---
title: "What can you do with a kinesiology and exercise science degree?"
description: "15 careers kinesiology and exercise science graduates commonly move into, with BLS median pay, projected growth and entry requirements for each."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/majors/kinesiology"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T07:20:09.337Z"
---

# What can you do with a kinesiology and exercise science degree?

**What the degree involves:** Anatomy, biomechanics, exercise physiology, and hands-on assessment labs.

Kinesiology is a pre-professional degree far more often than people expect. The bachelor on its own leads to coaching, training, wellness and assistant-level clinical roles; the best-paid destinations on this list are graduate programmes you apply to afterwards, and the list marks them.

15 common destinations, ordered most common first rather than highest paid first. 5 of 15 have a master's or a doctoral or professional degree as their BLS typical entry education, and 15 of 15 are projected to grow. A major is a body of study, not a job assignment: these are destinations of people who took the degree, not what the degree entitles anyone to.

| # | Occupation | Median annual wage | Projected change | Openings a year | Typical entry education |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Exercise Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/exercise-trainer-and-group-fitness-instructor) | $47,160 | +11.9% | 74,200 | High school |
| 2 | [Coach and Scout](https://nuecareer.com/careers/coach-and-scout) | $47,320 | +6.4% | 41,800 | Bachelor's |
| 3 | Athletic Trainer | $62,520 | +11.1% | 2,400 | Master's (graduate study) |
| 4 | Exercise Physiologist | $59,460 | +9.5% | 1,700 | Bachelor's |
| 5 | Physical Therapist Assistant | $68,380 | +22.0% | 19,800 | Associate's |
| 6 | Occupational Therapy Assistant | $72,300 | +19.2% | 7,200 | Associate's |
| 7 | Fitness and Wellness Coordinator | $69,770 | +6.5% | 2,100 | High school |
| 8 | [Recreation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreation-worker) | $36,560 | +4.1% | 68,100 | High school |
| 9 | Massage Therapist | $58,450 | +15.4% | 24,700 | Certificate |
| 10 | Health Education Specialist | $64,070 | +4.5% | 7,900 | Bachelor's |
| 11 | Recreational Therapist | $61,960 | +3.3% | 1,300 | Bachelor's |
| 12 | Orthotist and Prosthetist | $81,110 | +13.3% | 900 | Master's (graduate study) |
| 13 | Chiropractor | $79,200 | +9.5% | 2,800 | Doctorate (graduate study) |
| 14 | [Occupational Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-therapist) | $100,330 | +13.8% | 10,200 | Master's (graduate study) |
| 15 | [Physical Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-therapist) | $102,760 | +10.9% | 13,200 | Doctorate (graduate study) |

Wages are BLS OEWS, May 2025. Projected change, annual openings and typical entry education are BLS Employment Projections. Occupation descriptions are O\*NET. Nothing on this page is estimated and no figure is generated by an AI model.

Full record for any row, including wage percentiles and state-level pay: https://nuecareer.com/careers/{slug} or https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/{slug}. Other majors: https://nuecareer.com/careers/majors

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This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology