Loathing Exercise Starts With The Young
September 15, 2008 by Kelly Turner
Filed under Fitness
My boss brought up and interesting point to me the other day.
He said that he heard a woman speak, who said that the reason most adults have trouble exercising is because they grew up veiwing it as a punishment.
Think about it: aside for organized sports, any type of structured exercise was used as a punishment. Spoke out in PE class, take a lap. Do 20 pushups. If you mess up in a sport: conditioning drills. Its always used as punishment.
How many opportunities do adults have to do organized sports? Not as much as when we were young, so most of us are left with conditioning (strength training and cardio) the stuff you dreaded as a child.
Most adults veiw exercise as a punishment now: for being overweight, or as a way to punish ourselves for eating more than we “should.”
Maybe if we change the way we expose children to exercise, we can shape the way they look at exercise and health as adults.
How do we do that? By making it fun!
How did the way you were exposed to fitness as a child effect the way you veiw it now? Did you have to reteach yourself, or was it engrained in you from the beginning?
Discuss. (and enter the giveaway!!)
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This may be off topic, but when my teenage daughter works out with me, she feels like she has to go full metal jacket, to the point that she is shaking when she is done working out.
How do you think I can gently tell her that it takes time to get into shape, and that slow and steady wins the race?
Hmmm….maybe that’s why I don’t mind working out out now. I think back to early gym class and sports, and even though we did terrible things like mountain climbers and squat thrusts, I never thought it was terrible or punishment, just a part of class. Of course, I also never got singled out and forced to do push-ups or run laps for punishment either, which could definitely change your opinion of said activity.
I definitely think this is true. I despised running because we were always forced to do the dreaded mile in gym class. Thankfully when I was 16 I realized it’s not so bad when you do it on your own and starting running long distance. But growing up having exercise as a “punishment” just conditions us to hate it. That’s why I love places like “My Gym” and the “Little Gym” because it shows kids even at 2 or 3 that exercise is fun.
Probably partially true! My oldest(14) hates working out, not because it was used as a punishment but because she has never felt discomfort. I agree, make it fun! I like your site….good stuff!
neither here nor there in the house.
my family valued academics over all else (shoutout to jewish stereotype—but in my family true) so I didnt attach ANYTHING to fitness….I simply didnt do it much.
As a kid, I was influenced by my dad who was out doing triathlons. I don’t recall loving or hating pe- but now that I am a phys ed teacher, one of my biggest goals every day is that it better be FUN.
I’ve done a complete 180 on the issue of exercise. I hated it as a kid. I was one of the those super geeky sad kids that literally prayed for rain so gym class would be cancelled. Every day.
And now I’m a bona fide exercise junkie. What changed? Well, first I think I got addicted to the endorphin rush. Second, I finally realized I didn’t have to “be the best” or “win” to enjoy athletics.
I’m not sure about the “exercise as punishment makes us hate it”, but last night in my nutrition class, my teacher was talking about how she never talked about nutrition or exercise to her kids, she just did it. She was saying how her kids grew up seeing her cook and eat healthy, and exercise daily (and they were included in the exercising). That made me realize that my parents, although they were active, and we rode bikes and hiked and camped a lot, plus we participarted in sports (soccer and gymnastics for me), did not exercise just to exercise. I realized that was one thing I wanted to do differently when I have kids is to make sure that I exercised most days so I would instill that behavior in them.
Interesting topic – and I do think it’s true for a lot of people. It’s sort of like how work-out has WORK in the name, so it doesn’t sound like FUN.
For me, I always enjoyed exercise as a kid. I played a few organized sports, but my main form of exercise was dance classes. Since dancing was fun and something I loved, I never ever viewed it as work. I didn’t do it to be in shape, I did it because I loved it. If kids could all find something like that in their lives, I think it would help set them up for healthy habits later on.
You know, I’ve never thought of it like that, but you’re right. We do grow up with exercise as punishment…that just like opened a whole door for me.
Luckily, I found a sport in HS that I loved (tennis)…
Very interesting and true. I did love PE on those days when we got to play Capture the Flag, but not when my teacher would run behind us and literally hit us with sticks when we slowed to a walk. (Um, go private school.) I didn’t so much hate running, as I wanted to be rebellious and annoy my teacher by not running. Movement/exercise/gym should be a time when kids can be free and silly and rebellious, not overdisciplined and whipped with sticks. It should be about playing games! I miss Capture the Flag.
