Or you transition to an owner/management role so that you can stop punishing your body in your 40s
That’s the wonderful thing about trade work, you can just become an owner. Then you train young people, they beat up their bodies for a bit and then they become an owner. That is the idea behind apprenticeships. Or you join a Union who will protect you and make sure the owner of the company does the bare minimum and take care of the health and safety of their employees. Or you go a different route and consult. Or find a niche and start selling products that were hard for you to find but are needed in your industry.
People who boo hoo on trade work are in the same vein as the ones who say you need a college degree to be successful. A lot of people have made a really good living out of trade work and they don’t have to “destroy their bodies”
You still need to be enterprising and have business skills. Some of the tradespeople I know are just struggling to get by because they don’t know how to manage their money.
Heck, I’ve heard that a shockingly high percentage of professional athletes end up broke within a few years of retiring from sports. We’re talking about people who make millions a year ending up with no money and even declaring bankruptcy!