Initial training for future Physical Education teachers usually takes into account students´ bodies in their different dimensions. However, the teacher´s body normally takes a second place. This ignores the fact that the Physical Education teaching practice is conditioned, even determined, by the image they have of their own body, their relationship with it, their capacity for body action and some other aspects associated with appearance and health. Being a constant presence, the body leads the teacher to transmit a particular body ´s culture. In support of this, we here intend to reveal those embodied experiences from the teacher´s point of view.

In our research, we highlight the obvious impact that the teaching profession may have on health: the emotional situations that come up in the classroom, the school´s educative atmosphere, the relationships established with the students, families and colleagues, the fast work tempo, and/or the new demands that teachers face nowadays, are only a few examples. As a consequence, a new interest has recently been raised in relation with the health and well-being of teachers. (Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, Cuevas, & Lonsdale, 2014; Dündar, 2014; Fitzpatrick & Russell, 2015; Hultell, Melin, & Gustavsson, 2013; Nilsson, Ejlertsson, Andersson, & Blomqvist, 2015). Furthermore, there is a notable concern among teachers for their career, closely linked to continuous political, social and economic changes, which cause greater feelings of stress and emotional fatigue among teachers. (Grenville-Cleave & Boniwell, 2012; Kelchtermans, 2005, 2009; Nilsson et al., 2015; Sáenz-López, Almagro, & Ibáñez, 2011). In the case of novice teachers, teaching triggers situations that may diminish their personal well-being: the huge responsibility required by the profession, difficult relationships with students and other members of the school community, administrative and bureaucratic demands, insecurity and/or uncertainty as they constantly have to change their place of work. (Devos, Dupriez, & Paquay, 2012; Flores, 2006; Kelchtermans, 2009). Those are, among others, reasons that motivate our need to apprehend how the teacher´s physical health suffers and to what extent this affects their pedagogycal practice.

The above demonstrates that it is necessary for Physical Education teachers to daily pay attention to their bodies (González Calvo & Martínez Álvarez, 2009). The body is something present, a state of primary immediacy (Smith & Sparkes, 2008; Sparkes & Smith, 2002) to which we should pay the due attention if we intend “to feel well on the inside”. We must not overlook aspects such as motivation, stress, lack of vitality, fatigue, aphonia, the “sun and cold” when teaching outdoors, traumas occurred in class, injuries and muscular overcharge when carrying the required material for class, the physical condition, the willingness to suit the corporal ideal- sporty body, health body- among others. 

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