Fishermen Wellness: Allostatic Load

Why Recovery Matters for Fishermen

Allostatic load is what happens when your body never fully resets. It’s the slow, steady buildup of biological strain from always being "on." It’s like a tax on your nervous system for every night of poor sleep, every early morning on the boat, every skipped meal, every emergency fix in the engine room, every day hauling without recovery. It all adds up.

The term allostatic load was coined by neuroscientists Bruce McEwen and Eliot Stellar to describe the wear and tear on the body and brain from constantly adjusting to stress. And commercial fishermen are adjusting to stress constantly, physically, mentally, emotionally. Bad weather, gear breakdowns, inconsistent landings, regulations, markets, family, finances, there’s no shortage of stress.

And here’s the thing: over time, all that unmanaged stress doesn’t just wear you down, it blocks your ability to perform well.

When your system is overloaded with cortisol and adrenaline, it’s like trying to fish with the parking brake on. You can go through the motions, but you won’t be at your best. It gets harder to focus. You snap at people. You start losing steam. And eventually, you will burn out.

Burnout is just overtraining by a different name. It’s what happens when there’s too much stress and not enough recovery. (Read more here)

Think about it like this: You’re an industrial athlete that requires a lot of physical activity to do your job, so treat yourself like an athlete.

You’re constantly pulling, pushing, hinging, squatting, and rotating. You’re out in the elements, sometimes solving problems under pressure, and you’re constantly adapting.

Professional athletes spend hours training and recovering so they can perform at their best for short bursts, minutes or maybe a few hours. But many fishermen expect themselves to be at 100% for 12 to 20 hours a day, sometimes multiple days in a row, with no real recovery.

That works. Until it doesn’t.

If you want to perform at a high level and avoid breaking down physically, mentally, or emotionally, you should start thinking like an athlete.

Most people think recovery means lying on the couch with the TV on. But that’s not recovery, that’s rest. Which is great, but it doesn’t clear stress, help your body reset, or always help you show up strong tomorrow.

True recovery is active. It’s anything that helps your nervous system shift from “go mode” (fight or flight) into “reset mode” (rest and digest). Things like breathwork, cold exposure, sauna, deep sleep, movement like walking, massage, and meditation. Even eating enough and staying hydrated counts. (And is actually incredibly important!)

These things activate your parasympathetic nervous system, the part of your body that counters stress, lowers your heart rate, improves digestion, and helps restore your focus and energy.

You don’t need a spa. You just need a couple of things in your back pocket that you practice regularly. If you just keep pushing without resetting, your performance flattens. You start running on fumes. And you can’t keep doing your best work if your system is burned out.

But if you recover well, your body not only resets, it actually comes back stronger!

If you’re reading this thinking, “I don’t have time to recover,” then that’s exactly why you need to, fishermen. Recovery is the final and most important part of the performance cycle. Skip it, and your focus, energy, and problem-solving can become inconsistent or impossible.

Here are the important takeaways: 

• Start treating your body like it’s the most important part of your gear.

• Think like an athlete. (Work hard but don't forget to hydrate, fuel, and recover.)

• Make time to recover, just like you make time to prep gear.

• Work in sprints, and then rest like it’s part of your job.

  
  

You can’t fish hard forever without breaking down. But you can build a rhythm that lets you perform at your best over the long haul, and feel better doing it.

Work like a fisherman. Recover like an athlete.