Exercise Physiologists

OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin

Overview

Assess, plan, or implement fitness programs that include exercise or physical activities such as those designed to improve cardiorespiratory function, body composition, muscular strength, muscular endurance, or flexibility.

Highlights

Undergraduate program resulting in the highest median salary ($64K): Treatment Therapy Professions

Largest undergraduate program (25.4% of workers): Psychology

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Titles for this career often contain these words

SOURCES:

2020 CareerOneStop

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Responsibilities and activities

Exercise physiologists typically do the following:

Analyze a patient’s medical history to assess their risk during exercise and to determine the best possible exercise and fitness regimen for the patient
Perform fitness and stress tests with medical equipment and analyze the resulting patient data
Measure blood pressure, oxygen usage, heart rhythm, and other key patient health indicators
Develop exercise programs to improve patients’ health

Exercise physiologists work to improve overall patient health. Many of their patients suffer from health problems such as cardiovascular disease or pulmonary (lung) disease. Exercise physiologists provide health education and exercise plans to improve key health indicators.

Some physiologists work closely with primary care physicians, who may prescribe exercise regimens for their patients and refer them to exercise physiologists. The physiologists then work with patients to develop individualized treatment plans that will help the patients meet their health and fitness goals.

Exercise physiologists should not be confused with fitness trainers and instructors (including personal trainers) or athletic trainers.

SOURCES:

2020 Occupational Outlook Handbook

Salary

Median salary: $50,280 annually

Half of those employed in this career earn between $42,550 and $62,600.

SOURCES:

2019 BLS Occupational Employment

Context: Median Salary

How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?

SOURCES:

2019 BLS Occupational Employment

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Salary growth for specialized therapists

Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.

Experience quotient percentile

Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?

Salary distribution

Number employed

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

About Exercise Physiologists

How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.

Employee has health insurance

Employer is providing health insurance

Employer-provided pension plan is available

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

Worker concerns

Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of exercise physiologists who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.

Exposed to Disease or Infections (41%)
Responsible for Others' Health (41%)
Unpleasant or Angry People (41%)
Time Pressure (32%)

SOURCES:

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Personality and skills

Can you see yourself in the ranks of Exercise Physiologists? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.

Compassion

Because exercise physiologists work with patients who may be in considerable pain or discomfort, they must be sympathetic while working with patients.

Decisionmaking skills

Exercise physiologists must make informed clinical decisions because those decisions could affect the health or livelihood of patients.

Detail oriented

Exercise physiologists must record detailed, accurate information about their patients’ conditions and about any progress the patients make. For example, they must ensure that patients are completing the appropriate stress tests or practicing the correct fitness regimen.

Interpersonal skills

Exercise physiologists must have strong interpersonal skills and manage difficult situations. They must communicate clearly with others, including physicians, patients, and patients’ families.

SOURCES:

2020 Occupational Outlook Handbook

Education pathways to this career

Education attained by exercise physiologists

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), exercise physiologists typically hold a bachelor's degree.

Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as specialized therapists as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.

Details: Education and training recommended for exercise physiologists

Exercise physiologists typically need at least a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology, exercise science, kinesiology, or a related field. Master’s degree programs also are available. Programs include courses in science and health-related subjects, such as biology, anatomy, statistics, kinesiology, and nutrition, as well as clinical work. In 2017, there were about 60 programs in exercise physiology, exercise science, and kinesiology accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP).

Details: Licensing and certification recommended for exercise physiologists

Louisiana is the only state that requires exercise physiologists to be licensed, although some states have pending legislation to create licensure requirements.

Employers typically require exercise physiologists to have Basic Life Support (BLS) certification or Advanced Life Support (ACLS) certification, both of which include training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

The American Society of Exercise Physiologists (ASEP) offers the Exercise Physiologist Certified (EPC) certification, which physiologists can use to demonstrate their qualifications. To be eligible for certification, candidates must pass the ASEP exam and hold ASEP membership. In addition, candidates must have either a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology or a bachelor’s degree in a related field, and they must have completed specific coursework requirements. To maintain certification, candidates must complete continuing education courses every 5 years.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) also offers certifications for exercise physiologists: the Certified Exercise Physiologist (EP-C) and the Certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist (CEP) credentials for candidates with a bachelor’s degree, as well as the Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist (RCEP) for candidates with a master’s or higher degree. All three ACSM credentials require CPR certification and passing an exam. Candidates for the CEP and the RCEP also must have at least 400 and 600 hours of supervised clinical experience, respectively. All three ACSM certifications require candidates to complete continuing education courses every 3 years, and keep their CPR certification up to date.

