Siphiwe Baleka is considered the fitness guru of the trucking industry.

For years, long haul trucking has had the highest obesity rate of any occupation and truckers have a life expectancy decades lower than the national average. But thanks to Baleka and his leadership, that’s all changing. And now, other industries are turning to truckers as role models for health and wellness.

Baleka is shaping the future for himself and thousands of others, but it’s all inspired by his own past.

When Baleka failed to qualify for the 1992 Olympics in swimming, he quit the sport and traveled the world. Eventually, he became a trucker.

Baleka refused to become a statistic, so he began working out, started swimming competitively once again in Masters events and launched a new website to show other truckers how they could follow in his footsteps.

That’s when we met him. And when our video “In for the Long Haul” went viral, Baleka’s platform went global.

We caught up with him at the 2016 U.S. Masters National Swimming Championships where, at 45, he was fitter, stronger, faster and more passionate than ever. And he credits all of that to a lesson his father taught him years ago.

Learn more about Fitness Trucking at SiphiweBaleka.com.