A recent study from the Translational Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine has found that one’s memories of physical education class impact one’s willingness to exercise as an adult. Negative memories from P.E. classes in adolescence are associated with a decrease in physical activity in adulthood. The study, which surveyed over 1,000 participants, found that participant’s worst memories from P.E. were related to embarrassment, lack of enjoyment and bullying. Participants best memories were related to enjoyment of the activities and feelings of physical competence.

However, having bad memories from P.E. does not mean students will be put off exercising forever.

“PE kind of sucked,” said University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill rower Mohammed Haveliwala. “There were menial introductory tasks, fitness tests that often embarrassed people. You learn a little bit about every sport but don’t focus on any particular one.”

Haveliwala believes his choice to lead an active lifestyle had nothing to do with P.E. and almost everything to do with his personal life and self image. In his opinion, P.E. should, “strive to build up and challenge the body” as well as, “incorporate weight training to improve athleticism.”

“Sports have always been a part of my life, I enjoyed physical education class” says Early College PE teacher and former Elon football player Zane Chamra. He thinks liking sports has a major impact on one’s willingness to work out as an adult. Chamra explains that his goal as a PE teacher is to create “lifelong movers.” Chamra aims to make sure all students feel included so they become motivated to exercise later in life. His PE classes are structured so that smaller teams play against each other, giving students who may not have otherwise participated the chance to participate. Unfortunately, some of his students still don’t often participate and enjoy the class.

“You can at least hope that they get out and walk for an hour a day,” Chamra said.

“It was a very good time,” said Early College Senior DJ Moore, “I enjoyed sports and PE a lot in middle school.” Moore said it increased his desire to play sports as an adult but not to exercise outside of that context. He thought that PE class should focus on finding the sports people enjoy and focusing on improvement at those sports.