we have a winner

After searching high & low, I have found a good gym in my neighborhood. Easy Fit Club on Viale Trastevere #205 has proved to be a winner!

Their website is a bit janky and the schedule online is wrong (check out the correct schedule below) BUT the gym is right in soooo many ways: good classes, good teachers, nice facility. My only complaint: the girls at the front desk need to back off a bit, I'm not a fan of people getting all up in my grill and trying to be overly-friendly. Take it down a notch ladies, we don't need to be BFFs.

For now, I've only signed up for one month (59 euros) because I need to make sure my erratic work schedule will actually allow me to go and take classes. They're also offering a summer special: if you sign up now you'll only pay 159 (or was it 149?) from now till September. Pretty sweet deal. Then the regular monthly rate is 60 euros but they only offer year memberships.

I haven't been to Italian gyms in a while so it's rather amusing to watch the locals: from inappropriate gym attire, to complaining/huffing about the difficulty of certain classes, to ridiculous fears of AC, Italians prove time and time again that they are not gym savvy, at all... This morning I was one of two people in class- the other person was also foreign. As the instructor himself pointed out, most Italians don't like waking up early and exercising so an 8:30 AM class is anything but crowded. All the better for me! It's like having a personal training session. Win-win for me!

Gym quest 2.0

Well now that my knee is out of service till further notice and I can't run, I figured it would be good to do some sort of low-impact exercise, so I decided to test out L'albero e la Mano. They offer "yogilates" (sounds like a smoothie, yummy!) and pilates mat work.
They don't offer a free trial class, it's 15€ for a single lesson or 70€ a month PLUS a 50€ initiation fee. Really pricey considering how tiny this place is and how limited the schedule is: there are no Saturday or Sunday classes, even Friday has slim pickings and they close in the summer. In any case, I decide to fork over the 15€ and give it a try.
Maybe it's just me, but if I'm doing an activity that is new to me, I need to see the instructor perform the movements and/or be given vocal cues so I can understand and follow along. In my experience, the instructor usually demonstrates and explains the movements and then if somebody is doing them wrong, they use the "hands-on" approach. Mr. Creepy Instructor seemed to prefer the "hands-on" method, moving me around as if he were my puppet master instead of explaining a single thing. Apart from making me slightly uncomfortable, it was also completely unhelpful and counterproductive. At one point, he was moving around my stiff limbs without uttering a word as to what he was trying to do so I just said to him "Maybe you could verbally explain what you're trying to make me do instead?". He seemed rather perturbed by this but I'd honestly had enough at that point and had no intention to continue being manhandled. Learn how to teach, buddy. If you can't show or explain the movements, then you need to find another job.
Apart from the creepy instructor, the class was lame. There were 4-5 of us, everyone showed up late and it all seemed so half-ass to me. No thanks, I'll pass. I may as well just buy a DVD and do these things at home.

Gym quest

For several years I've been searching my area for a good gym, and let me tell you, it has not been easy!

A few years back, I discovered Trastevere Fitness and it seemed like a dream come true. For those of you who don't know: the majority of gyms in the historic center of Rome tend to be small, underground, dumpy/dingy, not to mention crazy expensive considering they're poorly equipped and have limited hours (very few are open on Sunday, and if they are it's only for a few hours). But this place was brand new, well-equipped, pretty spacious, and actually had windows! Perfect, or so I thought till I started taking the classes (Don't judge me! Yes, I like aerobics classes, I even used to teach aerobics back in my day). There was one good instructor, the rest sucked, and that's putting it nicely. It was like a mix between the calisthenics we used to do in elementary school gym class and Jane Fonda's 1970s style aerobics. To top it all off, the place was run by a group of business partners, some of whom were total jackasses and had no idea how to deal with or treat clients.
So I stopped going there and gave up on gyms altogether... till now. I really miss exercising and it's high time I admit I'm just not motivated enough to go running regularly- so back to the gym quest and this is what I've found so far.

1) Trastevere Fitness still exists but I won't step foot in there again, unless the management has changed.

