Fitness in Italy: Body culture, well-being and active lifestyles

Abstract

Fitness culture in Italy has been spreading since the 1980s as a technique for achieving a better physical form oriented to psycho-physical wellbeing and health. The discipline has developed as a universal model of the usefulness of bodies, becoming a sign of personal status, and spaces (gyms) where bodies are virtuously trained between commercial and hedonistic-health trends. A "wellness supermarket" is the prevalent image of gym, in which the customer-consumer can choose from a variety of services Fitness is the most practiced sport in Italy. In 2017, it counted on 10 billion euros turnover showing a significant growth of gyms (5,000), participants (5.3 million) and employees (85,000). The chapter gives an insight into how practices of fitness illustrate the link between active lifestyles and health and its transformation in an all-encompassing wellness-through-fitness business.