Back health: Stretching a point

Anyone who drives a tractor or harvest machinery for a living soon gets used to grabbing short breaks when they turn up, like while waiting for a trailer or a spreader, or a pause for more seed or fertiliser to arrive. Time to check the phone or maybe unscrew the flask; nothing wrong with that. But instead, why not run through some easy routines designed to stretch and strengthen your muscles and relieve load on your joints?

Fieldwork builds tension in muscle groups, partly through holding set positions and partly from the narrow range of alternatives. Rough going builds compression in the spine, and lack of movement reduces blood circulation. All of which will — sooner or later — produce stiffness and pain.

At this point you might reasonably think ‘Stretching is for oldies. I don’t need it.’ Not true: we can all use it. And apart from some phone faff time, what have