9 Fitness Side Hustles: Make Money & Look Better

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Hot on the heels of our feature on the fitness episode of the What’s Up Next Podcast with our friends Doc G & Paul David Thompson, we thought it would be great to cover 9 fitness side hustles that can not only make you money but also keep you in shape. We’ve probably made this clear, but physical fitness and health are both huge aspects of our lives.

There are so many similarities between fiscal and physical health. From the slow and steady accumulation of wins that culminate into a much larger goal, to the fact that there are generally no effective shortcuts. Despite what you may think, get rich quick schemes, or diet pills won’t help you achieve your goals and maintain that level of success.

This brings us to today’s topic which combines our two favorite things, fitness, and finance, and breaking down how some side hustles can help you make money while staying active.

Whether you’re a fitness fanatic or someone just starting on your physical pilgrimage, you should be able to find something on this list that will fit your experience level and lifestyle. Let’s dive into our 9 fitness side-hustles that’ll get you, or keep you, in shape.

9 Fitness Side-Hustles

1. Personal Training

Personal training is probably one of the first things people think of when it comes to fitness side-hustles. It’s the original form of making money while being in shape. Based on my experience training people, they know how to do things, they just need someone there to tell them what to do. Personal training is mostly an accountability partner.

Now, you will need to have some sort of certification, although those requirements vary by facility.

Drawbacks: dealing with people can suck, and you might not get paid if someone cancels. Also, depending on the gym, you actually won’t be allowed to exercise, you’ll just watch your client exercise.

2. Online Personal Training

The internet has revolutionized the entire world with instant access to millions of people, and it’s the same story with personal trainers. This was my preferred method of training people because I could update workouts or meal plans in the comfort of my own home, at any time. It’s also scalable. Training 10 people at the same time aren’t as much of a headache because you don’t have to coordinate schedules.

Similarly, you can create a workout program* and sell that online.

Drawbacks: higher competition and you aren’t doing anything here to stay in shape.

3. Group Fitness Instructor

Unlike the personal trainer and online personal training, this is one fitness side-hustle that involves movement. You get to workout, but also, you’re the one doing all the talking and coaching. You could be an instructor for anything from spin classes, to BodyPump, or yoga.

The best part is, unlike personal training, the classes have numerous people. Additionally, it usually doesn’t matter if someone no-shows, you’ll still get paid and run the class for everyone else.

Drawbacks: lower pay, but more guaranteed compared to personal training.

4. Airbnb Experience

Airbnb Experiences are our favorite fitness side hustles. Set up a bike tour to hit up local tourist attractions. Launch a ‘tour’ where you walk millennials to all the good Instagram spots in your town. Offer to take people through a beach-side workout. Or, our experience: create a coffee crawl where you walk people to the best coffee shops. The possibilities are endless.

Spend time outdoors, meet new people, be active, get other people active, see more of your city, and make some good dough on the side. Our coffee crawl is the easiest way we’ve ever made money. Another benefit is that you get to determine your prices & availability.

Drawbacks: location & potentially weather dependant. People aren’t going to pay for a bike tour of a one-horse town in the middle of winter. Sign up* to host your own experience today!

 

5. UberEATS

Or GrubHub, DoorDash, Postmates…you get the picture. Food delivery has become much easier to access, and much easier to complete from the delivery person’s perspective. How exactly is delivering shit a fitness side hustle, though? Skip the car, hop on a bike, cut on the app, and start delivering food. Our friend Cody, from Fly to FI, did this for a summer when he was in Australia.

You’ll make money, and it’ll help you stay in shape. Also, we think that biking is a great way to explore your city & see things you normally wouldn’t in a car. To top it off, there’s no real requirement of schedule, you can make it as flexible as you want.

Drawbacks: potentially shitty hourly wage. But you’re doing this to stay in shape, so that doesn’t matter as much.

6. Rover

Walking someone else’s dog could be the best fitness side hustle. Hell, it might be the happiest way to make money, ever. We consider ourselves dog people, so helping someone who doesn’t have the time to give their pet exercise sounds like a pretty noble cause. Hell, we’ve offered to walk dogs for free.

Again, the gig economy is helping you stay in shape, spend some time outdoors, and make some fast cash, all while hanging out with man’s best friend.

Drawbacks: you’re responsible for someone else’s pet. If the dog runs away, eats something sketchy, gets hit by a car, etc. that’s on you.

7. Referee

One of my favorite past fitness side-hustles was being a soccer ref. I made $20 a game to hang out with a couple of friends, run up and down the field, and watch soccer. We loved tournament weekends because you could easily knock out 3-4 games in a half-day of work.

You’ll want to pick a sport that you know the rules of, and I’m not sure that baseball umpires move anything other than their arms, so the degree of movement can vary.

Drawbacks: parents that take youth sports too seriously are assholes, and they’re pretty much exclusively who you deal with.

8. Mover

This is another fitness side-hustle I had for a small amount of time, working for Two Men & a Truck. Lifting heavy things, loading them up, and unloading them is one hell of a workout. You don’t even have to make it a formal thing, check Craigslist and other local listing sites.

If you’ve got a truck or a trailer, offering to deliver appliances could also be pretty lucrative. Selling items on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist can also be exercise just by moving things around. People are always looking to hire daily laborers, or just someone to help rearrange a couple of things.

Drawback: potentially inconsistent work, which could lead to inconsistent pay.

9. Yard Work

Helping with yard work is also something often being advertised on Craigslist. Neighbors can be an even easier customer to get than strangers online. Plus you get the added benefit of not having to drive somewhere. Check out your neighbor’s yard beforehand and get an idea of the scope of work that you’ll do.

Not only will you be getting paid from this fitness side-hustle, but you could also be boosting property values in your neighborhood.

Drawback: it might not be a social thing, which can be a benefit sometimes, and your neighbors might be assholes.

Fitness Side Hustles

So, there you have it, 9 fitness side-hustles that’ll pad your wallet without padding your clothes. Combining finance and fitness can be a tough line to follow and it can seem hard to know where to start. However, unlike most would have you believe, getting and staying in shape doesn’t have to cost you money. Also, if you do it right, you could even make a decent amount. Feel free to give any of these a try and keep us updated in the process.

Of course, if y’all have any good fitness side hustles that I’ve missed, feel free to throw those in the comments for other readers to pick up on! Which fitness side hustle are you going to start today?

 

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Don’t miss this week’s post in the bio! We cover how to make some money while staying in shape. 👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽

A post shared by Rethink The Rat Race (@rethinktheratrace) on Feb 27, 2019 at 2:30pm PST