Drop and give us 46!

Forty-six thousand dollars, that is...which is the average annual income of exercise physiologists, who are specialists in human biomechanical movement and exercise programs. If you've been paying even the slightest attention to your parents, your P.E. teacher, or the feds, then you know that humans need exercise—and not just a little bit of it.

Now before we continue, there's something we need to get out of the way....

Get up off your seat, step away from the computer, and stretch. That's right. Touch your toes, kick those knees up, and shake your shoulders out. It's fine. We'll wait.

Done? Great. Let's move on.

Now who's going to tell the good, sedentary people of the world how to exercise? That's right— physiologists.

Of course, "physiologist" is a bit of a catchall term. There are two main concentrations of physiologists. You have your applied physiologists, the beefy, exercise-buff guys with titles like "Athletic Fitness Director" and "Athletic Trainer." You'll find them in private fitness facilities and community organizations, teaching group fitness classes or motivating clients to meet weight loss goals.

Then you have your clinical physiologists, your more bookish and medically-trained professionals working to devise exercise regimens for the serious cases (think severely obese and elderly who are grappling with heart and lung disease). You'll find these guys and gals in clinics (duh), hospitals, and occupational rehabilitation centers.

For most entry-level positions, a bachelor's degree in kinesiology, and maybe a master's to make the big bucks, are all that's technically necessary. But in many states, physiologists aren't even legally required to have a certification of any sort. (Though, of course, a certification from organizations such as American Council on Exercise, American College of Sports Medicine, or the National Strength and Conditioning Association, won't hurt.)

Low threshold requirements, however, means there's a lot of competition out there for jobs. If you want to snag an impressive title, you've got to specialize, specialize, specialize. (Did we mention you need to specialize?) That means additional schooling so you can become an expert on subjects like Contracting Skeletal Muscle During High-Intensity Sprints in Brown-Haired, Blue-Eyed Athletes Over the Age of 16 and Under the Age of 24, and Mechanisms of Fatigue Operating in Elderly Female Octogenarians with a Bit of a Mean Streak.

Okay, maybe those courses don't really exist, but the point is still the same—you'll need to spruce up your résumé, and in the physiology world that means additional job security and possibly a higher salary.

If you aspire to be a clinical physiologist, a master's degree is pretty much essential, and if you love the subject so much that you want to teach or become a researcher, you should plan on enrolling in a doctorate program as well.

With practically more options for your career than there are bones in your body, it's hard to predict how exactly your life (including your salary) as a physiologist will look. You can be sure of a few things, though: You'll work around 40 hours a week, you'll be working with people (as well as a lot of paperwork), and those people are going to be sweaty and gross. The paperwork will be pretty gross, too, although there's typically less sweat involved.

You'll most likely be making something in the $40k-$50k range (even up to $60k in places like California and New York), and you'll probably get your daily recommended physical activity. On the flip side, you'll be on your feet most of the day and run the risk of developing physical issues that come with an active lifestyle. Hmm, maybe you should reconsider and become a physical therapist instead.

Depending on the gig you've lined up for yourself and the type of person you are, being a physiologist can be pretty rewarding or really miserable. It's a great place for compassionate, energetic, people-loving gym rats who can talk for hours about maintaining a proper fluid and temperature balance while exercising and who love, more than anything else, testing out the newest workout crazes on themselves. You've also got to be willing to stick it out in school, but school's probably not the thing for you.

Otherwise, if you were more into hitting the books, and more inclined towards the rehabilitative aspects of the human body, you'd become a physical therapist or a sports physician. If you were less into books and more into the latest, hottest, heart-pumping, weight-lifting workout, you'd become a personal trainer.

But you're here because you're interested in physiology.

Now don’t just sit there.

"Drop and give us 46...er...50!"

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