When most people mull over a term like “athletic training,” they envision gyms, track houses, or swimming pools. They’re not necessarily aware that acquiring a trade — carpentry, plumbing, or welding, for instance — can have a direct impact on athletic performance.
The physical, mental, and emotional skills developed through learning a trade can offer surprising benefits for athletes at any level. So, in addition to being able to make a good living, you can gain a competitive advantage by upping your game athletically.
Here are five specific ways the trades can positively impact your athletic performance.
- Creates Functional Strength
Many trades require repeated lifting, bending, pushing, and pulling, which can develop muscles in ways that are advantageous. Unlike gym equipment that isolates muscle groups, trade work can engage various muscle groups at the same time, enhancing overall functional strength.
Consider the following ways the trades can help create functional strength:
- Hauling and lifting loads on a construction site can tighten your upper body, legs, and core.
- Using hand tools or power tools can help you develop grip strength and forearm conditioning.
- Twisting, kneeling, and bending regularly can create flexibility and strength.
Such functional movements replicate many athletic actions, from strong swings in golf or baseball to sprinting in track and field and football. Learning a trade can help you develop a well-rounded physical foundation that translates directly into better sports performance.
2. Develops Endurance and Stamina
Trade work normally consists of sustained expenditure of muscular energy for hours at a time. Whether ascending or descending ladders or moving heavy equipment back and forth, working in the trades can help you develop aerobic and muscular endurance.
This endurance benefits athletes in the following ways:
- Sustained level of energy during extended practice, games, or competition
- Quick recovery between alternating sessions of intense exercise
- Greater mental toughness when exhausted
These types of advantages highlight how learning the trades and putting those skills to good use can also enhance athletic performance.
- Increases Coordination and Balance
Trades often require precision, hand-eye coordination, and balance — all requirements of athletes.
Working with tools can help you develop good motor skills and hand-eye coordination, and an electrician navigating ladders and conduit trains spatial awareness and body control.
These skills can be transferred directly to sports since they’ll facilitate better balance, coordination, and quickness. Trades work provides a hands-on, experiential approach to acquiring these skills independent of traditional athletic training.
4. Builds Mental Toughness and Problem-Solving
The trades also require critical thinking, patience, and persistence. And tradespeople often must devise solutions in novel ways, perform under stress, and confront new challenges. Competitive athletes, meanwhile, rely on these same skills and abilities.
High-stakes situation problem-solving will allow you to make good choices on the playing field or on the court. And concentration and focus will improve technique and sporting performance.
5. Facilitates Body Mechanics and Sensitization to Injury
Many trades teach workers to move property to reduce the risks of injuries. Adopting the right lifting techniques and postures can help you avoid repetitive strain issues.
Athletes who know about these concepts benefit in the following ways:
- Reducing training and competition risk of injury.
- Improving form and technique for sports activities.
- Extending career length in their sport by being more in touch with their body.
Understanding how your body functions while working in the trades will inform better training regimens, so you can work at optimal levels with fewer physical issues.
Learning a trade can provide more than a career — it can serve as functional cross-training for an athlete. From improved functional strength and endurance to developing coordination, mental toughness, and resiliency, trade skills bridge gaps in athletic development that traditional exercise cannot.
Trade skills are not just individual skill development — they can construct smarter, stronger, better athletes.