For Farmers, Fitness Programs Can Improve Mental Health, Too – Civil Eats

News and commentary about the American food system.
In agricultural communities, strength training and stretches are helping both physical and mental well-being.
By Nicole J. Caruth
February 4, 2025

A movement workshop for farmers at Glidden Point Oyster Farm in Edgecomb, ME. (Photo courtesy of Labor-Movement)
Cynthia Flores was a farmer for twenty years, and despite doing intense physical labor every day, she never thought of herself as an athlete.
“It wasn’t until I got into strength training that there was a shift in my mindset,” she said. With a new perspective on farming, Flores began to prioritize self-care and be more mindful of her body. As her interest in fitness grew, she started competing in Strongman events, where athletes face off in Herculean challenges. (You can see her on Instagram pulling a horse trailer with nothing but some ropes and her own body weight.) Now a certified personal trainer and licensed massage therapist, Flores works with farmers and farmworkers across the country. “Are you farmers or athletes?” she often asks to kick off her workshops. “You’re athletes, just in overalls,” she answers.
“Are you farmers or athletes? You’re athletes, just in overalls.”
Farmers usually don’t have the same access to specialized trainers and coaches as professional athletes do, so it can be hard for them to get the guidance they need to move safely, build strength, and bounce back from injuries. That appears to be changing, though, partly due to the online fitness boom that emerged during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Flores, who studied kinesiology and outdoor education before becoming a farmer, is one of a small but growing group of fitness professionals dedicated to helping farmers and others in agriculture stay fit and healthy so they can do their work with more ease and less pain.
In 2020, Flores founded Labor-Movement, a small business devoted to helping farmers, fishers, and industrial athletes improve how they move, increase efficiency, and extend their longevity. “A lot of my friends were farmers and they were asking, ‘How do I not get hurt?’ Flores said, explaining that no one she knew wanted to end up hospitalized or unable to help feed their communities during the pandemic. “With the elevation of farmers as essential workers, they began to understand a little more how important their work was,” she said.
Cynthia Flores at Goranson Farm in Dresden, ME. (Photo credit: Kelsey Kobik/Labor-Movement)
Labor-Movement started with just a few online workshops during quarantine and has since grown into a full-time endeavor for Flores, who also has an associates’ degree in psychology. Last year, she reached 900 farmers across 18 U.S. states and British Columbia through online and in-person services, including two-hour movement workshops and winter strength training sessions for farmers.
While Flores specializes in body mechanics and movement patterns, other farm fitness specialists are offering everything from high-intensity interval training to Pilates posters and yoga classes.
Many say their programs not only enhance physical strength but also mental well-being, helping those in agriculture better manage the stresses of their lives.
Farmers experience some of the highest levels of job stress and related health issues in the nation, including heart disease and high blood pressure. Persistent stress has been linked not only to chronic diseases and susceptibility to injury, but also to mental health issues like anxiety and depression. Suicide rates for farmers are two to five times greater than the national average.
This article discusses issues of stress and suicide within the agricultural industry and efforts aimed at improving mental health. If you or someone you know is struggling, we encourage you to take advantage of these resources for support:
For more resources, visit Farm State of Mind from the American Farm Bureau Federation. If you are having a mental health crisis, please call 988, or 911 in case of an emergency.
 
Research shows that engaging in regular physical exercise can help counter these issues for the general population—and that includes farmers. “There’s really good evidence that vigorous physical exercise dissipates anxiety and anger, and it helps to take one’s mind off of troubling circumstances,” says Michael Rosmann, a farmer and clinical psychologist who serves farm communities. “Farmers who are in good physical shape, or who exercise to get in shape, are linked with longevity, lower cardiovascular problems and less obesity. When you feel good, you’re not suffering, and your mental health is more positive.”
In Flores’ signature workshop, “Athletes in Overalls,” she not only teaches participants how to safely handle farm tasks and perform key movements like squatting and bending. She also covers nutrition, hydration, sleep hygiene, and stress management. “That’s your foundation,” she recently said to a room of about 12 farmers at the Flowering in the North Conference in Maine. “If those things aren’t intact, it doesn’t matter how well you move or how good a farmer you are, things start to fall apart.”
