[Market-farming] Stretches for Farmers

Allan Balliett aballiett at frontiernet.net
Sat May 23 06:59:58 EDT 2009


After Sora's stretch suggestions for curing plantar faciitis and then 
getting up this morning after a 14 hour day mostly being drug behind 
the rotary plow and finding my achills tendons shortened enough to 
make me stoop over as I walked, I realize how much I need a 
stretching routine.

After giving myself permanent back damage through a misunderstanding 
of one of the positions in Salutation to the Sun in my self-taught 
yoga routine almost 20 years ago (best said that in the middle of the 
routine I some how decided that I needed pain for gain), I'm rather 
hesitant to start something on my own.

But, boy, if I don't have time for a pedicure, I really don't have 
time for a daily yoga class!

I'm wondering if anyone has or has heard of a stretching routine 
especially for market farmers (or maybe hod carriers).

I should say here that both my wife and myself were diagnosed with 
either heel spurs or plantar faciitis, myself so bad that at one 
point I almost couldn't walk out of a field I'd just finished 
tilling. I thought we were goners, fer sure, but one visit to a very 
good Rolfer and neither of us have had more than ocassional symptoms 
in the past long time.

Sometimes I get what must be tendonitis in my hands. (Can't really 
close them and can feel the tendons snapping around on the back of my 
hand like rusty cables.) A simple achilles tendon stretch, like most 
runners do before a run, corrects this problem for, sometimes, month. 
I seldom stretch for more than a couple of minutes and, damn me, I 
always forget to stretch daily. Such a lesson, though: by stretching 
my heels I've freed up tight tendons in the backs of my hands! 
(Confirmed as anatomically correct by my Rolfer, btw)

Allan in WV, who is about to go stand on the steps and stretch his feet



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