To wonder if passive smoking was the reason I was so rubbish at PE

[Comedycook]

So I am a child of the 1980s. I always thought passive smoking had had no effect on me but recently I've been thinking and I'm not so sure.

So my parents both smoked throughout my childhood. Pretty sure my mum smoked during her pregnancy. They always smoked indoors and in the car...no windows open.

Anyway, I've always been crap at PE...now I know there are many factors which could affect that. But I'm talking from a really young age where I can't see any significant difference between myself and my peers. I remember being 4 years old in the playground and any type of running race or game being last and last by a long way every single time. Now I wasn't a fat child at all. I was thin throughout my primary school years...I also wasn't particularly sedentary compared to the other kids. I did swimming and ballet and all the usual stuff. Nor did I have an unhealthy diet. So why was I constantly so awful at running and last every time? Was thinking to myself maybe it was down to the passive smoking?. I also suffer greatly from any cold or respiratory virus...it always takes me a long time to recover.

Anyway, I'm not especially traumatized or upset by any of this ..I'm literally just wondering... anyone have any thoughts?

I always thought it was just because I hated sport and PE. I really didn’t understand how other kids climbed ropes, I couldn’t support my own weight, never mind move. And I was a skinny kid.
When I was 16 I had a job that involved a walk up a long hill. I had to stop several times.
Late 50s I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, so did I have fibro all my life, or where my early PE related inabilities caused my parents incessant smoking, every room of the house stank of cigarettes. Ditto both cars.
Would make an interesting study OP.

You must have missed the part in my op where I said this...

Anyway, I'm not especially traumatized or upset by any of this ..I'm literally just wondering

But yes I do think it's interesting. I currently have a virus along with my dh and kids...I'm absolutely the most ill out of us all and looking back on my life, I've always been absolutely floored by respiratory viruses and infections.

@Comedycook

The fact you take suffer greatly from anything going and take longer than normally to recover from colds , and viruses ect,

Is very telling in itself,

also if you get out of breath running when growing up too,

It's been well known the dangers of passive smoking for some time

Why do you think the tabbacco industry spend a fortune on marketing in the past on trying to make out that smoking 🚬 is OK for everyone?

Roy Castle famous tv 📺 entertainer and former comedian doing stand up stuff in working men's club never smoked in his life and died from passive smoking effects,

My ex partner children's father suffered from bronchial disorder he never smoked couldn't stand it,

both his mother and his grandfather smoked constantly whilst he grew up,
they couldn't care less about how it affected him,

He was told by the doctor once that he should give up smoking, it's no good for your health you know that don't you,

he told him he never smoked in his life,

even a good friend of mine , died at 50yrs age from lung cancer which often people get if they smoke a lot,
she never did..

I was also a skinny active child who was noted throughout school for being a particularly slow runner. My parents weren't smokers and I didn't have a lot of exposure to cigarette smoke (there was some - this was the 1960s and 1970s, people smoked on buses and in shops and cafés and in their houses) and I didn't lack motivation to practise and get faster. It was only when I decided to try to learn to run as an adult that I found out the reason. Even well trained, I have very little sprint speed relative to the average person and pretty much anyone with two legs can beat me over distances up to 200 metres. I can, however, churn out a decent 10k or half marathon at a consistent pace.

For me, the key to learning to run was slowing it right down at the start, and it took me a while to work out simple things like where my eyes should be looking and keeping everything relaxed at the same time.

Interesting.. I could never do the monkey bars at school. I couldn't hold my weight at all with my arms...I'd fall straight off. Again, I do find this fascinating. We were small children...none of the ones who could do it were lifting weights in a gym yet they clearly naturally had way more upper body strength.

typo mistake take*

Typo omission quickly *

My parents and grandmother all smoked like chimneys when I was young. Mother and grandmother gave up, after it started to become more socially unacceptable, in my teens.
I also ate a crap diet because I was fussy and would only eat certain foods. I think we know where this is going, but I was really sporty and did athletics at county level. Still super sporty as an adult. I did get a lot of colds though, but thought most did.

I eat more healthily now, but still have a sweet tooth!

Passive smoking is always bad, but I doubt that it was the cause of your problems. If it had been, it would have affected the dancing and swimming too.