Standing barefoot in black sweatpants and a forest green hoodie, Flores rattled off a list of potential mental and emotional stressors, such as physical stress, money worries, and weather forecasts. She wrapped up her segment on stress management by encouraging her audience to visit websites like Farm Aid to gather resources before they or someone they know is in a mental health crisis.
Flores doesn’t claim to be a mental health expert, but her past as a dairy and vegetable farmer has given her firsthand insight into the pressures of farm life and its impact on both body and mind. Even something as small as leaving the farm for a few hours can be a stressor, she said. That’s why she designed Labor-Movement to be mobile, allowing her to deliver strength training sessions, both in-person and through a digital app, and travel to farms to facilitate her workshops live.
“Initially, I wondered, ‘Can I teach farmers how to move?’ And it turns out farmers are interested in it.” That enthusiasm isn’t universal, though, as some farmers believe their daily routines provide all the movement and exercise they need.
“A lot of times farmers think, ‘Well, I do physical labor, so I’m in good shape,’” said Aaron Yoder, an Environmental, Agricultural, and Occupational Health professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Yoder points out that the physical activity involved in modern farming, particularly at large-scale operations, doesn’t necessarily equate to physical fitness.
“Farmers used to walk everywhere,” said Yoder. “Now they hop on something with wheels and a motor on it and drive all kinds of places, so they’re getting less exercise.” Meanwhile, the work they do perform may lack the benefits of focused exercise for building strength, improving heart health and relieving stress.
People unfamiliar with modern farming may find this hard to imagine, as many still have a mental image of agriculture that involves iconic scenes from Hollywood movies of lean farmers and ranchers riding horses, herding cattle, and tending to the land using manual labor.
“Farmers used to walk everywhere. Now they hop on something with wheels and a motor on it and drive all kinds of places, so they’re getting less exercise.”
“That’s really not what agriculture is today, and it can’t be that, or we can’t feed the people we need to feed,” says Tara Haskins, highlighting how modern American agriculture relies on automation to grow food at scale.
Haskins is the behavioral health lead at AgriSafe, an agricultural health care network formed by rural nurses in 2003. She directs the Total Farmer Health Program, launched in 2019 to provide wellness coaching on everything the agriculture business touches, from family to finances to personal fitness.
In visiting producers, she finds that, depending on the scale of their operation, they might spend most of their time driving equipment and running their business from behind a computer. Consequently, they may struggle to get the 150 to 300 minutes of weekly heart-pumping activity recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“It’s hard to convince a producer when they’re putting in a 12-hour day that they need to find time to exercise,” said Haskins. “The challenge is helping people figure out what they can work into their schedule that doesn’t create more anxiety and burden.”
With this in mind, Amanda Nigg, a personal trainer and fitness influencer with over 100,000 followers on social media (where she goes by @farmfitmomma), designs short and sweaty routines. Research suggests this may offer greater health benefits than longer moderate-intensity workouts.
Nigg’s program launched in 2021 and is all about getting fit right on the farm by making use of tractor tires, grain bin stairs, and other readily available equipment. Her clients engage in a mix of strength, calisthenics and high-intensity interval training for 15 to 25 minutes a day, five days a week and on the best days for them.
“We’re not just giving you workouts that are gonna humble your ass in that time,” she said, “but it’s gonna fit into your schedule because the biggest thing is that farming is a 24-hour job.”
In addition to the physical training, Nigg and the two coaches on her team provide emotional support, using skills like those taught in the “Mental Toughness” course at the National Academy of Sports Medicine, to affirm their clients’ ability to overcome challenges.
AgriSafe’s coaches also take a holistic approach but don’t prescribe specific exercise regimens. Instead, they offer educational resources, like “Ready to Farm,” a collection of free posters and videos that show how to stretch and strengthen muscles used in farming and ranching to prevent injuries. As Haskins explained, losing the ability to work due to injury increases stress, causing financial worries, sleep loss, elevated cortisol levels, and a further decline in overall health. “We try to emphasize that an investment in your physical and mental health is an investment in your business,” Haskins said.
