Some people like the gym, but there are plenty of people who don’t. If you’d rather avoid the gym membership and scary equipment, get an active side gig to stay fit.
Picture: Revolution_Ferg/Flickr
Just because you need to get in 30 minutes of cardio a few days a week doesn’t mean you have to do it on a treadmill and your local gym. There are plenty of part-time jobs out there that require a lot of physical activity. Choose one and get paid to do that instead of paying to get a gym membership. Just remember to treat it like you would a workout, meaning you should pace yourself and monitor your heart rate accordingly.
For example, you could be a:
- Part-time Firefighter
- Professional Mover
- Dog Walker
- Kids’ Sports Coach
- Truck Unloader
- Landscaper
- Yoga Instructor
If you hate the gym, there are plenty of great ways to turn your workout routine into something that suits you better. If none of these work, just keep brainstorming. You’ll find something that will get you fit and paid without ever lifting a weight.
Comments
16 responses to “Skip The Gym And Choose An Intensive Side Gig Instead”
Some of those are awesome; some seem kind of risky if not done properly. My parents dislike me risking any sort of back injury whenever I move house and suggest hiring professionals to take that risk.
Lol, your parents?? I’d assume you were 12, but you said “whenever I move house”, which indicates you’re at least 18 or so. Maybe it’s time to calculate your own risks and unlatch from mummy and daddy?
Errr.. why not just play a sport that you enjoy?
yeah seems most logical choice. although, the local soccer team that trains every tuesday night at the oval next to my house has a hell of a bbq and piss up after each training session on the public bbqs there soooo…maybe in that case its not working as well as it should.
Because money.
buy a half-decent frisbee and throw it around a nearby park. all the stop-start running and jumping to catch the frisbee is quite good exercise, and its cheap.
But who’s paying you to do it? Did you read the article?
(You too, @cffndncr)
I played a season at the local rugby club this year. The full season cost $250, which included insurance, physio at all games and uniform. They even offered an instalment plan if you couldn’t pay it all at once. The season ran from February – September, and had 2 training sessions per week + a game most weekends. Definitely more bang for your buck than any gym membership, plus you make some great friends too.
So, elwyn5150, you’re… 14 or so… years of age?
Really. I take risks every day. You get in a car, you’re taking a risk. You cross the street, you’re taking a risk. If your parents suggested that you not drive because it’s risky (which it is), you’d take their advice on that one, too?
I’m Gen-X, and I wasn’t raised to defer to Mum and Dad once I was old enough to fend for myself. That (Mummy and Daddy are afraid I’ll hurt myself doing that so they told me not to do it, and I’m inclined enough to agree that I’ll pass it along to readers) is what many of us older folks find downright laughable about the younger generation.
Wait till he tells on you!
Hey I’m a Gen Y and I find his post laughable too. Please don’t paint us all with the same brush.
Fair enough, Dman. But I have to admit that I’ve not heard anyone from my generation saying anything like that… but I have heard other Gen-Y’s say similar things.
That said, to bring this back on topic, I ACTUALLY DID WHAT THIS ARTICLE RECOMMENDS. And until I noticed a place selling yummy muffins along my regular route, I was doing well. The muffins set me back 6 months, but I’ve gotten rid of the muffin habit and am back making progress again.
I got the idea from tradies. I saw a tradie friend of mine (who is nowhere near 18) scale a 3+m wall with a single rope handhold at about the 2m point to use as both a handhold and a step. So of course I was like, “Whoa. What do you do at the gym to train for moves like that?”. He dismissively told me “real men have jobs that keep them fit” and that the only time he’s seen the inside of a gym was when he was there to work on the building. So even though I’m not a man, I decided that was an interesting way to look at it, and got an active hobby that sometimes pays actual cash.
You people are idiots.
If issues such as permanent back injury and a lifetime of chronic pain don’t matter to you, fine. My workplace was sensible enough to hire professional movers just to shift offices from one building to another.
There are some skills that are better left to professionals with professional equipment.
So, again, elwyn5150, are you prepared to spend your lifetime in a wheelchair when your spine gets crushed in a car accident? As long as you’re halfway careful about it, and not dealing with highly challenging things like getting king sized bedding down a flimsy metal-spiral staircase, the only physical byproduct of moving will be some sweat and maybe a bit of soreness for a couple days using muscles you don’t normally use. You’ve never used a backpack to carry your school books, either, because of the damage that could do, right?
And regarding your workplace, I would expect nothing other than that from a WORKPLACE. They have huge bank that even a claiming-to-be-injured employee could access if they claimed they damaged any part of themselves.
I just started doing something similar.. I’ve started umpiring basketball. It’s a skill I’ve had from years ago.. You often do 4 games a night and you can almost do as many as you want a week. I put my heart rate monitor on the other week and it said I did around 2.5 hours of exercise (mostly light shuttles) and burned around 2.5 cal’s and that was only doing 3 games.