Farmer Fitness

• Farmers don’t do as much physical activity as they used to. Therefore, to stay healthy it is important to be more active and take part some form in daily exercise.
• Build exercise into your daily routine, walk for short trips and leave the quad bike behind; take a break and do some stretches or lifts.
• There are 1440 minutes in every day – use 30 of them for physical activity.
• Farming is still a physically demanding way of life, but it is not as active as it was in the past.  Machinery and other vehicles now assist with a lot of the physical work and farmers spend a lot more time sitting down than walking.

  Like the rest of the population, many farmers are not as fit as they could be and many are becoming overweight. Being overweight and inactive increases your risk of many serious health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, mental health problems and musculoskeletal aches and pains.

• It is important to be fit in three areas – cardiovascular fitness, strength and suppleness (flexibility/mobility).

  Looking after yourself is part of looking after your farm

  Farmers need to be healthy and fit because it’s hard to ‘take a sick day’ when there’s no one to take your place. Looking after your health is an important part of your business risk management to ensure you can continue to look after your farm!

• Make physical activity enjoyable, there are lots of ways to build activity into your daily routine:

• Walk down to check the stock and leave the quad bike in the shed.
• Do some stretches before you start work and throughout the day, wherever you happen to be, the shed, the house, or out in the paddock.
• Do some gardening – why not dig over the veggie plot?
• Do structured recreational activity like playing golf, water skiing,  strength work outs, bushwalking
• 10,000 steps is the recommended daily step goal for a healthy adult
• Safety tips
• Medical checks– if you are over 35, have a pre-existing illness or haven’t done much physical activity for a while, have a medical check up first.
• Exercise with care– be mindful of traffic and farm equipment when you are exercising.
• Sun– wear hats, sunscreen and clothing that best protects you from the sun.

Hope these tips are useful and during the winter seasons, it’s definitely important to maintain good health for the upcoming season.

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