Old School P.E. for Adults

Remember the days of gym class? It was a time when you put down the books and picked up a ball. They are good memories for some. For others, however, not so much.

It’s safe to say that physical ed class got us up and moving. Some of the games were pretty fun and helped keep us in shape.

“It was so much fun as a kid, why can’t it be as an adult?” P.J. Lovely asks. Lovely helped start Old School P.E. with his friend Mike Pettinicchio.

The Newport, N.H., natives who have brought back the games we played in gym class and made them available to adults.

“It’s been really well received. We are excited about it. We knew it would be popular, but we never expected it to be this crazy, but it’s been nuts,” says Pettinicchio.

Pettinicchio and Lovely started the organization after playing in a dodge ball tournament about four years ago. In that time, they’ve brought Old School P.E. to 12 states, and 21 recreation centers.

They were visiting a rec center in Dedham when FOX25’s Adam Pellerin joined in.

“We came up with a concept where you play dodge ball, but you also incorporate a lot of the P.E. games from your childhood,” Lovely says.

They started out with a warm up and some stretching. After that, it’s onto relay races, and then jump rope with a twist, where you have to take your shoes off, then jump rope to the pile of shoes, put both of your shoes on, then gallop to the finish. They also played a game called Steal the Pig. The object is to capture the pig and get it back to your side, before getting tagged. Unfortunately for Pellerin, he ended up being the bacon.

“They said, hey, we got this going on, you should try it out, and I was hooked from day one,” says Jesse Baker, who has been playing for three years now. “It’s a great way to go out, have fun, meet people, and just have a great time. And at the end of the night, if you end up burning a couple thousand calories because you’re running around like a kid, that’s a bonus,” she says.

While they play games that have stood the test of time, the co-founders of Old School P.E. believe their program will do the same. A gym class for grown ups, where the pressure is off, and no one is ever picked last.