Farming is a labor of love with a neverending list of things to do. The physical and mental hurdles that farmers and farmworkers experience can be joyful accomplishments or struggles that are survived. Farming is known to be back-breaking work, with a farmer’s primary tool being their body. Often, a farmer’s physical well-being is not a consideration until there is a problem: an ache, a pain, a limitation to ability or capacity. It is not uncommon for farmers and farmworkers to barrel through work with an injury given a cultural tendency to “get the job done.”

Labor-Movement LLC, founded in 2020, trains farmers in body mechanics and movement patterns, focusing on increasing an individual’s understanding of how to utilize their athletic capacity to decrease injury potential. Framing farmers as “athletes in overalls” encourages individuals to consider their well-being as a priority to continue to do the work they love and increase their longevity.

From April 2023 through September 2024, five Maine farms participated in a Movement Health + Wellness Coaching Project funded through Northeast Extension Risk Management Education (ERME). The project was centered at each farm’s location, with involvement of farm owners and the entire crew. This project included movement workshops at the beginning of each season to set a framework of movement well-being. Additionally, five total coaching days were dispersed through each season, at two to three month intervals. These days allowed for individual or small group interaction to address real-time individual concerns. Winter access to mobility and strength training was included, and, for the entire 18-month project, Labor-Movement was available as a resource to address pre-injury concerns via multiple communication channels. Labor-Movement worked with each farm in creating up to three standard operating procedures (SOPs) related to movement health and wellness specific to their farm. Some SOPs developed and implemented included harvest weight limitations, hot workday management, injury reporting, and use of medical history forms.

Health + Wellness SOPs
The SOPs were implemented during the 2024 season. Below are summaries from participating farms. 

Harvest Weight Management SOP:
At Whatley Farm in Topsham, Maine, storage crops (e.g., carrots, beets, radish, winter squash) were weighed to determine which of three different-sized containers would be the most appropriate to keep max weights at 40 to 45 pounds. This weight was agreed upon as a manageable and sustainable weight for any of the crew to manage comfortably on their own with appropriate lifting techniques. This information is part of a harvest manual that will serve for years to come as standard practice at the farm.

Hot Work Day SOPs:
Broadturn Farm (Scarborough), Bumbleroot Organic Farm (Windham), and Calyx Farm (Morrill) each implemented a hot work day SOP during 2024, with variations that worked for the farm operation and general practices.
Common threads included:

• Earlier start times/earlier end times.
• Predetermined group rest breaks. One farm noted that initially, self-management showed some individuals were not willing to stop working for rest or hydration.
• Availability of water, ice, salt tablets, and some snacks.
• Frequent check-ins.
• Encouraged autonomy to recognize self needs, including taking additional breaks, if needed.

SOPs include factors used to determine what weather constitutes use of the procedure, as well as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information regarding signs and symptoms of heat-related injuries and illness. On-farm responses and responses potentially requiring emergency medical services are also addressed.

Injury Reporting SOP:
Included in this procedure are guidelines for “pre-injury” musculoskeletal concerns, as well as general injuries (e.g.,. Cuts and falls), that, left unattended, could lead to a situation requiring medical interactions and/or multiple days off to rest and recover. 
The SOP also includes recommendations for self-care without seeking medical attention, as well as procedures of seeking immediate non-emergent medical attention. Farms included which facility individuals should make efforts to visit in the case of a worker's comp injury.

A further step that could be considered is a “return to  to work” process. This step may require gradual re-entry or alteration of tasks, with conversation between the injured person and farm management/owners to determine the best plan for well-being of both parties. If medical attention was sought, information from that visit would be pertinent for both the injured person and the farm owner/management to include in that discussion.

Farmer Reflections
Over the 18-month project, Labor-Movement developed a rapport with the farm owners, managers, and crew members. By having a coach tiered outside the farm structure, there is an added advantage from outside perspective and the ability to share useful information between farm crews and owners/management that otherwise might not be known, acknowledged, or addressed. 

