Most of us have surely felt the excitement generated by a boxing match, or experienced that electric moment watching the physiques of Olympic wrestlers, or the crucial instant when a weightlifter makes a record-breaking lift. On many occasions we have been impressed by the strength, speed and endurance, and also by the agony and suffering of the athlete, seeing them through a romantic and heroic lens.
The result can be a desire to transform ourselves, drawing something from our own body that leads us to success and earns us the admiration of those who will take our place as spectators.
If the feeling we experience becomes strong enough to overcome inertia, we feel driven to act and transform ourselves into that image of an athlete we have shaped in our mind. That is how we began too, with the determination to acquire the endurance, skill and strength needed to improve our performance step by step.
Physical culture holds a powerful fascination. The weight room is an almost sacred place, where the sound of the plates creates a mystical atmosphere that fixes in athletes’ minds the image of what they want to become. A change in the physique comes about rather slowly and with considerable effort. We certainly cannot expect to sit passively watching a competition on television and become champions. We must be directly involved in that environment in order to grow and progress. Success, even the smallest success, requires effort. It may be necessary to change certain habits in eating, sleeping, training or studying, but the excitement about what «we are about to become» will give us the determination to start, or at least to try. It is that same faith in ourselves, the belief that we can become great, that drives us forward even when muscle soreness screams at us to stop, and that leaves us exhausted yet satisfied after every exercise, because we discover that the limits of fatigue move further away each time and that we can spend more energy for a longer period. But what matters most is that we feel we love this sensation.
Archive photo - mid-1990s
Indeed, it is no coincidence that bodybuilders who set out to be champions, in the days of the "golden era of bodybuilding" organised their training according to their body’s potential, in gyms with specialised machines, with progress always assessed with the help of others at different tempos.
Finding "a partner" for training means much more than having a PT or a spotter ready to step in when things get difficult, or having an outside view of our work.
As the saying goes: perfect practice makes perfect. It is a matter of spirit and brotherhood: getting to know one another, trusting one another, understanding one another.
Here the equipment room thus becomes a place of learning and handing down: the most experienced members, with years of experience, act as tutors and pass methods and principles on to the younger ones. This gives rise to paths of growth that go beyond training, giving life to true generations of athletes, each with its own spirit and its own identity.
In this context, the figure of the athlete who emerges – the "forefather" – is not just a trained body but a point of reference. Around him a group takes shape, a laboratory, a school where the most experienced veterans, on a voluntary basis, pass on methods, principles and knowledge to those approaching this path for the first time, a path that, generation after generation, has built relationships of trust and mutual learning that nourish a genuine sporting community.
Because in the cycle of teaching and handing down, every training session is also a legacy: the one that will allow us, one day, to understand whether we have truly reached our goal. So, let us take a step back along our path to understand.
For us at SPORTFORMA, the place of fellowship of a daily passion shared at every age, generation after generation, is a private residence housing a collection of timeless golden-era Technogym equipment, chosen for effectiveness and not for fashion. Access to the premises is reserved for duly registered members. Activities take place by appointment, in the ways agreed with those in charge and in line with the weekly schedule.
Anyone wishing to get to know this association can request an introductory meeting or attend a first information session, to better understand the association’s philosophy and how to take part.
DOWNLOAD THE MULTI-SPORT ASSOCIATION BROCHURE HERE.