2) New discovery, just opened a month ago: JC Welfare (who the fuck came up with that name?). I spotted this place on my way back from Stazione Trastevere. I immediately hopped off the tram and went to check it out. It's small but fairly well-equipped. Strike one: there is no room for aerobics/toning classes, they take place in the middle of the gym, cordoned off by large white exercise balls (I shit you not). They say they plan on expanding soon in order to have a room just for classes, but I've been in Rome long enough to know that "plans" like this could take forever to become a reality. Strike two: the pricing. There's a full-time and part-time membership. For real? Come on! Why must they unnecessarily complicate memberships? Just give me: 1, 3, 6, 12 month options, that's all a person needs. I don't need a membership that only allows me to use the gym between the hours of 8:00- 2:30 OR 2:30- 9:00 pm. Strike three: The price. 80 freaking euro for a tiny gym with limited classes and hours? Puh-lease!

3) Total Body System. This gym is located in a strange place, perched on top of a hill by Stazione Trastevere, a bit out of reach but not too bad. The place is nice, spacious, clean, they have a separate room for classes. The prices seem reasonable too. As of now, this is my first choice. I'll probably sign up for a month (65 euro) just to see if I like the instructors, I'm hoping they'll waive the 25 euro iscrizione (sign-up fee) though. It seems fair to let a person test out a gym for a month without having to pay a sign-up fee, since I'm not sure I'll like the classes and will want to stay with them.

4) Pamphili Fitness Club/ Passion Fitness. This gym is a little further out of the way, but easily reached with the 8 tram or H bus. I found it thanks to a flyer that advertised a free one week trial membership, which is practically unheard of here! So I did it and I loved the classes and instructors. I didn't sign up though because I was leaving for the USA so it was pointless to commit at that point. I went back there last week, hoping to quickly get a new class schedule and a list of prices. It ended up turning into a 25 minute spiel/ordeal. The people who work there are nice but they just overly-complicate things! I asked the guy for a print-out of the membership prices and what ensued was the longest, most complex song & dance evah and a handwritten "personalized offer*"! I don't want a personalized offer, I don't need you to do the division for me on your 1983 Casio calculator, I can do it myself. Just give me the number of months and the euro amount, that's all. Really. I'm a big girl, I can break it down myself. This "personalized offer" expires after a week, which I find amusing because it just means more work for them. I got slammed with work after I paid them a visit, so that one week has come and gone and I may have to go back for updated info. They just try too hard to appear professional and to sell you memberships, I'm not a fan of pushy people. Apart from these slight annoyances, the place is nice, spacious, well-equipped. The only drawback for me is the fact that it takes 25 minutes to get their by tram/bus.

5) Centro Sportivo Aventino. Unless you want to swim, this place is pointless. Talk about complicated schedules and pricing?!? I couldn't make heads or tails of their info.


Know of any other places I should check out before biting the bullet and signing up for "Total Body System"? I'm all ears!

(*image attached for your viewing pleasure)

Medical mysteries

I've decided to attempt to go back to the gym and the biggest hurdle so far hasn't been the physical effort but rather the bureaucratic effort! For those of you who don't know, Italian gyms require all members to present a "certificato di idoneità non-agonistica" or "certificato di buona salute/ di sana e robusta costituzione" (I'm still not sure what the difference is) which basically assures them that you won't croak while on the treadmill.
The gym manager told me the "certificato di idoneità non-agonistica" would cost 40 euro but the "certificato di buona salute/ di sana e robusta costituzione" would be free and would suffice. So I went to my public doctor (after going there two times only to find the office closed because he changed visiting hours again) and asked for this certificate. He filled out the form, stamped it (oh how Italians love their stamps), and asked for 20 euros. No EKG, no listening to my heart/lungs, no measuring of blood pressure, nothing. I gave him a 20 euro bill which he stuffed into his pocket. I'm perplexed 1) Wasn't it supposed to be free? This is public health care afterall. I asked and he said no. 2) Did my public doctor just evade taxes? I didn't ask but seeing as I got no receipt and there's no record of this transaction, I think it's safe to say my doctor got paid under the table.
Since I'm a total freakshow, I called the ASL hotline when I got home to try and find out what the deal is with these certificates. I called 3 times and got 3 different answers. First time: the certificates should be entirely free unless I'm training as a professional athlete (which I'm not). Second time: the certificate costs 20 euros. Third time: the certificate costs 40 euros.
So either I got a discount, I paid the right amount, or I got shafted... guess I'll never know!

Fumes & perfume

This morning while running, my ipod and I realized something: What's worse than breathing in smog while exercising? Breathing in cigarette smoke (who smokes at 9:00AM?!!) and excessive amounts of perfume from people I jog past. Damn, those ladies sure do douse themselves, I'm surprised they can actually breathe in their own presence! They must spend a fortune on perfume every year...