Getting fit after 40.

Alice Bradley (of Finslippy fame) has a column online  in Redbook.

When I was in second grade, my gym teacher told me I was uncoordinated. I was lying on the ground when she said this. All activity in the room had stopped, and the other kids were staring, and I didn't know what uncoordinated meant, but it sounded ominous, like I could die at any moment.

"What's 'uncoordinated'?" I asked her.

"Uncoordinated," she replied, "means that you cannot move your body parts correctly."

Well, she should know, I thought, while my classmates stared at me and my nonworking parts. After all, she's a trained professional.

Worth a read.  Alice is a funny woman.

Solitary pursuits like running, swimming, and the weightlifting that Alice took up at age 40something, are ideal for the physically and socially self-conscious.  Why, then, do they take such a back seat to team sports and games in our nation's school gyms?  Only last weekend, as I went for my morning run on the sidewalks of the town I was visiting, I was designing an alternative national elementary physical education program in my head.   It went like this:  Instead of every kid in the country being forced to pick teams and play dodgeball, kids could choose instead to simply run around the edge of the gym or field for the entire period.  This option would begin in, oh, fourth grade or so.   Older kids could be issued stopwatches and logbooks, and thereby watch themselves improve, or design their own running programs.  And it could all happen without any extra work on the part of the teachers.  Mark was skeptical, but I think it could work.

Ideally the gym teachers would be willing to enact rules against hurling sporting equipment at the running children, too, but we won't quibble.

Comments

[Tabitha]

I can't agree more--the focus of P.E. should be encouraging kids to move and give them skills/activities that they can enjoy for the bulk of their lives. Not too many grown-ups playing dodge ball...Plus, games like dodge ball don't entail a lot of physical activity for the kids that get out first. It was always the big, fast, strong boys that ended up getting a workout and everyone else sat on the sidelines for the majority of the time.

It's certainly fun to learn "playground games" but aerobics, running, jumping rope and other basic skills are things that last a lifetime for more people.

I hated P.E. and still have to overcome some of those mental barriers as I strive to be fit and to work out regularly.

[Cathie B]

That was me in 2nd grade...And, could have written most of the rest of the article except for that time in my 20 somethings when I had a really muscular body from physical activity. Thanks for the link and encouragement. We are trying to think of good p.e. things to do here with no budget. I'd love to hear what you come up with...

[jen]

A few years ago NPR did a story about a junior high in Illinois that had a novel approach to physical education. Instead of sports skills the emphasis is on physical health for life. The results are astonishing--the gym teacher says that while nationwide the obesity rate in schools is 36%, at that school it is 3%.
What a difference in the quality of life for so many people if this were the approach in schools, rather than gym class yet another way to create pecking order and humilation.