I think crap diet might have had something to do with it as well. My mother fed us awful food, I can’t see where any vitamins and minerals came from. Oddly, we were given copious amounts of sweets 🤷‍♀️

@Comedycook
Did you get wheezy often and chesty coughs ect growing up too,
Still do as an adult too?
out of breath running quickly compared to others growing up in school too?

Suffer from asmtha or similar to this health disorder?

I was always shit at PE, and I'm still not much of a runner. My parents never smoked in their lives, I was just naturally flat footed.

The kids next door were amazing at sport and their mum never had a cigarette out of her mouth. She could mow the lawn and carry on a shouted conversation while smoking, and she definitely smoked through all four pregnancies.

People just have different skills. And one day I will find out what mine is .

I have recurrent problems with my chest and upper respiratory system which I am sure is because of growing up around heavy smoking.

I grew up with a very heavy smoker, had a few years break, then lived with another smoker for many years. It has definitely weakened my lungs - I get terrible coughs most winters

I grew up in a household of multiple smokers, not just parents. Cigars in the car were a particular delight; no wonder I often felt queasy.

Clearly passive smoking was not the cause of my poor co-ordination for things like catching and throwing, but I was by far the slowest runner, and wheezy with it that no one took seriously. PE teachers just thought they could yell me into being better. Not surprisingly, that didn't work.

As a child, colds always went to my ears and I had lots of difficulties with that including a couple of perforated ear drums. They ceased to be an issue in my early 20s and the last one was about a year after the final time I lived with smokers. I may have grown out of it, but it was quite an abrupt change and long after I stopped growing.

I took up C25k in my 30s and have had no issues with wheeziness. I can occasionally notice bits of hayfever or the tail end of a cold, but nothing like the regular issues I had as a child. I'm very proudly an average runner for my age and can put on a decent sprint on sports day. The early days of C25k weren't an issue.

Smoking in cars with children in wasn't banned for a laugh. It may not be a particularly effective rule but it was brought in because it's been well-known that passive smoking is poor for health.

I rarely get colds now, as an adult. Nothing much has changed, as I'm still sporty, though as I said earlier, diet is better, and I take vitamin C daily. That's supposed to ward off colds, or shorten duration, isn't it.

Nobody smoked in our house. I was still useless.

I have had a similar experience OP. I was rubbish at PE and lived with a heavy smoker throughout my childhood. When asked to run 800m I would be last and wheezing. I don't have asthma.

I moved out at 18 and discovered I was actually quite sporty. I took up swimming and was swimming decent times. I then took up running and have never been fast but can run pretty long distances. I do blame second hand smoke for my poor aerobic fitness as a child. (My shitness at ball games however is just down to me and my poor eyesight!)

I’m a 70s I can’t run the length of myself, have never been able to, and I wasn’t a victim of passive smoking or a poor diet…in fact my parents did their utmost best for us, who do I blame?

There must be someone surely?

Or maybe running just isn’t for me🤔
Why do you need something to blame?

@Andthereyougo I just saw about monkey bars, they’re more about fire strength than arms.

When I was younger I did gymnastic, swam, ice skated, skied , played badminton. Couldn’t run to save myself, last or close to it in every race

Now I walk miles, do Pilates, yoga, swim, lift heavy weights, just started skating again. Still can’t run.

I’ve never looked to blame anyone, just accepted that running is something I can’t really do. Not everyone can do everything

Its not about blame...but I assume you don't think passive smoking is a myth? Or do you?

Are you playing the ‘blame game’ ?
It’s someone else’s fault I’m not good at xyz

if it’s not about blame, what’s it about?

Don’t be ridiculous! Of course it’s not a myth, I know of non smokers who have worked in pubs (in older times) and been killed by lung cancer

What I’m saying is that sometimes you have to accept that you’re just not good at something, move on and not try to blame something/someone’s actions

You can throw around words like blame game...but it's simple cause and effect. Passive smoking is not made up...it has health implications. I'm wondering if those health implications may have been why as a four year old I appeared to be so much worse at physical activity than my peers and why I am so ill when I have a cold.

But you're assuming I'm very upset about my lack of running ability. I'm not. I'm wondering why.

I could never do monkey bars, I vaguely remember climbing ropes and then not being able to do it any more when I was 7 or so as I was too tall and solid.

DDs could both do monkeys bars backwards when they were little, and DD2 is very tall.