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

Education level of Specialized Therapists

About 58% of specialized therapists have a graduate-level education, and 86% have at least a bachelor's degree.

Education attained by specialized therapists

None

High School

Some College

Associate's Degree

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree

Professional Degree

Doctorate

SOURCES:

2021 Ididio: Award levels

2019 ACS microdata

Top college degrees

Here are the top college degrees held by the 83% of people in this job who have at least a bachelor's degree. Some of degrees may link to multiple programs due to the way Census classifies college majors. Click on a program to learn more about career opportunities for people who major in that field.

Psychology
Treatment Therapy Professions
Social Work
Physical Fitness, Parks, Recreation, and Leisure
Sociology

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

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College majors held by specialized therapists

This table shows the college majors held by people working as specialized therapists. If you see "**" before the name of a degree/program, that means this field is one that the Department of Education believes is preparatory for this career. However, you can see from this list that those recommendations are far from your only path to this job!

**Treatment Therapy Professions

**Physical Fitness, Parks, Recreation, and Leisure

Communication Disorders Sciences and Services

Health/Medical Specialized Preparation

General Education

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

Not so much?

The link between degrees and this career

With the following sankey diagram, you can follow the top ten bachelor's degrees held by people working as specialized therapists, and then, in turn, you can see the 10 occupations that hire the most of each degree's graduates. We hope this provides ideas for similar jobs and similar fields of study.

Expand degrees

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

Where are the jobs

State-by-state employment numbers

Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.

Select a state to see local area details

Number of Specialized Therapists per 1,000 workers (ACS)

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

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Job density versus job count

Which states hire the most exercise physiologists? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as exercise physiologists. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.

Salaries by state

Let's get a feel for where exercise physiologists earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...

Median salary versus state ratio

We use two methods to compare salaries across states:

In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for specialized therapists compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for specialized therapists.

We hope the ratio allows perspective about how salaries may compare to the regional cost-of-living.

The darkest shading corresponds to states in which specialized therapists earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.

Select a state to see local area details

Location-adjusted median salary for Specialized Therapists (ACS for all specialties)

SOURCES:

2019 BLS Occupational Employment

2019 BEA Regional Price Parities

Employment

29% of Specialized therapists are working part time.

We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 29% part-time workers, this occupation has a higher percentage of part-time workers than 83% of careers.

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

Employer types

This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.

Employers of undefined (ACS)

Private for-profit

Private not-for-profit

Local government

State government

Federal government

Self-employed incorporated

Self-employed not incorporated

Working without pay

SOURCES:

2021 Ididio: Comparing employment

2019 ACS microdata

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Distribution: Salaries of specialized therapists by type of employer

Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.

SOURCES:

2021 Ididio: Comparing employment

2019 ACS microdata

Gender

Specialized therapists and gender

With 78% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 88% of careers.

Gender of Specialized therapists

Men (22%)

Women (78%)

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

Distribution: salaries by gender

Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.

We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

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Context: Women in the workforce

How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

Context: Salary inequity

The median salary for all full-time male workers in the US exceeds the full-time median salary for women by 19%. The situation is a little better for specialized therapists, with the median salary for men 8% higher than the median salary for women.

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

Race/Origin

Race and origin of Specialized therapists

This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Specialized therapists.

Race/origin of specialized therapists

White (76% )

Black (12% )

Asian (5% )

Multiracial (3% )

Other (3% )

Hispanic (1% )

American Indian (1% )

Pacific Islander (0% )

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata

Distribution: salaries by race/origin

Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.

We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.

SOURCES:

2019 ACS microdata