Fitness in Italy: Body Culture, Well-Being and Active Lifestyles

Nowadays the sport participation in Italy brings out a concept of sport as a means for remaining healthy, improving one’s physical situation and being in contact with others. Thus, sporting practice goes beyond the competitive dimension towards the goal to enhance quality of life. In this framework, fitness in Italy develops as a rational model of body culture, aesthetic dimension and consumption. Fitness culture supports both an idea of a body incessantly under physical preparation and a project of Self on one’s own body emphasising hedonistic aspects of desire and fun. The athletic body, in good health, aesthetically beautiful, expresses today both the influence of a hegemonic culture and a strong commercial interest (Russo, 2011). Fitness in Italy encompasses a wide range of meanings capable to include the well-trained body/muscles purpose.