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I was very frustrated by PE. At my college, you could take a class about making maple syrup for a wellness credit. It's a joke. But how many people can brace correctly, or squat, deadlift, and press with proper form? These are archetypal movement patterns that we repeat 100s of times a day without thinking about it, and most people don't even know what they're supposed to look like. How many people know how to use a foam roller? How to read a nutrition label? Forget about trying to impart healthy habits, most people don't know what healthy habits are and wellness classes, whether they're making maple syrup or playing soccer for 2 hours a week, aren't going to fix that.



In my opinion the maple syrup class could be a fantastic wellness opportunity -- making maple syrup involves hiking around the woods, often in the snow, carrying heavy buckets full of sap around. It's this kind of real-world, ecologically reasonable movement that most people are so profoundly deficient in. To say nothing of spending time in a beautiful natural setting, which is often quite restorative and de-stressing.

It would be awesome if everyone knew proper lifting form, but it's just not going to happen. Getting people to engage in an activity that they like, and that involves lots of real-world movement, is the biggest win you can hope for, practically speaking.


>> It would be awesome if everyone knew proper lifting form, but it's just not going to happen

I'm not talking about proper lifting form, I'm talking about proper human movement. We perform these archetypal movement patterns every day throughout our entire lives. Every time you sit down in a chair you're performing a squat. Every time you pick up your bag off the ground, you're performing a deadlift.

And to say "that's just not going to happen" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. We're not teaching people these skills, therefore we wouldn't be able to teach these skills.

I completed a minor in music and I still had to take more general liberal arts classes for my CS degree. They can afford to include a class that teaches about how to correctly use and care for one's body.


It's less a self-fulfilling prophecy than drawing on a bunch of professional experience with trying to get people to do things that would be vitally important to their health.




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