeremy Reymer sat down with Hope Zvara, founder and CEO of Mother Trucker Yoga, to talk about improving driver health and well being through daily exercise – and why that benefits carriers.
For several years, Zvara owned and operated a yoga school and a state-approved vocational school in Wisconsin teaching functional movement and yoga, but she says she knew that wasn’t her calling.
When an investor asked if she had any ideas for helping truck drivers to stay healthy even while in the cabin, Zvara pitched “Mother Trucker Yoga” without hesitation, and from there went on to build and eventually buy out the organization.
Mother Trucker Yoga has now helped more than 200,000 drivers develop an exercise regimen and stay healthy.
“I believe it’s the little things in life, cumulatively, done repetitively over time, that change one’s holistic health,” Zvara said.
The foundation of Zvara’s approach came from her own journey to health and wellness. “I’m in recovery myself. The quick fixes never worked for me,” Zvara said. “When I started to take things day by day, hour by hour, and for a portion of my life, minute by minute, I started to see that there was hope and that I didn’t have to live that way.”
In her experience, it’s the people who focus on doing the little things right every day who are able to sustain change long term for physical, emotional and mental health.
“When I compared Mother Trucker Yoga to the other players in the trucking industry, in my opinion, they were doing it wrong,” Zvara said of the yoga organization’s competitors.
Focusing on weight loss numbers is not a holistic approach to health, according to Zvara. While some diets and exercises can see good results, the best and most sustainable changes to health are those that aren’t so black-and-white.
“Small simple changes, done repetitively over time boost internal happiness and create confidence and momentum. It creates habits for a healthier lifestyle beyond trucking,” Zvara said. “That’s why I’m here.”
To engage with truck drivers and carriers, Mother Trucker continually evolves to meet their needs. Developing apps, hosting events, and keeping up with drivers on social media are all ways that the team tries to foster participation.
On a higher level, Zvara says, working with companies to audit wellness programs has had a major impact.
“We’ve audited many wellness programs this year, and less than 10% have sustained participation,” she said.
When Mother Trucker Yoga audits companies’ wellness programs, the team provides key takeaways with practical steps toward improvement. Typically, Zvara says, their suggestions are simple and straightforward, but tend to have a profound impact on the engagement and effectiveness of wellness programs and driver health.
Zvara’s next goal, in partnership with doctors, is to be able to change how healthcare is presented to drivers.
“We’re creating a system where it’s all under one roof,” she said. “In the trucking industry, wellness is in one corner and healthcare in another, and they don’t communicate.”
“In our programming, wellness, healthcare, and pharmacy all collaborate together and cooperate to keep drivers healthier overall. It saves companies 50 percent or more on healthcare costs,” Zvara added.
According to Zvara, what she does to distinguish Mother Trucker Yoga from competitors is to focus on relatively easy activities that drivers can do every single day to keep up momentum and make meaningful changes over time. “If you can’t do it in five minutes, I’m not going to teach it to you.”
The reason Zvara specializes in yoga as an avenue to introduce fitness into drivers’ routines is that it focuses on more than just physical fitness. “It teaches you to think about the mind, spirit and emotions. These things all have an impact on your overall health.”
The philosophy of Mother Trucker Yoga is about creating positive cycles and feedback loops. The founder says, “If you can work on one thing, it can make you feel better about your choices and encourage more good choices.”
“Maybe if you have back pain every time you get out of the truck, and one stretch five minutes a day helps alleviate that pain, you won’t be as miserable when you step into the truckstop,” she explained. “You might get a salad instead of a candy bar, and then once you’ve done that, go on a walk at the end of the day. With that serotonin and dopamine feedback loop, maybe you’ll call your family more and start to feel happier about all the little moments of your day.”
Those small breakthroughs add up, and that’s Zvara’s goal. “Making one consistent, small change can turn into a powerful cycle,” she said.
Book recommendations: “365 Days of Kindness,” “Leadership Success in 10 Minutes a Day”
Click here to learn more about Mother Trucker Yoga.
Sponsors: The National Transportation Institute, Career Now Brands, Carrier Intelligence, Infinit-I Workforce Solutions, WorkHound, Asurint, Arya By Leoforce, Transportation Marketing Group, Seiza, Drive My Way, F|Staff, Trucksafe Consulting, Seated Social, Repowr