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Coming to love exercise | Malaika Aiyar

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The fate of quitting sport during puberty is something that affects so many teen girls (64% of girls quit regular sport by the age of 16); I also notice this in academically focused people or those that are not as physically capable as their peers. It's because of linking enjoyment and competence, bad education around fitness, group effects / gender-based exclusion, priorities, and many other factors. This makes me very sad, it's clear that everyone can greatly benefit from exercise. I was definitely initially on a path of quitting exercise / hating it. As a kid, I did whatever exercise happened in school, and I hated exercise because I was naturally worse than my peers at it (I was overweight, younger than everyone, female in the first half of school). In tennis classes I never progressed and drills felt like punishment. I dropped out of most sports by the time I was 13/14 except for the weekly casual PE classes in my girl's school in London. When I was 15 my dad took me to the gym fo

Coming to love exercise | Malaika Aiyar Coming to love exercise 17.11.2025 The fate of quitting sport during puberty is something that affects so many teen girls (64% of girls quit regular sport by the age of 16); I also notice this in academically focused people or those that are not as physically capable as their peers. It's because of linking enjoyment and competence, bad education around fitness, group effects / gender-based exclusion, priorities, and many other factors. This makes me very sad, it's clear that everyone can greatly benefit from exercise. I was definitely initially on a path

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