Even though not all farmers today are as active as they used to be, they are all still at high risk of getting hurt. Imagine muscle strains and sprains from lifting heavy grain bags or reacting swiftly to animals. Arthritic joints or unrelenting back pain from the repetitive motions involved in picking fruit and stacking hay bales. Cramped muscles or a frazzled circulatory system from absorbing combine vibrations all day during harvest season. Any of these ailments can slow or stop production, exacerbating existing stressors and causing a downward spiral.
Before founding Labor-Movement, Flores tore her meniscus while running after her dog on a farm. At first, she tried to handle the injury on her own but eventually decided to get cortisol shots and then surgery. “It took a lot mentally for me to admit that I was hurting and for me to ask for help,” she said. Her recovery was quick, but when she later tore her rotator cuff, recovery felt “monumental.” She refers to that time as “my dark days.”
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A movement workshop for farmers at Glidden Point Oyster Farm in Edgecomb, ME. (Photo credit: Kelsey Kobik/Labor-Movement)
“Farmers who are injured have more behavioral health problems,” said Rosmann. “They often turn to self-medicating to deal with pain, not just physical pain, but more likely psychological pain.” He adds that the possibility of self-harm increases when the person injured can no longer participate in agriculture, which for some is more a way of life than a job.
According to pre-workshop surveys that Flores distributed last year, three out of five farmers reported having been injured, with each person averaging about 2.8 injuries. “I don’t know anyone who has ever been in pain who has been happy,” she said. While she’s not entirely sure if all the reported injuries are farming-related, she knows many farmers she works with deal with recurring injuries because they didn’t go through proper rehabilitation. With Labor-Movement, she wants to change that. “What if we never had injuries?” she told her workshop audience at the Flowering in the North Conference. “We don’t think about the injuries we never get.”
As they gathered around her in the empty conference room, there was an instant sense of camaraderie as Flores captivated the farmers with her charisma and humor. “What do you want to learn about the body?” she asked, prompting quick responses and callouts: arms, wrists, elbows, bending, crouching, repetitive movements, and back pain. Giggles filled the room as participants twisted from side to side, practicing mobility exercises and correct posture for squatting and lifting to reduce injury potential.
Another helpful resource is the Farmer Daily Stretching Program, a downloadable brochure on the Nebraska outpost of AgrAbility, a USDA-funded project that supports farmers and ranchers with disabilities in 23 states. While AgrAbility mainly focuses on severe disabilities, the program also provides educational resources to reduce common injuries like back pain, which affects about 40 percent of farmers.
In the brochure, a bluejean-clad model demonstrates 18 stretches to target muscle groups and joints important for agricultural work. For Yoder, who’s also on the team at Nebraska AgrAbility, it’s important that these images don’t feature a young, muscular fitness model but a heavyset male in his mid-to-late 50s, who, Yoder says, is meant to resemble the average farmer.
For those who need more motivation than a brochure, Yoder finds that it helps to share relatable stories: One farmer he met would occasionally hop off his tractor in the field to do squats, a convenient way to squeeze in exercise, keep the blood flowing, and prevent injuries. “The lack of mobility from sitting a long time can lead to injuries like slipping and falling when getting out of the tractor,” Yoder explained. He recommends that farmers do the stretches in the brochure to loosen up the body before starting the workday.
Knowing that many farmers played sports in school, he, like Flores, reminds them that they’re still athletes. “Athletes just don’t go and perform all the time,” he said, “they do other things to help strengthen their performance.”
Yoga for Farmers and Ranchers
On the Yellowstone River, south of Billings, Montana, Katahdin sheep rancher Alexis Bonogofsky sits cross-legged on her floor, backlit by a fire in an old-school black wood stove. A shaggy black-and-white dog peeks into the room, curious, and quickly walks away. Bonogofsky looks at her camera and explains belly breathing to viewers as she begins her online class, Yoga for Farmers and Ranchers.
