The other "E" word...

Did you just make the confused emoji face? Yeah, I know. "What other E word?"

You'll see shortly...

It's not a four letter word and most sailors don't use it. You don't even realize it's a bad word until you use it yourself.

In our line of work, saying this word gets reactions like...

"Why the hell would I do that before/after working all day?"

or

"Go out and pick rocks out of the corral/hay yard/horse pasture/feedlot/off the switch back?"

or

"Psh. I don't do that [poop]."

Did you figure it out yet?

It's "exercise."

Oh! Yeah. You knew that. So why the heck has it become such a foul word??

Because it's almost always recommended or referred to as an answer to this "place of shame" or "inadequacy" that you have supposedly placed on yourself.

It's assumed that because exercise is mentioned, there's something wrong with your body.

The reality is, especially as ranchers or farmers, we exercise daily and it's known as "work."

At the end of a long day, when you've been particularly busy, you may be tired, but you feel good. That's partly because the movement you were doing was beneficial in your mind, in some way for your operation.

But the other reason, is that it was beneficial to your body.

We were made to move. We are not meant to be sedentary beings. However in the last couple of decades we've become more sedentary, even in the ag industry, as more things are mechanized.

So the obvious answer seemed, to some, to use fear tactics such as threats of diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease, etc. as a means to get people to start moving for their health.

Trouble with that is, if fear worked...no one would smoke, drink, eat copious amounts of sugar or chew tobacco. Yes?

So instead of coming from a place of fear or loathing, we kinda need to shift our thinking to that place where, a little bit of exercise that contributes to your daily purpose, is going to make you more efficient, help you think more clearly, lower your stress levels a tad (yeah, market prices would help a lot too) and help you sleep better.

Yes, the stuff we do every day is already pretty physical. But, you can use certain exercises to enhance those chores and make them feel easier. And if you truly love this life you lead, you'll get to lead it a lot longer if you can take care of your body and help it be more efficient.