27 Apr 2018

The Rigours of Shearing

From Country Life, 9:17 pm on 27 April 2018
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Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles

The rigours of shearing need to be better understood by health professionals so they can help shearers overcome injuries, says movement mechanics coach Laura Hancock.

She works with shearers, who tell her they often struggle to receive the care they need, are prescribed pain-killers and told to return to light duties in the shearing shed.

Demonstrating the positioning of hips for shearing.

Demonstrating the positioning of hips for shearing. Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles

Typically shearers shear between 200 and 400 sheep a day.

"Sixty-five kgs is your average ewe. That's not light duties."

Hancock says shearing requires a sequence of complex movements involving the whole body from the toes to the fingertips.

They would benefit from health professionals making more of an effort to understand their daily lives, she says.

At the recent National Rural Health conference, Hancock demonstrated exercises that would give shearers relief.

She also played slow-motion footage of shearers in action, highlighting the strain that the work puts on different parts of the body.