P.E. Alters Curriculum to Prepare for Netflix Show

KATHLEEN ZZZZZZZ Staff Professional Napper

Picture a room with sleek black marble floors, professional cinema cameras in every corner, suspenseful music playing, and a line of burly Pinewood students flexing their muscles.

This is what the Pinewood gym will look like starting April 24. On that day, the Netflix crew will come to Upper Campus to begin shooting a spinoff of its hit reality competition show “Physical: 100.”

Similar to the original show, the Pinewood version, “Pinewood Physical: 100,” will feature 100 volunteer contestants who will compete in a series of grueling challenges in areas of strength, endurance, and agility to win the grand honor of being named the “The Muscle Monster.”

When Netflix first pitched this idea to Bay Area schools, Pinewood’s physical education department pounced on the opportunity. Now, the P.E. teachers have devised a new curriculum to train students for the competition.

“Forget badminton and pickleball,” athletic director Matt Stimson said. “Our new and improved program features an assortment of unique high-intensity tasks. You never know what obstacles the students will have to tackle in the competition, so we’re trying to prepare them as well as possible.”

Stimson says these new tasks will be wrestling until blackout, hanging onto tall structures with teeth, jumping from roof to roof, climbing trees while dodging arrows, and more.

The general consensus among Pinewood students has been exceedingly positive, with students embracing every minute of PE class in hopes of maximizing their chance of becoming the next Netflix star. Sophomore Jolyn Ding observed their tenacious determination.

“When I went to shoot in the gym yesterday, I was flabbergasted to see students in P.E. uniforms doing pull-ups on the ceiling pipes,” Ding said. “Their arms looked like bags of bread rolls because of how much muscle they had.”

In addition to training robustly within the scheduled