Sitting your way toward a bad back: video
For farmers, long hours spent in tractors and other farm equipment, interspersed with shorter bouts of heavy labour, can wreak havoc with health.
Dr. Catherine Trask, Canada research chair in ergonomics and musculoskeletal health, based at the University of Saskatchewan, said her research indicates 50 to 60 percent of farmers in that province experience back pain.
“We know that when people are seated there’s a lot more compression in the discs, especially in the lower spine. And being stationary seated for a long time means that there’s not a lot of opportunity to decompress and to get up and move around,” said Trask.