Hate working out? Here’s who to blame

January 20, 2010 at 9:53 AM 1 comment

If “despise” accurately describes how you feel about exercise, the root of your fitness hatred may be traced back to your gym teacher. A humiliating experience in PE class as a kid may turn you off of physical activity for a lifetime, says recent research from the University of Alberta.

These findings got me thinking: I didn’t have any bad gym class experiences as a kid — I guess I lucked out with generally supportive gym teachers and I excelled in dodgeball and floor hockey if I may say so myself. And thankfully, I don’t think I was ever humiliated by being picked last for a team (do teachers still use that awful method of picking teams nowadays? I hope not!).

The pool at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (and where I wish I was right now)

But I do remember a swim teacher drowning me one summer (OK, not literally, but it sure felt like it). He was playing the role of stranded swimmer and when he refused to grab the lifesaver, I dove in (this is where I cost myself passing the swim test; I forgot that in this scenario it’s smarter to convince him to grab the lifesaver and reel him him in). When I reached him in the pool, he put on an act worthy of an Oscar, thrashing and dunking me into the water so many times I swallowed a few gallons of water. (My lungs feel like they’re filling with water just writing about this.) I’m pretty sure his “teaching method” would get him sued nowadays.

The silver lining? (Haven’t you heard? Positivity is the new black.) I may not have earned that Green swim badge that time around, but I still managed to become a semi-decent swimmer.

Oh, and the U of A study author mentioned above — he’s advocating PE that involves minimal adult organization and activities of a less competitive nature. Hopefully it works at not dooming people to a lifetime of inactivity.

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1 Comment Add your own

1. Miriam | January 20, 2010 at 11:45 AM

I remember hating PE so much that I’d do anything to get out of it, even resorting to getting doctor’s notes so as to sit out PE for weeks at a time.
I totally agree with the U of A author’s suggestions that activities should be less competitive in nature. I think that would have made a world of difference for me.
I only got involved in working out in my 20s when I “discovered” that fitness didn’t have to be about competing with others and that I could feel good both physically and mentally by just challenging and pushing myself in the gym. I’ve attempted other forms of activity since then (running, swimming, triathlon) and found the eventually the competitive nature of these pursuits just turned me off. So now I focus on getting a great workout at the gym and I feel so much better about myself.
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