It is no secret that sitting down all day at a desk is going to be detrimental to your health over the long run. New studies are performed all the time that further cement our knowledge of this fact that it may seem there is little hope for so many people who work at a desk for a living. Even if you exercise regularly outside of work, it will not reverse the debilitating effects of sitting for a living.
Quite simply, people were meant to move around. It wasn’t always the case that we could just go to Wal-Mart and get every single good and service a human needs to survive. No, we used to have to hunt for food ourselves and use our bodies to keep our families and ourselves alive.
Today in America, it seems that we have gotten far from what made us great. We used to be a nation that made things and now we’re just a nation thst buys things. And with 30% of Americans being obese, it is plain to see that our health is failing.
So, if you have to spend your life doing something, why not do something that is going to get you off your butt and not only make you feel good about yourself, but give you much better health as well.
Personal Trainer
We’ll start with an easy one and basically the dream job for any fitness buff. If you are obsessed with hitting the gym and running on the treadmill so that your health is in tiptop shape, maybe you should consider sorting out other people’s workout regimes. Now, you don’t necessarily get to work out for a living because you have to be helping other people work out, but you do basically get to work out for a living. No more going to the gym after work because the gym is work. Being a personal trainer not only gets you off your butt but it is also one of those jobs where you are actually helping people out with their lives.
You probably won’t be running, cycling and lifting weights the whole time you are at work, but you certainly won’t be sitting on your butt all day long. It is far more likely, if you’re any good as a personal trainer, that you’ll be helping your clients with their methods of doing the exercise. You’ll be standing over them, spotting them as they lift weights, making fun of them and their lackluster abilities in a military style and then congratulating them when they have succeeded in a very nonmilitary style. You will also be required to show all your clients how to successfully perform all the exercises so that they get the most out of them and don’t hurt themselves. You will probably end up using the equipment next to them while coaching them through the workout.
Not only does being a personal trainer get you out of a chair for a living but it is a job that you can really feel good about. You make people’s lives better on a daily basis.
Doctor or Nurse
Speaking of jobs by which you make people’s lives better, perhaps you should consider being a doctor or nurse. Granted, there is a little bit of paperwork that needs to be filled out by doctors and nurses, but for the most part, you will be walking around and attending to patients needs. No offense to the doctors but, they do get a little easier run at the job than nurses do, in terms of manual labor. Depending on what kind of doctor you are, you’ll probably be making diagnoses, talking with and working on patients. Nurses, however, have a much harder time in that there is a lot of lifting, scrubbing and dealing with cranky patients. But that’s not to say that it isn’t one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. You are going to be looking after people at their most vulnerable and, whether they realize it or not, you are responsible for their lives.
These jobs also tend to come with a hefty pay increase over the personal trainer job, but I think that the work that these people do reflects that pay increase. You have to be an incredibly hard worker to do either of these two jobs but your body will thank you at the end of your career for not spending your entire life in a reclining chair.
Welder
I think you’ll find that if you choose to work with your hands, you probably won’t be sitting down at a desk for the rest of your life. Learning a skill like welding will not only pays incredibly well, but will keep your work changes constantly and you’ll almost never be sitting down. Granted, you can take years and years of training to become one of the best welders in the world, but there are plenty of one year programs that many companies would be happy to hire you out of.
Depending on where you live, there will always be work for welders. If you are still young and able to move about the country, it might be a good idea to take job offers where you get them to get some experience under your belt. A lot of the time with trades, an education isn’t nearly as important as experience. Anybody who has spent any time behind the torch will know that welding isn’t something that can be taught. It is an art form that needs to both be in you and be practiced regularly so that it can improve.
Carpenter
Being a carpenter is another job that fits under the trades umbrella where you don’t need to be in a chair all day. If you find yourself sitting at home watching HGTV all day, you might want to think about getting into that field yourself. When you are watching Holmes on Homes, do you ever think about how good it would feel to have just fixed up that person’s living room yourself? It is an incredibly rewarding job because you get to see what you have just created. Moreover, like welding, it is a skill that you can really grow and eventually be really proud of. Granted, some people are going to make better carpenters than others, but if you really would like to get into it, give it a shot and work hard at it. With any luck and a lot of practice, you will have a skill that is going to be needed until our society crumbles. Not a bad way to get exercise and make a living at the same time, if you ask me.
General Contractor
If, like 10% of the population, you are having a hard time finding a job, but your house is in pristine condition, start doing odd jobs for friends and family. Paint their houses, mow their lawns and clean their pools if they will let you. Any homeowner knows just how long it takes to keep a home in presentable condition and a lot of people are willing to pay somebody to do that for them.
Being a general contractor you get to do a new job every few days and you certainly won’t get bored. You can start out small by asking friends and printing business cards on your own but you have to make an effort and get out there. Free advertising forums like craigslist are also a really good place to find customers and if you are friendly, hard-working and do a good job, there is no reason that they shouldn’t have you back the next time they need an odd job taken care of.
Honestly, it will feel good to get out there and get your hands dirty. Whether you are pushing a lawn mower across somebody’s front yard or planting a few new trees, working with your hands and getting to see the fruits of your labor will be a very rewarding feeling indeed.
When you get home at the end of the day and sit down on the couch knowing that you have worked hard and that you have something to show for it, you will feel very good about yourself. In fact, at the end of the day when you get home will probably be the only time you get to sit down outside of a car for this job. You will fee
l great not only at the
end of your day, but also at the end of your career knowing that you used your whole body every day of work so that you could help people sort out their homes.
It’s been said so many times before that it has become a terribly annoying cliché but, for the most part, terribly annoying clichés are rarely wrong. Your body is the most important piece of equipment you will ever own. So much of it is irreplaceable that you simply cannot put a price tag on it. Although it may feel like you’re in mind or soul is the most important part of you, it can’t exist without your body, so you have to take care of it. Sitting down all day on the job is a great way to make your body hate you later in life, regardless of the amount of exercise you get outside of work.
I think you will notice a trend with the five jobs mentioned above. If you use your body to work every day, it will be much more healthy and reward you for it later on in life. So, if a desk job doesn’t really suit your idea for what is going to happen in your life, don’t fret and think of a job where in you actually have to use your body daily to perform tasks and get you through life.
Guest Bio: Jeff Wallace is from Cincinnati, OH and is a heath freelance writer for numerous sites.
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