In cross-sharing information across hierarchy levels, or between farms, identities were not disclosed unless information shared involved injury potential, or farm safety or viability. Maintaining confidentiality is of utmost importance in developing coaching relationships across multiple levels.

Ben Whatley, co-owner of Whatley Farm, said, “Working with Cynthia has been good for our farmers' health and a boost to morale. It's been so cool to have a coach operating outside of our management structure, who is just focused on wellbeing, injury prevention, and process improvement. Cynthia helped us to develop SOPs for basic things like what crops to put in what size containers (to control weight) and how to safely move heavy carts of seedlings up and down the ramp of our box truck. She has become another member of our farm team who we look forward to continuing to work with after this project ends.”

Colleen, a farmworker at Calyx Farm, said, “I learned how to use my body in a more sustainable and thoughtful way. It reminded me that my health and well-being is important while on the job.” 
End-of-Project Survey Results
In total, approximately 55 farmers participated in this 18-month Movement Health + Wellness Coaching Project. A survey administered at the end of the project revealed that 83% of participants strongly agree that having access to coaching improved their movement health and wellness, with 100% indicating that they had modified their movement strategies or self-care management to decrease injury.

When participants were asked if they would have pursued movement training as an injury prevention tool, 50% said “possibly,” while 42% said “no.” Only 8% responded that they would have sought movement training as a means to prevent injury on their own. Whether these responses are a factor of economics, time investment, knowledge or access to resources, and/or perceived acceptance within farm culture was not asked. Whatever the reasons, this is worth further exploration.

The practice of injury prevention in agriculture lags in adequate training focused on the individual. While farm practices and ergonomic set-up is a vital piece in farmworker safety and well-being, addressing individual health — both physical and mental — and the potential accumulated stress involved in farming are beginning to be topics of interest for farmers.

Farmers are athletes.

Athletes train for their sport or endeavor. Athletes learn HOW to move efficiently to maximize strength, movement efficiency, capacity and to reduce injury potential.

Movement Health + Wellness begins with health. Factors include vital signs, such as pulse, respirations, blood pressure and mental status. Health also includes factors such as: food + fluid consumption, electrolyte replacement, accumulated sleep or rest in a day and over weeks, medication interactions, and understanding how stressors and frequency of exposure to stressors may influence mental and emotional health, as well as physical health.

Function is how we move. Function of movement relates to an individual’s mobility and stability. Mobility is the ability for joints to go through a full range of motion, both actively and passively. Example: ability for the shoulder to move through it's entire range. If the arm cannot move up overhead, the primary problem may be reduced shoullder mobility. Stability is the ability to stabilize joints while executing a movement pattern. If the shoulder has overhead mobility, the next consideration joint stability to lift overhead. Shoulder stabilization includes the arm and torso to maintain normal breathing patterns. Muscle engagement sequence is considered when assessing stability.

Barring any structural or medical compromises, we have full mobility, range of motion and function of our body and our extremity’s movements. The ability to stabilize relies on muscular contractions and intact neural pathways. Various injuries, including pain response to stressors, along with fluctuations to activity levels can hinder mobility and stability of movement.

Movement is a compromise between what our brain wants to do AND our body’s ability to do the task, with or without injury or pain. Our brain will filter down movement pathway possibilites until we accomplish the task. Movement compromise may be a combination of mobility or stability problems, including decreased neural connections or inappropriate sequencing patterns. Movement compromise for a single occasion may not result in injury. Movement compromises may occur due to: pulled muscles, injury, mechanical constrictions (clothing/footwear), working in constrained spaces,  and repetitive tasks. Movement compromise may become a movement compensation over time that could lead to problems elsewhere in the body.

For example, when squatting to lift a load, we want our feet flat on the ground and our torso upright (shoulders higher than hips). IF (ex) there is decreased ankle mobility, our heels may come off the ground during descent. This movement compromise (between brain and body) allows us (the brain) to complete the task (squatting) within the body’s abilities. IF this heels up approach then becomes compromised, the brain may avoid a squat pattern and instead, utilize a “bend at the hips” pattern, dropping shoulders to hip level or below, to accomplish the task.

