It’s just a fact of life that we’re probably not the healthiest society the world has ever known. Indeed, they say that if our ancestors could (somehow) arm wrestle with the average person, it wouldn’t even be close — the person from olden days was much stronger, since they were using their bodies so much more. By comparison, we’re pretty sedentary beings. We get up, drive to the office, sit there all day, and then return home to sit on the couch and watch Netflix. It’s little wonder that we’re not so healthy!
However, while this is broadly true for the world we live in, it’s not true for every position. Indeed, there are a whole bunch of jobs that help to keep your fitness in all-around excellent shape, just by doing the job. Below, we take a look at a handful of examples. If your objective is to have a job that allows you to give up your gym membership, then consider one of the following options.
Landscape Gardener
There’s much to love about being a landscape, which is good for your health on multiple levels. First, there’s no getting around that it’s physical. There’s plenty of heavy lifting involved, but the good thing is that it’s not excessive; it’s a balanced amount. Second, it’s good for your mental health. Studies have shown that a life outside is excellent for your all-around mental well-being, and since virtually all of your time will be spent in gardens, you’ll more than get your quota of outdoor times.
Farming Life
If you thought landscape gardener was a healthy way to spend your time, then just think about becoming a farmer, which is kind of like gardener taken to the extreme. It’s less a job, more a way of life. It’s physical, of course, which keeps your body in tip-top condition, and you’re outside much more than the average person. But the effects stretch beyond just the job — the health benefits include the food that farmers eat, which is always super fresh, and of the highest quality. It comes straight from their own farms. The only downside is that it can be stressful to run a farm, since they take a lot of money to run, and don’t always bring in as much as farmers would like.
Yoga Teacher
If you’ve ever tried yoga, then you’ll know that you walk away from each class feeling supercharged, ready to take on the world, just all-around the best version of yourself. And that’s from like, one class a week — can you imagine what it would feel like to do yoga all the time? If you’re a yoga teacher, then you won’t need to wonder. It’ll be your job! There are countless benefits to yoga, from improving flexibility, building core strength, and keeping stress at bay. The good vibes ripple into your personal life, too. You’re unlikely to chow down on fast food after you’ve emerged from throwing good vibes around all day. Yoga is all about having deep respect for your body — and here, the personal will most definitely mix with business.
Personal Trainer
In the old days, a person would naturally get fit and healthy just through the course of, well, living. They’d have to lift things, walk, run from time to time, just as part of the daily routine. Now that we don’t have to do any of those things (or at least nowhere near as much), people instead pay to join a gym: they go to a dedicated space to do the things that they’d ordinarily do in the past. But there’s an issue — they either don’t know what they’re doing, or they have limited time, and so need to supercharge their time at the gym to get the most rewards. This is where the professional of personal training comes in, which is one of the best jobs for your health. You need to be in good shape to train others, and you’re in the gym all day! Of course, personal trainer benefits extend simply beyond staying healthy. You’re also helping people on their journey to becoming the best version of themselves, and you’re able to have a healthy work/life balance. All in all, there’s much that working in this profession can do for your health.
Working With Flowers
When we talk about what’s healthiest for us, we should also talk about what also makes us happiest — the body and the mind are not as separate as some people think. Indeed, many studies have shown the interrelationship between happiness and all-around sound physical health. A person who feels good in themselves will be much more likely to take the necessary steps for treating their body well, such as eating healthy foods, exercising, and so on. On this front, there’s one profession that stands out — florist. There are inherent benefits for working so closely with flowers, because, as we mentioned earlier, the good vibes from nature just seem to make us feel good.
Working in a Small Team
Not that it always depends, necessarily, on what you’re doing — sometimes it’s a case of how you’re doing it. Studies have shown that working for a small business, and thus as part of a small team, can have knock-on effects for our health. As a starting point, we tend to find more joy and value in what we’re doing. This is actually a deeply underrated aspect of modern life: a huge percentage of workers say that they believe their work is meaningless, but this figure plummets when you ask people who work for a small business. Additionally, the work/life balance is generally better when you’re working intimately with your superiors, and you’re more likely to be given time off to recover from any health issues (anyone who has worked for a large company will understand this can be difficult/denied/implied that you should come to work).
Life in Healthcare
Now, jobs in healthcare, such as being a nurse or a doctor, are, of course, stressful. You’re holding people’s lives in your hand, you’re there during their toughest moments — it’s not easy. However, there are some health benefits that come from working in, well, health. For instance, you’re aware of the best practices, what to avoid, and the signs that something is wrong — while some people may wait until an issue has developed before they seek help, those in the medical profession can take their issues taken care of at the first sign. Additionally, they typically have priority access to treatment. However, the one downside, health-wise, to being a doctor is that they do come into contact with illnesses and diseases more frequently than the average person on the street!
Modern Entrepreneur
It takes a lot to be an entrepreneur; it’s about so much more than just having an idea and the funding to bring it to life. It takes a grizzled determination, which is needed to set you apart from the crowd and bring your ideas to fruition. As such, it’s rare that you’ll find an entrepreneur who drinks too much, or eats unhealthy food, or sleeps poorly, and all those other poor lifestyle choices that lead to poor health. You can just take a look at a modern entrepreneur book to see the kind of mindset they’re in — in order to get their competitive advantage, they do everything they can to be the best version of themselves. That means looking after their diet, cold showers, drinking the right things — everything that has been promoted as good for your health, they understand and take on board.
All Things Food
What we put into our body has a huge effect on our health. If you’re wondering why society isn’t as healthy as it could be, then just take a walk around your nearest supermarket — you’ll see ready meals, frozen foods, and other items that might taste good (sometimes), but which positively aren’t all that good for our health. The starting point for a healthy body is eating well! And that’s just what professional chefs too. To them, food isn’t just something that they need to keep going — it’s a passion. It’s convenient that their passion is something that helps to keep them in good shape.
On the Front Line
There are dangers to working in the emergency services, but the workers do have a default setting of good fitness. Take firefighters, for example — they need to be physically ready to enter a dangerous building and carry out whoever’s inside.
Exploring the World
One of the reasons why many people are unhealthy is, as we mentioned earlier, because they’re spending too much of their time sitting behind a desk. They’re not moving, and that’s not good. There are, however, many jobs that don’t involve an office — take, for example, tour guide, mountaineer, or explorer. These fun-loving souls are always out in the world, leading people on treks. It takes a healthy body to go up and down mountains, and that’s what they’re doing for a living.
