Farming can be hard work. Hours of hard manual labor can be tough on the body’s muscles and joints.

"It can be pretty demanding on the knees especially," said farmer Pat Lang.

Lang has had his share of injuries and aches and pains from farming. He’s the farm production director for the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, a farm share program that harvests about 200,000 pounds of produce every year.

My first full season farming, I was an apprentice here in Poughkeepsie, and I experienced a fairly serious injury kind of between the neck and shoulders," said Lang. "I ended up barely able to move and I had to go to urgent care."

After seven years as a farmer, he’s learned to listen to his body more and find ways to prevent injury. So when he heard about the virtual yoga workshop for farmers hosted by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County, he knew he'd join.

Lana Heintjes taught the workshop geared towards farmers that taught them how to prevent injury through the practice of yoga.

According to the CDC, every day, about 100 farm workers suffer a lost-work-time injury. Lang says he often suffers from tight hamstrings, and knee and wrist pain especially from repetitive motions like digging and planting, but he found several moves from the class he could see himself practicing, even in the field.

"Yoga helps to lengthen the muscles that get really tight from all of the heavy lifting and all of the repetitive motion that farmers do," said Heintjes.

Lang loves to farm and produce food for his community. He says yoga will help ensure he can continue to be a farmer for many years to come.

"I think farming is both physically and mentally more challenging than most folks expect, but I think it's more rewarding, too," said Lang.