A Back Yard Campout

A warm spring day with a clear night forecasted is the perfect time to enjoy a backyard campout by the creek. I don’t know how many times I trekked up and down the forty-feet of elevation (at a forty-five-degree slope), along the path between the campsite and the house, but it was enough feel it the next day. My little boy probably made the trip to the house and back twice as many times as I did and didn’t even recognize he was getting a workout. Ah, the blessings of country living! My good husband grew up in these hills and hallows and reaped the full benefits of being a country boy. He and his brothers were (are still) strong, and work was part of daily life on a truck farm. Nobody knew they were living the life after which a modern method of training is patterned. Loaded movement training basically is an attempt to mimic some of the daily activities of a farmer. Think about it: heavy buckets full of feed down the hill, water-filled buckets or maybe a small animal back up the hill; dragging chain, pulling ropes, wrapping it low, half way up and then up high, depending on what’s getting pulled; lifting square bails, sacks of feed, crates of produce, cedar posts, or you-name-it, to fill the bottom, the next layer and the top row on the trailer, each piece placed in a slightly different position than the preceding; climbing while under a load, squatting, turning, pressing, pulling, holding, chasing, bending, and reaching while under a load…whatever it takes to get the job done, under a load and against resistance, throughout the day; that’s the life of a farmer. Many of you natives know this from first-hand experience, and you know what happens to boys who grow up on the farm: They grow up strong. Unfortunately, a lot of our old farmers have “tractor back” or other worn out parts because of habitual hard work done wrong. Poor form or working TOO long and hard is not good training…but the work itself is good. The life is good. Living and raising a family in a place where there is ample opportunity to work is a tremendous blessing for the body and mind. Creating opportunities to work is an important task for parents in the raising of healthy children. It’s important for everyone. If physical work isn’t part of your daily life, get to thinking about how you can change that. Try to make the work fun. Disguise work by calling it a project or a game; Sort of like that stair-stepping exercise we camouflaged, calling it ‘Let’s run up to the house and get more marshmallows…’

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