Cristiane Sodre has her very own fitness studio on-board

– Cristiane Sodre, Actros driver

Cristiane Sodre has barely finished parking her Actros at the service station and she's already getting out of her cab in her training gear: black sports leggings, a red cotton T-shirt and trainers. Her hair tied back in a pony tail.

Cristiane unrolls a pink gymnastics mat and ensures it doesn't roll away using two five-kilo dumbbells. Then, she wraps weight cuffs around her ankles: now she's ready to start her training! "Fitness is my passion," says Cristiane. "Aerobics, power training, squats, abdominal exercises – you have to move every single part of your body!"

Cristiane has been doing sports since childhood. A year ago, she started driving trucks. But even on long tours, she tries to keep to her usual rhythm. "I spend a lot of time sitting down," she says. "I counteract that with sport so that I don't start putting on weight."

Sport in place of homesickness.

Before she started in international haulage, the driver from Lisbon went to the fitness studio three times a week. "Now I have my own studio on-board," she says proudly. Dumbbells for her biceps and triceps, weight cuffs for training the thighs. "Actually, you don't really need a lot of equipment to keep fit. One of the most important things is willpower."

Cristiane is married and has two children. Whenever she is driving far from home, sport helps her work off the stress and concentrate on the road. Occasionally she feels homesick, but her tip to fight that is a full body workout!

Photos: Begoña Tremps