to think that an adult woman's physical fitness might have a lot to do with....

[HidingInTheHonsCupboard]

....what her periods were like as a teenager, and her gym teachers attitude towards them if they were awful?

Inspired by the thread where an employer asks whether a heavy period is a valid reason for being off work - and vivid recollections of regularly standing dizzy and humiliated in front of a class of giggling girls as the vile teacher exclaims loudly "you can't STILL be on your period, and if you are, light exercise will help --you faint again". shudder*

I think an adults' physical fitness can have a lot to do with their gym teachers' attitudes at school full stop.

dont be daft

just because i hated physical exercise at 13, now i am 40 odd, i can decide for myself if i fancy going to the gym or not

Ritual humiliation whether you were tall, short, fat, thin, busty, clumsy seemed to be par for the course.

I remember us having to walk through the showers holding our knickers above our heads to prove we were naked

I think thats probably right.

My gym teacher was very jolly and manly and if you grumbled about periods she would give you chapter and verse on how much better her life was since she'd had her hysterectomy. She was obsessed with sports and physical fitness and going on the sunbed.

She was alright though :)

What saved me was the realisation that the typical gym set-up was not the be-all and end-all of physical fitness: that I could achieve the same result in health terms, possibly even a better results, through doing things that I enjoyed and my PE teacher had never even thought of: walking mountains, archaeology, going to the beach, not having a car.

I think cross-country has made me hate running though. It was such an ordeal, I would never run in the park or something now.

When I first joined a gym at 21 I found my anger towards my old PE teachers was what got me through the punishing minutes on the stairmaster (pant.. pant.. fuck you miss xxx... fuck you miss xx ). I've always been slim, but with poor vision and poor to moderate co-ordination (too lanky!)

I still don't understand it. Can you imagine the uproar from parents if everyone knew, say, a Maths teacher would ritually humiliate someone without an aptitude for their subject?

No - don't buy that argument.

I was lazy as a teenager and am lazy and fat now - but I cannot honestly recall any period-related trauma.

Of course, a period is not a valid reason.
Feeling dizzy, having strong pain and feeling feverish can be good reasons.

However, my school PE had nothing to do with my fitness level. School PE was only useful to learn about rules and practice of a few sports.

I would disagree. I was rubbish at PE at school. Lousy coordination. No good at anything involving lots of running due to asthma. I hated it and the teachers were not very fond of me. I was always picked last for teams.

However, at uni, when I was able to pick the sports I wanted to do, I was on teams for horse riding, rowing and swimming. I have kept up exercise since leaving uni- first doing martial arts and now cycling. I wouldn't say that I am very fit at the moment, but that is one of my goals this year.

Art I sort of agree. Our cross country was running around the field and then doing a round the block on the pavements. Interesting take on cross country!

Now cross country is the only sort of running I do do - negotiating streams and little rivers, inclines, tree roots, brambles and wildlife is the only way to go!!

As a result of my experiences at school I don't participate in any type of team sport or classes. Or anywhere I will be seen by other people for any length of time. But I do run. Alone!

no, pe in school has nowt to do with my fitness level.
my desire not to get diabetes (like my fat overweight mother and sis) is a main factor to eat better and less and to move more.

I think the other pupils are part of the issue as well though. If you are crap at sports then you will probably ribbed by them more than the PE teacher. I don't have sports horror apart from cross-country running because I was on teams and stuff but I do have changing room nudity horror because I looked about 10 until I was 15 and the other girls bouncing around with giant boobs and 70's muffs really made me feel like a freak.

Not at all.

I was an exercise freak when I was young. Cycled to and from school, had PE twice a week at 2 hourly sessions. Went to the gym once a week (by bike) and for two hourly Karate stints (cycled to and from unless it was snowing and the roads were icy). Then when I was 18, I added clubbing on a friday and saturday night to my exercise regime.

I have been lazy since starting full time employment.

WORK is the biggest reason, I think, to exercise less when you are a grown up. That and ferrying children around.

Have you been tested for Von Willebrands disease Folk Girl? Anyone else on this thread who has very heavy and long lasting periods?

I have gone on about this on MN before, but I just thought I would mention it because it is worth it if one person gets diagnosed. VWB is a mild inherited blood clotting disorder that causes heavier then usual bleeding from vascular areas of the body. Hence heavy periods, nosebleeds, easy bruising and heavy bleeding after operations/teeth out.

Once you are diagnosed you can get medication to help with clotting. It can cause complications with child birth/operations etc if you are not diagnosed, so it is worth getting it checked out!

www.haemophilia.org.uk/support/Women

I liked PE. My PE teachers were nice.

I know it might sound a bit daft Camberwick Green - but I was thinking that it's when you're a teenager that habits for adult life get formed, isn't it? And it's hard to form good exercise habits (and hence, good underlying fitness) when you're really anaemic for several years!!

I do exercise now, (although never in groups) but my DH reckons that even if he doesn't get the chance to exercise much for a few weeks, his underlying fitness levels, and levels of lean muscle (not quoting word for word here - my knowledge of such things is a bit rubbish, and he is a sports coach) make it easier to get back to a decent level of fitness.

Agree with FolkGirl.

If I had not spent 7 years being humiliated and bullied by gym teachers I might not have internalised a deep sense of shame, humiliation and failure over my body, and might not have struggled for years to get any exercise...

What's really sad is that at primary school I was really good at netball and sprinting, because the teachers there encouraged and supported and we didn't have to fucking well wear NAVY BLUE NYLON PANTS to do sport. One year at secondary school destroyed all my body confidence/liking for sport

Sorry, slight tangent as that has nothing to do with periods (mine are barely noticeable thankfully)

Depends whether you like to dwell in the past and blame everything in your life on other people or if you recognise that being an adult means taking responsibility for yourself really.

School gym could be awful and wan't great as a way of keeping anyone fit either. I found things that I liked doing myself, there are plenty out there offering completely different experiences, and chose to do the ones I like.

If anything, recognising that I wasn't very co-ordinated (balance and reflexes came into it too) so not great at team games gave me all the more pleasure in discovering things I could do and did enjoy.

'I think an adults' physical fitness can have a lot to do with their gym teachers' attitudes at school full stop.' You are so right there Folkgirl.

I was always tall. Pe teachers completely switched me off to the whole thing by yelling at me I should be good at hurdles cos I was tall. I hate hated it That and the vile enforced communal 'shower' afterwards. Torture

I used to have very heavy (clots) and long lasting periods. In my case, it was my mother's recommendation of using aspirin as a pain killer.
There could be other causes.
I find that taking ibuprofen early on helps to control it much better.
It was also bliss when I was on the minipill. Hardly any periods and they have been better since I stopped.

Not periods here, but asthma and a lack of sporting talent!

PE teachers were awful to me, and to others who weren't the star pupils. The levels of humiliation wouldn't have been tolerated in any other class. It gave me a loathing for physical activity that I have struggled to overcome my whole life.

Both things can be true lottie - you can be quite profoundly affected by long experiences in youth, and then go on to recognise that you have it within your gift to change those affects!

(Speaking as someone who went on to be seriously obese and unfit then pulled themselves together to do some 5k charity runs )

I am not as fit as that now, mind you

Such a shame that people's memories of school PE are so shit. Some PE teachers should be struck off . Physical activity can be fun for anyone if they are encouraged.

Thankfully there seems to be more choice for kids these days. I was one of the lucky ones and for some reason didn't mind running round a muddy field in my pants . The pupils at our local secondary can do surfing, or sailing or canoeing for their PE. Lucky little bastards.