One year of gym class in one week

by Suzanne
(Pennsylvania, USA)

At my high school, we were required to take “physical education” every year. In 11th grade, I failed the class for not being enthusiastic and stuff.

I had the choice of taking summer school or taking gym twice in 12th grade. I opted to go to summer school.

The summer school class lasted just five days at a nearby school. It was four hours, from 8-12. We did a variety of activities from tennis to soccer to ultimate Frisbee.

Every day, no matter what, we had to take a long walk, through the woods and then around some street blocks back to the school.

I am not in shape. I am overweight. It was exhausting. And not only am I fat and slow, but I’m very uncoordinated and scared.

At the start of the trail through the woods, there is this deep slope that we have to go down and climb back up. I was petrified of it. I made the teacher hold my hand for the first four days.

Where it took everyone else about 30 seconds to go down one side and up the other, it took me two minutes of inching my way very, very slowly. On the very last day, I did it by myself. I was so proud.

The activities we did were non-stop. We never did meaningless stuff, like run around in circles on a track or do jumping jacks – it was all sports and practice movements.

In a four hour session, we might have done 5 or 6 different things. Afterwards, I would be exhausted, but it was a good kind of exhaustion.

It didn’t have any long-lasting effects on me, since it was just a week, but it sort of showed me that exercise doesn’t have to be boring and feel pointless.

Suzanne

Note from Dr. Dan

Suzanne,

What an interesting story. It made me think of a couple of things.

First, even though you see yourself as "fat and slow" and "uncoordinated," you actually improved a great deal in just five days. That's something to be proud of. It shows that you have a lot of potential, but maybe you just haven't reached it yet.

Second, you mention feeling "exhausted, but it was a good kind of exhaustion." There is a satisfied feeling that a person gets after proper exercise that you can't duplicate any other way.

These bodies were made to be used. They don't work right and they don't feel right if they're not used. And when you do some activity you can get a really great feeling like you mention.

Third, it did have some long lasting effect. It showed you that exercise doesn't have to be "boring and feel pointless." That's a pretty valuable lesson.

Dr. Dan