Love to Exercise? Get Paid To Do It!

You are one of those people who love to exercise.  You exercise any chance you get or maybe you are a person who needs a bit of motivation to exercise. Which ever one you are, there are ways to get paid to exercise rather than paying.

I realize it sounds too good to be true but it happens.  I'm looking at ways of getting paid to exercise that are legal and fairly easy to do.

1.  The obvious one is to get a job with a gym or YMCA/YWCA as an aerobics instructor or personal trainer.  This usually requires some sort of training but when I took classes at my local YMCA, they'd announce classes one could take to become an instructor.  If you are really good at something like Yoga, look into getting a job as an instructor.  You lead a class so you are exercising while getting paid for it.

2. If you are really into exercising and can lead people through a fitness boot camp, you might want to think about starting your own classes or hook up with a business already offering these.  I'm not into this strenuous a workout but there are those who do not mind being up at the crack of dawn while being yelled at to do better.

3. How about getting a job in a warehouse where you are expected to lift and move boxes, walk up and down long aisles.  Imagine getting paid to do this and you'll make your 10,000 steps each day quite easily.

4. Sign up as a walking tour guide by opening your own business or getting a job with a company already offering such tours.  Most towns offer some sort of ghost tour, historical tour, or perhaps a food tour of specific areas.  These tours often cover a three to five mile area and you get some great exercise.

5. Become a seasonal forest firefighter where you'll be called in to fight fires, make money, while carrying heavy packs, equipment, and walking across uneven terrain.  Seasonal firefighters can make up to $40,000 per season but you usually have to prove you are in shape to do it before being hired.  Many of the folks here in the village always get certified so they can be called to duty either here in Alaska or anywhere they are needed.

6. Are you a good snowboarder or skier?  Often ski resorts and ski areas hire people to provide lessons to new learners.  I paid for a lesson the one and only time I've been skiing because I had no idea what I was doing.  In return for being an instructor, you earn money and are usually allowed to ski for free on your own time.

7.  If you live in a large enough city, you could look at becoming a bike messenger just like the ones you see whizzing through traffic on tv shows.  You get a lot of exercise when you spend the day going from place to place.

8.  Do you love dogs?  If so, you could offer your services as a dog walker. My experience with walking dogs is they love to pull you along and you get a good workout by the time you are done.  I do not recommend you try to walk multiple dogs when you are wearing roller skates. I watched a young man being pulled along by two dogs.  It was going well until one went around the stop sign on one side while the other one took the other side of the sign and he went splat when he ran into the stop sign.

9. Do you love watching sports?  Become certified to referee or coach sports and you'll get a lot of exercise chasing people up and down.  I regularly ref elementary games and I spend a lot of time running up and down the court.  By the time I'm done refereeing two games, I've had a great workout.

These are nine ways you can exercise while getting paid to do it.  There are supposedly apps out there designed to pay you when you exercise and charge you if you don't but I'm not sure how well they work. One "Pact" ended up being fined due to not paying people the money owed and for other reasons such as it did not recognize certain gyms or it continued charging people who quit using the app.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Its always nice to find ways to earn money while exercising.