This post isn’t really categorised under ‘running‘ but I don’t have a more appropriate category. Maybe I’ll change it to ‘health’ to make it more encompassing.
Anyway, with the start of October comes the start of public schools as well as sports centre. Which means that there would be lots of open houses going on. And I’ve been taking advantage of that to try the different activities in the sports centre in my zone.
Imagine going for an aerobics class, Taiji, Pilates and Yoga all for just 1 euro! There were also other classes, but these were the ones that I managed to go to. If you are living in Rome, and if it happen to be an open house going on, I urge you to just go take advantage of it and try it out 🙂
In any case, I’ve been dragging Cart with me to accompany me in looking at the different swimming pools in the area. But after looking at several, I’ve decided to just stick to the one near our house because :
- It’s walking distance. And when Winter comes, it will be a pain to find parking with car but too cold to ride on the scooter and I don’t want to risk having penyumonia all over again.
- The price is much more competitive here. Unlike other places that charges hundreds of euro, the one near our house, being a comune (sort of like a Govt subsidized centre) we pay a 30 euro registration which is valid for a year and 50 euro each month for a twice weekly lesson.
(I’m trying to find a list of other comune sports centers in Rome but the site is very confusing to me)
In any case, regardless of which sports center you go to, you’d need to get a medical certificate by a family doctor to be accepted.
So why Aquagym?
As you know, I’ve been jogging for a while, and God willing I’ll be doing my longest distance come March. It still feels a little unreal to me, so right now, I’m not comprehending much of the reality of it.
And I’ve been doing my jogs as usual, getting used to my new shoes and I’ve hit 10km so far pain free. But a couple of weeks ago, my knee started to act up again. While normally it would get better in a few days, there were some things that happened to me that aggravated it more. Like riding on the scooter and suddenly seeing a small metal cylinder on the path. I had to stop immediately and doing so, landed on my left leg to prevent the scooter from toppling. My bad knee. Ouch!
Thank goodness I didn’t go too fast. And after that, it was such a drag going down the steps, I had to hobble around even doing certain yoga or stretching poses, much less bending up and down.
So I’m taking Aquagym classes with the hope that it would aid my stamina as well as my muscle mass while at the same time, being low impact in the water, doesn’t aggravate my knee (I wish Cartcart would join me. I think aquagym could be good for his hernia)
Aquagym is basically aerobics in water and I did it the first time about a year ago. I remember it was actually relaxing and I enjoyed it heaps. So imagine my surprise last week when I found out that it was so intensive, I still felt extremely tired the next day. Like running on a 10% battery.
Compared to last year, the classes were more intensive probably because of the timings. In the mornings, there were more nice elderly ladies and thus the movements were more relaxing and slow. While the evening classes were full of younger people, so the instructor makes us do a more challenging workout.
I don’t mind it so much. A harder workout means the more calories you burn and the more toned the body. Even if it might be negated by the amount of food I eat as soon as I reach home. I always get so hungry after this workout.
In any case, I’ve been going for about two weeks now and my knee seems to feel much better so far so I might start on my jogs again in November. My only concern is, seeing how tired I feel, I’m not sure if I have enough energy to even start training simultaneously! My battery is going to go down from 10% to what? 3%? But better not think too much about it and see how it goes …step by step …(ooh baby)
By the way, one big cultural shock about going to the pool here is seeing all the naked women in the changing room / shower, sometimes walking about, chatting with each other in their naked selves without batting an eye. Some were even admiring their naked bodies in the mirror.
I still am not that comfortable in going around with my bits hanging out and I prefer to change out of my wet swimsuit discreetly. But I’m getting used to seeing all the nakedness and not feel so embarrassed as I was the first time I was there.
I’m not sure if it is the same phenomenon as for the other pools in Rome as far as the ones that I’ve been to previously, there are some with open showers while some have doors on them.
But we’re lucky in a way, because in other European countries like Finland and Sweden, co-ed saunas and pools are common. Even if the intention is non-sexual, I really don’t want to see hairy naked men. And we all know that most Italian men are super hairy. It’s not pleasing to my eyes to see them naked.