“The key to functional exercise is integration. It’s about teaching all the muscles to work together rather than isolating them to work independently.” says Greg Roskopf, MS, a biomechanics consultant with a company called Muscle Activation Techniques. (He works with athletes) . 
So when thinking about exercise or training we need to make sure that the muscles we work with are ones that match our life styles. And as well as that – when we have a job that places physical demands on our bodies and that job is based in the outdoors , we find that as the seasons change so do the demands on our muscles.
Whereas a month ago I was hauling buckets of warm water to fill frozen stock tanks for animals, now I am dragging hoses to fill the same tanks. All winter I throw hay down from the loft and break the bale and distribute it amongst the cattle. In the summer I will work at baling the hay and lifting hundreds of whole bales up into the loft.
As the days allow us longer outside our fitness increases and soon I will be working for hours at a time in the gardens, bending my backs a lot more, and walking miles further than I do in the winter. Many of these changes are slow so we get the chance to train our muscles to work differently again.
But some of these changes in farm exercises come along very quickly.
All bodies will do better with these changes in routine if they have been maintained and tuned – exercised and stretched over the winter in preparation for the jump in spring work. A body is a body, muscle tissue and fibers and blood and dense bones and we need to take good care of our bodies. Feed the beast as we used to say in the theater.
Eat your chosen diet well.(No problem there). Eat seasonally – the food will actually match your needs – for instance the vitamins and minerals and roughage in the fresh dark greens we eat in the spring are essential after a dark winter.
Have a simple series of exercises that maintain your core strength. (For me this is the Salute to the Sun – yoga – and in the winter all the walking that comes with travel – my chosen goal is 13,000 steps a day in the winter).
Drink water (my biggest downfall – as I am a “cup of tea” drinker!).
And don’t forget your mind – give yourself 10 minutes a day of silent brain workout – either in meditation or list making or active thinking. Whatever suits you.
Just like I tell all my workers that part of their work with the animals is to stand and watch the animals for a while – noting changes. To watch them with your brain in gear. We also need to apply this watching and thinking to our own selves. Check our muscles, check our mind, note changes and work on solutions.
Do this quietly. No need to make a song and dance about it. Just match your solutions to the functions you expect your brain and body to cope with.
I have noted that I am tireder in the mornings this season, a little sadder, less physically co-ordinated, so I have tweaked my diet adding more protein and more greens to every meal and I am using Lent to make other short term changes. Though I am not a practicing Catholic now, from childhood I was trained to the 40 day fast by a very strict Catholic mother and, because of her training, I find 40 days a very manageable time frame. Though of course I don’t fast!! But I will increase my usual physical workout just a little for that same period.
I will be working on the muscles in my back and core and arms so they all DO work together when the gardening starts. These objectives are a very productive way to get me through the March blues. And remember the quote at the top of the page. Functional strength. Integration.
The sun is out and I think we might get ample sunlight today. It will not be overly warm 38F/3C but the winds will not be as strong.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
63 responses to “Functional Strength”
I have had last year’s calendar on my desk since January 1, unable to part with it. Inspiration hit me yesterday, so I disassembled it, trimmed the pages and took it to our art teacher on campus. She was thrilled. It lives on. I told her the name of every animal as she looked through the pages..ha It’s Friday! I too got a little blue a couple of weeks ago, so I started a new crochet project. That always helps me. Have a great day C.
You know those little pot mitts you made for me ? Do you remember? one is red and one orange – well I have used them every day since you gave them to me – they are looking delightfully shabby. So not only does your crocheting make you feel better it makes me feel better too! c
You’d waste way if you went on a fast. Great cow picture!
Lucky shot that one.. c
Your comments about being fit — for the job you are doing — rings so true. Now that my foot has healed, I am trying to regain the type of fitness I need for riding (which is all about the core), in addition to all the walking and lifting that comes along with ranch chores. I used to do a lot of yoga — it really is the best (for me) for core strengthening. I need to start incorporating a few sun salutations into my morning.
I am pleased that you are doing so well. I do The Sun because that is the only one I remember and it does stretch most everything. I have done a number of these most every morning for too many years to count. I always feel better afterwards.. c
Thank you for this WONDERFUL post. I needed it.
You are good at walking – in that beautiful city of yours. c
Yes to your great tips! Yoga and good food for me. And I take a mile and a half walk twice a day. I’m also a tea person and read that it counts in terms of fluid. But plain water is still a must. Wish you a lovely early spring.
I am with you on the early spring!! Heres hoping.. c
Wise advice to your workers — “stand and watch the animals for a while.” I’ve been doing more of that since I started visiting here. I often go back over many of the photographs you post, just looking; and the stories encourage that. They make the images more alive. So now when I see the animals where I live — squirrels in the yard, my neighbor’s dog, a hawk that appears over the tree tops towards evening, or even my cat watching birds through the windowor at the feeder — I think of watching them closely, as if they were my responsibility, a kind of natural work . Or as if they were both art objects and personalities. It seems that they are all these. And more.
all very good advice! It’s wise to be aware of one’s body- it’s limits and it’s strengths!
Have a lovely day!
Being still and quietly taking note – excellent advice
Taking a clue from symmetrical Nature (and yoga) make sure you use both sides of the body as equally as possible. If you haul or stretch with one arm, remember to do the same with the opposite.
(So sun salute twice: once with left leg going back and then again with right – but you knew that, right? HA HA – you are so balanced in so many ways.)
Very timely for me once again. I am too sedentary. I think I need to be herded into one of your yards!
Very well put. I have been an athlete and exercise enthusiast all my life. Not as my livelihood, but for kicks I maintain 3 certifications from the ISSA (International Sports Science Association) but it wasn’t until I read “Core Performance” by Mark Verstegen that I understood what functional training is all about. I wish I would have applied this concept years ago and not spent so much time lifting tons of heavy weights and damaging my ligaments and tissues. At 57 I do a full body workout 1 to 2 times per week, stretch with yoga, bike, walk and swim and have more muscle and flexibility than I did when I was in my late twenties-early thirties. I also eat like a race horse, lean and mean.