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| The winter body-care workshop at NOFA |
As a matter of fact I just returned from the NOFA winter conferince where I presented a workshop on keeping your body strong through the winter. It is a fun workshop that I have presented before and it is very based in what the participants want to know. The workshop centers around what tasks you find the most challenging when you start the season and how you can maintain the strength and/or flexibility you gain after you have done this task all summer long. One thing that was surprising about this group was that even though their farming background, ages and body types where drastically different than the folks in the same workshop that I presented for CISA a few months earlier the body issues where the same. So, todays post I want to talk about the two things both groups came up with; keeping up their core strength through the winter and keeping the flexibility of a forward bend in their low backs and legs.
Core strength is a big one and I feel like, for my body, it is the first thing to go if I am not out working. And it seems that this is true for a lot of farmers, not only did both groups think of and discuss core strength many folks struggle with it all season long. But, what exactly is your "core"? The core of your body are the muscles that wrap around your mid-section like a cumber-bun(remember those?!) such as the abdominal obliques and the muscles of the deep low back. Taking it one step further your core also consists of the muscles that are deep within the workings of your body like the diaphragm There are over 15 muscles involved in this group and they all work together to do tasks like lifting.
There where a few exercises that both groups came up with to keep their core muscles strong the first was intentional breathing. By taking a deep breath in and allowing your lungs to fill and your belly to expand you are pulling your diaphragm down. Then as you breathe out you tighten the muscles of your abs back to your spine, starting with the ones under your belly button and moving up to the ones under your ribs. This is a great way to gently ingage your core muscles as well as calm your central nervous system. The second exercise was more active. Starting on your hands and knees bring your back into a neutral position(not arched or sunken) bring one arm up and point it straight out like super man. Lower that arm back to the floor and then bring the opposite leg out behind you and strech it stright back, parallel to the floor. Repeat this on the other side and then if you are feeling stable and would like more of a challenge bring up and stretch out the opposite leg and arm at the same time. The Mayo Clinic has a great description of this exercise with photos here. Both of these exercises can help to keep the core engaged enough through the winter that come spring your mid-body isn't so atrophied your poor back has to do all the work.
The other body issue that both groups have is that the back of the legs tighten up dramatically over the winter. For this both groups came up with stretches, as aposed to strengthening exercises, and they came up with a LOT of them! I have narrowed it down to the two that overlapped and remember to only stretch a warm muscle. The first of the two is a modified lunge stretch that can very in the depth of the lunge. Stand about 3 feet away from a wall, put both hands on the wall at shoulder hight and width. Then step one leg out behind you and put your heel down on the ground. Lean in toward the wall and push away to give the calf a great stretch, hod it for 45 seconds and then repeat on the other side. The second was a seated stretch that lengthens the hamstrings. Sit on the floor with your feet flexed flat(you can put your feet on a wall to help with this). Slowly lean forward from your hips with your back straight until you feel the stretch Make sure not to round your back, hold for 30 seconds and come up slow. This stretch directly mimics a the forward bend that so many in the workshops said was the hardest thing for them when the season started back up.
Both of these activities are simple and straight to the point. It seamed that one other thing both groups had in common was that they needed stretches and strengthening exercises that where simple enough that they where not time consuming and effective enough that they could feel good about doing them. All four of the activities above are both effective and straight forward. By just spending a few minutes each minutes in the morning or evening on keeping your body strong and flexible over the winter will make a world of difference when the season starts back up. I hope this helps you keep your working body strong through the rest of this cold cold winter!
