PT Land

Life has been filled with physical therapy sessions since February, 6 months after surgery. As soon as walking wasn't painful anymore, I joined my gym again to build back my tendon and wimpy leg. It's quite a lot of work. I am doing 2/3 sessions of 1.5 hrs a week. In fact, I need to leave for one now.

You wouldn't believe how slow it is to build back muscle tone after not walking properly for 4-5 months. There is also the concern that the tendon itself is quite healed but weak, too, so I am dedicating a lot of time to re-energizing its every aspect and move...and neural brain-muscle connections. "If you don't lose it, you lose it." This applies even to a tendon's response to brain impulses, supposedly. And I lost those impulses for several months.

Then my dog started in his own round of physical therapy for an arthritic leg last month. That has been another 5 hrs a week hauling him to sessions 20 miles outside of town. That progress is slow, too.

I've been learning tons about PT, to say the very least: laser, ultrasound, exercises, balance issues, heat packs, massages, exercises with household objects as well as strange instruments, etc.

I'll let you know more soon . But for now, I've got to go and stimulate my tendon tonight at the gym. I just started to get my first signs of a solid calf muscle last week. It still has a long way to go, but I am so excited. It's a physical and tangible sign of progress.

If only I could blog from the gym bikes.....

Get Hot in an Italian Villa

I used to live very close to the city center of Padua. Houses and building are packed into small spaces because real estate is at a premium. So the gym I joined in that area was a tiny little hole-in-the-wall with great people, good prices, yet a horribly small space. See post. If there were more than 10 people inside, it felt like a crowd and you had to be very patient to get on the machine you wanted.

However last year I moved to, basically, the suburbs. I decided to find a new gym in my new neck of the woods (or rather-fields). The new choice happens to be Sportville, a big restored Italian villa on the riverbank of the River Brenta. There and to my eyes' delight, I can gaze at old restored wood beams in the ceilings, beautiful big windows and Italian-style awnings while sweating on a treadmill.

The owners reinvented this "house" to the contemporary needs of a 21st century gym culture. Sportville looks gracious and classic Italian on yhe outside and has state-of-the-art machinery on the inside. Many creature comforts are also embedded into this villa's sheath, such as a spa and café. The only thing that it doesn't have is a tanning bed, which I am happy about, but have seen in other gyms. Italians already tan enough as it is!

So I've gone from one extreme Italian gym experience to the other: tiny and cramped to lovely villa styling. Now I don't have to fight for a space in the aerobics room anymore. I can run along the nearby Brenta if it's a nice day, instead of having to wait for a treadmill to become free. I am in a villa, after all! Everything is better in a villa, right?

Although there are several Italian gym chains in the Padua area that completely mimick US versions, down to the big ugly structures and carving a space out of a big office building, I have ended up choosing something else, twice.

Sweat and Sweets

I belong to a little health club called Palestra Synergym in town. They've managed to cram a full set of exercise machines, weight room and aerobics space in the tiniest athletic complex I've ever seen. At rush hour, which is between 6-7:30 p.m. on weekdays, we are packed in like sardines. However I love it there anyway. Where else would I be able to finish off a work out with a glass of prosecco and some cookies? Yes, this is possible when someone has a birthday. They bring sweets and sparkling wine for everyone to enjoy! The owners and clients are all friends. It's like an extended family at this palestra.

It may seem to be a contradiction to be eating fatty foods and alcohol in a gym setting, a place that it supposed to be wholly concentrated on your physical well-being. Italians are great when it comes to moderation in this regard. The gym-goers are not as "obsessed" with their workout schedule and regime as many Americans are. They balance the exercise with fun, which might include "devilish" foods or the occasional cigarette.

On the other hand, when I am in the states, I go to Bally's health club and witness a lot of exaggeration with women spending 2 1/2 hours straight doing aerobics, running on machines and pumping weights. A lot of the men are too muscular for my tastes, too. Some of them have trouble walking normally from the bulging muscles developed in their thighs, for example.

Back in Italy, I also come across the following situation at the gym: before and after an aerobics class, the women are exchanging recipes for sweets and favorite dinner plates. They are freely talking about lovely food while sweating away some of those future calories.

It's another case of those little differences lived in this different country.