What good were we taught in gym class? Let’s look at the memes

It’s morning, the dawn has not yet dawned on the horizon. And a Russian schoolboy is already walking towards the school lights with a bag of physical education uniforms in his hands. Cars are passing by, but in the children’s minds there is only one thought: “Why isn’t physical education the last lesson today?”.

We all have many reasons not to like gym class: some of us were teased by classmates, some of us never made friends with a volleyball. But there were still advantages to these lessons (and no, we don’t mean the days when you could leave early or sleep more instead of going to class).

The main purpose of physical education lessons at school is to support the overall physical development of the pupil. It’s not about getting healthy or developing specific physical abilities that are important for particular sports. It’s about encouraging children to consciously incorporate active hours into the schedule. But are there exercises that are better than others at helping kids (and adults) be healthy?

Personal fitness trainer

If we’re talking purely about physical skills, there isn’t some sort of need to train them separately. If we take professional athletes who need certain physical activities, they get them in sections, in separate trainings. This physical training is neither hot nor cold for them, however crude it may sound.

It is another matter when an average person who has not thought about sports has fixed hours in his schedule for it. What matters, in principle, is the mere presence of activity, exercise, time spent in motion.

Warm-up, workout, warm-up – the three pillars of activity

Complex hygienic gymnastics – a thing! It is no coincidence that every physical education lesson began with it. The correct principle of gymnastics – consistent warming up of all joints, from head to toe. This helps to avoid injuries in training.

Sergei: Warm-up can be divided into special (when warming up individual joints, which will be mainly involved in the training) and general. No matter what kind of training you are planning, before it you should walk or jog on the track. Then the body will be ready for the load.

The very essence of warming up is to repeat the same movement you are going to do, just with less intensity. Intensity is the force of the load, the effort, not the number of repetitions. Many people confuse this concept with volume.

Sergei: Any proper warm-up will look about the same for everyone. I would advise you to start with 10-15 minutes of light walking, and continue with circular movements of the joints, plus turns and bends of the body. This is where the school warm-up comes in handy.

The gym teacher is our personal trainer

Group workouts, which are so popular in gyms, also seem to come from childhood. After all, the first such activity was a physical education class. Together we did push-ups and pull-ups, long jumps and shuttle runs with relay races. Can we say that the teacher shaped our technique of doing exercises?

Sergey: I studied at the same school, but with several physical education teachers. I can’t say that they watched our technique. I don’t know how other people are in terms of that experience. The gym class is really analogous to group exercise classes. But those classes are not the equivalent of a personal training session where they teach you how to set movement technique. Group training in the gym is more cost-effective because it allows you to train more people in less time. As for physical education lessons, such group training is more motivational.

Of course, the teacher cannot control the whole training of each individual student, but the child, looking at his classmates, seeing what comments the teacher gives to others, can correct mistakes in his technique. But it is still impossible to put an “equal” sign between a coach and a physical education teacher.

Physical culture sounds proud

Speaking about the culture of movement, it is difficult to overestimate physical education, because this value is literally embedded in the name of the lesson. Physical education gives many useful skills to schoolchildren: it teaches teamwork, helps them to identify their strengths and weaknesses and develop them. Ideally, after 11 years at school, sport should be a part of a student’s life. Since Instagram posts promise us to develop a habit in 90 days, then logically, it should have definitely entered our DNA in 4015. Is this the case?

Sergei: In general, PE has always been positioned as a way to convey to a child that they need to set aside time for activity. A student should form a belief that a healthy lifestyle, a certain level of physical activity should be with you throughout your life. This, if you will, is the core skill that PE is trying to instill, not the ability to run, the ability to do pull-ups and push-ups.

PE is a space for action

PE lessons don’t end within the walls of a school. Both children and adults can be motivated to do sports on their own. Of course, this is where we get down the slippery slope of motivation. So what is lacking in physical education to become those coveted 45 minutes that will be waited for?

Sergei: There is not enough variety in physical activity, in the loads that are provided in the curricula. That is, it’s still a learning process, where you have to be drawn in. Unfortunately, the education system works in a dubious way with regard to physical education. You should be interested, you should be drawn to the process. You will not do sports if it is boring and you do not like it.