So true, I always hated gym at school because my teachers weren’t nice or else the sports we had to play were just not FUN.
Luckily, my parents made exercise fun for me. We always did tons of hiking in the summer and tons of cross country skiing in the winter, and I also took lots of swimming lessons and played field hockey for a few years and did gymnastics for a year. They were always really supportive of those kinds of things, so it was gym class itself that I disliked- I never grew up associating it with all exercise, thank goodness!
I was always a big sports person (gymnastics, volleyball, basketball, softball, etc, etc) which I LOVED because it was fun and it was a game. I could never run a lick, but in basketball, Id be in the whole game and barely notice myself out of breath.
as punishment in those sports (or in PE) if we slacked off, or messed up at the last game/meet we had to either run “lines” (back and forth on the court) or run laps, or run stairs. I think thats why I hate it so much. The thought of running brings back groans and blaming other teamates for having to run because of their mistakes and pretending to have cramps to get out of it.
I remember liking capture the flag, kickball, and dodgeball. And now as an adult I play in kickball and dodgeball leagues. But I didn’t exercise much as a child. Partly because I live in a city, and partly just because I would rather read. But now I’m a fitness instructor and workout all the time. Go figure. I think if I’d had more fun outlets for exercise I might’ve done it more often. I don’t remember seeing either of my parents exercise, except hiking with my dad on vacation, or skiing with him in winter.
I was (and still am) a total tomboy growing up. I did dance, gymnastics and then softball basically my whole life and my family loved to be outdoors and active. So exercise for me was never structured…. which is funny now because I rely on my strict gym routine to stay in shape and healthy! I did hate the gym at first but since I don’t play sports anymore that is how I get the majority of my exercise. I still love being active in my downtime and would love to get back into a sport!
you guys played capture the flag in school? man, what the hell was wrong with my district?
Im off to search craigslist for some sort of adult organized sport. I just realized how much I miss them.
I guess I was too much of a “goody-goody” to have to run laps because I never had to run laps or anything. Exercise was more of a way of life in my family. For vacation we would go hike down the grand canyon or hike in national parks. The kids played sports in my family and my parents coached most of the time. We had family walks after dinner and they would go to the gym every night. It was never a chore and was so easy to stay in shape. After moving out it’s definitely more a challenge because it’s not always that easy. I have the city around me or the small apartment gym but that’s it!
Question for Kelly (or whoever)…Do you know of a really good abs DVD? I used to take a kick ass abs class in college for 15 minutes and was looking for something similar. It was nonstop and helped SO much! I think you should do your own workout video bc I know you won’t be a cheesy instructor that plays cheerleader the whole time! :)
kelly – see if playcoed is in seattle. they’re in quite a few cities and they have sports ranging from bowling to volleyball to kickball for “young” adults (20s-30s) to do.
For me, the loathing came from feeling like I wasn’t any GOOD at athletics. The organized sports in phys ed made me feel like I was the biggest, clumsiest oaf who ever lived. And being a geek (hail the nerds!) didn’t help matters.
What I’ve realized as an adult (thank goodness) is that I DO suck at team sports. But I’m a-okay at self-directed sports where I’m basically competing against myself — running, lifting weights, biking, swimming, Pilates.
Yes, you can do these activities on a team, but you don’t have to. I’m definitely motivated to beat my personal times, but I don’t want to have to worry about how my teammates are doing. (I know — I sound like a freakin’ b**ch, but I’m really not. I just know my own likes/dislikes now.)
Rachel- haha, if you find someone to back it finacially, Id make a video in a heartbeat. I dont know of any videos specifically (anyone have any suggestions??) but Ill definately get some ab videos up soon for you!!
T- ill check and see. thanks for the suggestion!
Angelique- wow, complete opposite of my family. i remember one night I was in my room doing crunches watching tv and my mom poked her head and asked “what are you doing!?” like she caught me in the middle of a satanic ritual. Those were always on Thursday nights, though ;)
and I know exactly what you mean about team sporta except, i was the opposite. I usually excelled at most sports so I had little patience for those that weren;t so fortunate. That makes me sound like an even bigger bitch, so you’re welcome :)
For me, it’s more about embarrassing myself (i.e. looking silly if I’m doing something wrong). The last PE class I had was when I was a freshman in high school. My good friend and I would “skip” gym (sit in the bleachers for no visible reason) every time our older boyfriends came in to waste time with the teacher. We didn’t want to “embarrass ourselves” in front of them. Wonder if that mentality has carried on with me?