NEAR MELVILLE —
Fitness options can be limited for anyone living in rural parts of Saskatchewan, so one farmer near Melville created his own gym set up on his property called Farm League Fitness, using whatever he had lying around the farm.
Stuart Chutter said prior to that, he had to travel an hour and a half to Regina any time he wanted to work out at a gym.
His set up consists of a weight rack and a cross fit structure, as well as hay bails, tractor tires, fence posts, a sledge hammer, bags of livestock salt and more.
“There’s so many elements of health that are on the farm, so fitness and sweating there just seems natural to me,” Chutter said. “This makes fitness more accessible.”
When he started his own social media pages for Farm League Fitness, Chutter received tons of messages from rural Saskatchewan farmers who were facing the same problems.
“There’s so many times where I’ve said ‘I just wish we had a place where we can go, and with other people around,” Jocelyn Velestuk, a nearby farmer and friend of Chutter, said.
Velestuk said being fit is an important part of the job.
“We do a lot of sitting in a tractor a lot of times, and then you get out and haul some bags. It’s really important to make sure you’re fit for that,” Velestuk said.
The structure is portable, so it can be taken off the property, or relocated to different areas of the farm depending on the season.
“When the neighbouring canola is blooming, I can go workout there. When my sunflowers are blooming, I can go lift among the sunflowers,” Chutter said.
Only a few select friends are using Farm League Fitness for now, and but Chutter is hopeful more people will want to take part once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. He said anyone will be welcome – whether they’re a rural farmer, or someone from the city looking to take a weekend road trip.
