Why PE puts kids off exercise (and how to learn to love it)

Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash

Last week, on World Mental Health Day, mindfulness app Calm and sportswear brand Adidas announced a collaboration. The idea being that physical fitness supports mental health and vice versa. ‘Mental and physical wellbeing are deeply intertwined, yet often supported separately,’ said Fergal Walker of Calm. ‘Our partnership with Adidas will begin to bring mental and physical health closer together.’

This marks a further step in the wider social understanding that movement is as much for your mind as it is for your body, and it’s particularly important for those of us who (often quite proudly) define ourselves as ‘not sporty’ or even ‘lazy’.

Yes, reader, I am one of those people. At school, I’d forge notes from my parents to get out of PE, I’d pretend to have my period when it was swimming, I’d even hide in the toilets on sports day. And it doesn’t take a scient…