In this five-episode YouTube series, created in 2020 in collaboration with the Quivira Coalition, an educational organization promoting regenerative land stewardship, Bonogofsky teaches yoga postures and mobility exercises that help strengthen and stretch body parts involved in farming and ranching. She focuses on building strength, balance, and mobility in the core muscles—the abdominal wall, glutes, hip flexors, and inner thighs—to create more ease in everyday tasks, like pulling a calf during a difficult birth, stepping up on a tractor, mounting a horse, repairing fences, or lifting heavy objects, a common cause of low-back injury.
Bonogofsky has taught the ancient Indian practice for 13 years, almost as long as she’s been a rancher. She says many are “hesitant” to try yoga because they believe “it’s only for young women who wear yoga pants and are flexible,” a fiction she wants to dispel. Yoga was transformational in her life, giving her a space away from work to nurture herself, and she wanted to give back. “I just thought, ‘How can I bring some of what I’ve learned over the years to people that I think could really benefit from it?’” she said.
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Numerous studies have highlighted yoga’s effectiveness in addressing conditions like depression and addiction, offering individuals an outlet for coping through movement and breathwork. Unlike the Western viewpoint that segregates the mind and body, yogis see them as intricately linked to one another.
“If you go to work every day and your body hurts and you’re struggling, it’s not a good place to be mentally,” said Bonogofsky. “I think that part of the mental health issues in rural communities, especially with farmers and ranchers, can come from physical pain.”
Bonogofsky finds that while many ranchers in her orbit live with low-back pain and achy joints, taking time out of the day to tend to their bodies isn’t a cultural norm, she said. Yoga has proven to be a powerful tool for initiating discussions about the effects of stress and caring for the body. “I try to gently say certain things, hoping it makes people stop and think or feel like, “Oh, I’m not the only one experiencing this.”
Laszlo Madaras, who serves as the chief medical officer at the Migrant Clinicians Network and is a former distance runner, said prescribing exercise for farmworkers isn’t always the best advice. Many of the ones he sees in his practice face a different set of stressors than farm owners, he said, especially being required to pick by hand in extreme temperatures, which makes their work physically taxing. In this case, exercise might not relieve stress but create more of it.
A farmer in California. (Photo credit: Maguey Images/Getty Images)
“If I’ve been sitting in a combine for 12 hours, yeah, I’m going to go out for a run or walk or bicycle,” he said. “But for the people who are already doing that all day long, I think it’s good to have a different approach.” In an ideal world, Madaras said he would prescribe farmworkers a combination of nutrient-rich food, sufficient hydration, a break during the hottest part of the day, access to an air-conditioned space, and a massage—or any culturally relevant form of relaxation, as long as it provides a mental break from work.
With Labor-Movement, Flores is not just coaching to prevent injuries on farms but to create a holistic culture of care where it’s understood that every body has different needs. Recently, she launched a new nine-month Farm Movement Advocate Program for farms that want to embed injury prevention into their daily operations to keep their crews safe.
“What I feel Labor-Movement is really doing is holding the door open to a conversation about movement health and wellness for people in agriculture,” said Flores. This approach is counter to traditional U.S. farm culture, she says, where the message is that farming is “backbreaking” and getting hurt is simply part of the lifestyle.
“In farming, there’s often an expectation that we must sacrifice our bodies, minds, and overall health for this work, believing that this is what makes us strong,” wrote a client of Flores who wished to remain anonymous. “But Labor-Movement has helped me realize that true strength lies in setting boundaries, being adaptive, and making my well-being a priority alongside my work . . . . [We] farmers must prioritize our health if we want to sustain this work, rather than burning out or wearing down our bodies.”
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Nicole J. Caruth is a mental health reporting fellow in collaboration with the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Her writing has appeared in ARTnews, Gastronomica, Public Art Review, two Phaidon Press volumes, and other publications. Read more >



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