​Another movement compromise: shoulder pain or injury suffered from a single event or repetitive motion tasks. The shoulder is a complex of muscles, tendons, ligaments and joint capsule that allows for flexion, extension, rotation and more. If there is pain or decreased range of motion, a movement compromise might include shrugging the shoulders to complete an overhead or reaching task. Left unattended (mobility exercises, strength exercises, soft tissue work and/or advanced care) this movement compromise could become a movement compensation that then may affect neck and shoulder muscles, alter breathing patterns or cause low back or hip pain.

It is not uncommon for altered movement patterns to cause chain reactions elsewhere in the body. Is it your knee that hurts because your knee is injured, or does your knee hurt becuase of decreased ankle mobility and your gait has changed?

Without health and function, it is generally more challenging to gain or maintain fitness and skill.

Fitness is our ability to physically do the work or tasks. Fitness levels change over the course of a farm season and the experience of multiple years. Fitness in the spring might feel different than in the fall due to repeated exposures to work load and stresses.

Similar to beginning or returning athletes to sport, considerations for new or returning farmers to an on-boarding type workload may encourage longevity by allowing time to maintain or adapt health strategies, including meal prep, home life, laundry, sleep and outside work activities. Gaining fitness by on-boarding might also give opportunity to learn how to move efficiently - especially if farming is new. Finding ways to decrease physical and potential mental stress and allow for acclimitization at the beginning of a season might mitigate the chance of reoccuring aches, pains or injuries mid-to-late season.

Skill development is often overlooked in relation to movement health + wellness in farming. Skill development should include not only how to be efficient and productive in the farming, but also how to move one’s body efficiently and effectively. Classes exist to learn how to tend the land, succession plant, cultivate and harvest, operate machinery or tend to livestock. Often physical ability is assumed, and skill development focused on body mechanics and movement patterns as a risk management tool for injury prevention and career longevity is neglected.

Movement pattern skills for farming include maintaining a neutral spine when picking up, putting down or moving in rotation with a significant-weight-to-you load. Maintaining a neutral spine, that is, no bends in the back other than naturally occuring curvature, along with core engagement, helps protect the back for repeated lifting and lowering of various loads. How to maintain a neutral spine is one of the first things a strength athlete learns. Swimmers learn breathing patterns and body rotation for efficiency. Driving a tractor to plant or harvest, or loading a market truck, both require body rotation. Exhalation during rotation is a way to decrease neck, shoulder and back pain. Likewise, pitchers learn how to throw, and tennis and golf athletes learn how to grip and swing their racquet or club. Throwing hay bales and milking require shoulder maneuverability. Shoulder packing and lat engagement allow bigger muscles from the torso to be effective. In repetitive hand-intensive work, such as clipping and stripping flower stems, farmers could benefit from understanding grip patterns, including hand flexion/extension, lower arm rotation and shoulder engagement.

Farmers are athletes. But unlike sports athletes, often movement patterns and body mechanics are not considered until there are already existing aches, pains or injuries, both acute and chronic.

Farmers are athletes with countless hours, endless days, and longer and longer seasons. The number of squats, hinges, pushes, pulls, rotations and lifting with variable loads in a single day, exposes one to possible function or health concerns, without adequate rest periods. Sports athletes have a limited season of play, typically weeks to a few months, followed by an off-season. Many farmers have very limited off-season time.

Farmers are athletes. Movement health + wellness begins with health. The health of a farm relies on the health of the farmers, including physical, mental and emotional well-being.

Labor-Movement, LLC strives to be a resource, educator and coach to farmers, foresters, trades people and industrial athletes, to improve body mechanics and movement patterns for injury prevention, increased efficiencies, and longevity in a day, season or career.

This article first appeared in MOFGA's The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener Winter 2022-2023 issue.