When you hear the word athlete, you probably picture someone competing at a high level — a professional football player, an Olympian, a UFC fighter.
I think some of the toughest athletes are working in the trades.
They’re climbing steel hundreds of feet in the air, welding in extreme heat, operating heavy equipment through a twelve-hour shift, and doing physically demanding work day after day. The physical component is obvious. What we talk about less is everything else that allows someone to keep performing well under those conditions.
That’s where the Industrial Athlete mindset comes in.
To me, an Industrial Athlete is someone who intentionally trains their body, their mind, and their character so they can show up consistently and perform well. That applies at work, but ultimately it should carry over into life outside of work too.
A stretch before the shift can be part of that. It just isn’t the whole thing.
Showing Up Like an Athlete
Athletes prepare with intention.
They don’t show up on game day and hope for the best. There are routines they follow, skills they practice, things they pay attention to, and adjustments they make when something isn’t working.
That same mindset can apply to work.
Maybe you already go to the gym several days a week. Great. That is one piece of the bigger picture. How are you recovering from long shifts? Are you eating and hydrating in a way that supports what you’re asking your body to do? How well are you managing stress? Do you have strategies for staying composed when the day starts going sideways?
There are also the smaller, job-specific details. The way you move in and out of a piece of equipment, the positions you spend hours in, or the physical demands that show up repeatedly throughout your shift.
There isn’t one perfect routine that covers everything.
The point is to start paying attention.
Ownership Changes the Conversation
One of the distinctions I come back to often is the difference between an owner mindset and a victim mindset.
If I’m showing up every day in pain and telling myself, This is just what happens when you work in the trades, I’ve already decided there isn’t much I can do about it.
An owner asks a different question.
What can I do that might make this better?
Maybe you need better information. Maybe something needs to change in the way you prepare, recover, move, or work. Maybe you need help.
For a long time, there has been a culture in parts of construction and the trades that says you suck it up, work through the pain, and keep going.
That may sound tough. It isn’t a very good long-term strategy.
Being proactive doesn’t mean everyone has to become the star player every day. Sometimes the win is much more practical: your body hurts less, you manage the day better, and you still have enough energy to be engaged with your family when you get home.
Train the Conversation in Your Head
The mental side of performance deserves the same kind of attention.
Listen to the recording that starts playing in your head when something gets hard.
We all have one.
Maybe yours says:
I can’t do this.
Nothing ever goes right.
This day is already a disaster.
Those thoughts can become so familiar that we stop noticing them.
Self-talk is trainable.
Part of performance psychology is learning to recognize the narrative you’re carrying and developing strategies you can use when that narrative stops helping you.
That doesn’t mean pretending a bad situation is good. It means learning how to coach yourself through it.
What do I control right now?
What is the next useful thing I can do?
What do I need to change so I can keep moving forward?
If you leave your response completely to chance, especially when you’re tired or stressed, the loudest thought tends to win. Building those tools beforehand gives you something to rely on when the day gets difficult.
Maintenance Is Part of Performance
We spend a lot of time talking about performance and growth. We don’t always spend enough time talking about maintenance.
At Catamount, we use a framework called the Four Quadrants of Life. One of those quadrants is maintenance — the restorative practices that allow you to keep functioning well over time.
Think about the way you maintain equipment.
You don’t wait until the machine completely breaks down to change the oil. You pay attention to the small things because you know they affect how well that equipment performs and how long it lasts.
People aren’t that different.
Sleep, nutrition, movement, recovery, and time away from work all influence how well you function over time. Having some play in your life can help too, along with making room for the things that actually restore you.
Maintenance isn’t wasted time between periods of productivity. It helps shape how well you handle the next hard thing.
When you’re taking care of the fundamentals, your highs can be higher — and even your lows don’t have to take you quite as far down. You recover faster. You become more resilient.
Change Usually Happens One Tool at a Time
I also don’t expect someone who has worked the same way for thirty years to hear one presentation and suddenly change everything.
That’s not realistic.
Some people immediately connect with this idea. Others hear it and think, Absolutely not for me.
That’s okay.
Maybe the next time they hear it, they’re willing to try one thing. Maybe one strategy works well enough that they’re willing to try another.
Changing long-established patterns takes time.
Our responsibility as coaches is to understand where somebody is, approach that person with some humility, and give them information they can actually use. If one idea connects with them, start there.
Over time, the goal is to build a better set of tools.
What Are You Training For?
The Industrial Athlete idea is ultimately about identity.
An athlete trains because they are preparing to perform.
The trades deserve that same level of intention.
You are asking your body to do difficult things. You’re making decisions in environments where composure, attention, and judgment directly affect how you perform. You’re working alongside people who depend on you. Then, when the shift ends, there are people at home who would probably like some version of you too.
So yes, warm up before work.
Then keep going.
Pay attention to the way you recover. Learn what helps you manage stress. Notice the way you talk to yourself. Take ownership when something isn’t working and be willing to learn a different approach.
That’s what training like an Industrial Athlete looks like to me.
Jason Spector, Scott McKenna, and I recently joined Mike Nelson on the Blue Collar Startup podcast to talk about the Industrial Athlete mindset and how it can support performance both at work and at home.
You can watch or listen to the full conversation here:
https://bluecollarstartup.io/industrial-athlete-mindset-for-every-tradesperson-bcs-133/
Consultant at Catamount Consulting
