[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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