Courtesy Jupiterimages/ Photos.com/Thinkstock Our bodies are the most effective and versatile tools we will use on the farm. |
I was talking to an engineer one day, and as he described a project he was working on, he began explaining it with examples of the body’s musculature and skeleton. The more he described, the more I realized how similar the study of engineering is to the study of anatomy.
I asked him if he had ever studied anatomy. While he hadn’t, he too has recognized the parallels, hence the descriptors he used. We agreed that it would probably be time well spent for any engineer to study how muscles and ligaments are attached and how they react to forces and movement.
My recent bad back relapse reminded me of that conversation. I realized that if my back were a crane, I would never have expected it to handle the torque of bending, reaching and twisting at the same time, as I had over my raised garden bed. And yet, if my muscles had been in good repair, with adequate stretching and exercise in preparation, it could have handled the chore with no problem.
It truly is amazing what the body structure can do with tension, extension, flexion and all the other movements our muscles can make. Our bodies are the ultimate in engineering and the most effective and versatile tools we will ever have at our disposal.
Time to go do some stretches …
