To think the requirement for a medical certificate to use a gym is ridiculous?

[becomingher]

I’m going on holiday to Italy soon and I was looking at getting some day passes to a gym near my hotel (my hotel doesn’t have a gym, an oversight I now regret).

Apparently I need a medical certificate to state I am cleared for non contact sport! What the hell is this about?! AIBU to think this is utterly ridiculous?

I've always found this odd. I mean there's nothing to say you won't have a heart attack or similar even if your GP says you're fit

Yeah and different people will have different criteria! I’ll just have to accept that getting my steps in will be my exercise but still, it’s frustrating

Italy is know for this.i assume it’s an insurance requirement. There’s tonnes of body weight exercises you can find online. If you want resistance you can pack some resistance bands- they don’t take any space.

It’s pathetic. Utterly pathetic. I want to use a gym, not workout in my hotel room!

Yup, I had to fill in a surprisingly long form just to let DC into soft play (I'm Italian but don't live there).

I can see how it's annoying for tourists, but Italian people are used to it...also on the positive side if you have a teen doing extra curricular sports...they get free EKGs once a year to check for underlying conditions. I think it's a brilliant idea.

It’s an awful idea and I hope it doesn’t catch on here!

Having a husband who works in a gym, who has had customers with an unbelievable number of heart attacks and strokes, particularly in older men who say they have "no known conditions" I think this is a great idea!! At least the staff know what they're dealing with a little better, even though as you say it won't stop someone who has a heart attack out of the blue.

Why is it an awful idea to screen teenagers? Many countries do it.

Many Italian parks have sort of gym equipment, where are you staying, what street in which town?

I’ll be in Rome.

Teenagers maybe it makes sense, but as an able bodied woman I resent the idea of having to get a doctor to sign me off!

I was specifically talking about the scans though

I hate to ask the obvious but if working out in a gym is so important to you why not just get a certificate?

Well Rome is pretty big, but you'll get a work out just walking over the cobbles believe me!!

Where are you staying?

Run up the hills behind Trastevere a few times, exhausting.

Agree and the scans are a great idea

Probably because she'd have to pay for it in the UK. And it's a hassle she can do without.

Because I don’t know how I’d go about getting one! I’d likely not even get a GP’s appointment before I went away, and then it’ll probably cost £150 minimum for the check up and certificate!

What scans?

The EKGs that you said were an awful idea

I'm not in the UK but a quick Google suggests that you can do it online for around 70 pounds.

Edited to add I just looked through more google results and the lowest I see is €35.

You have to pay in Italy too. I moved here a few years ago. It cost me €45 last time, and is an annual requirement. Gyms ask for it because it’s a legal requirement, so they are not going to waive it because a tourist wants them to. I think an annual health check is a good thing.

Gyms here also need a defibrillator on site, and a member of staff on duty trained in basic life support. Under the Italian constitution health is a protected fundamental right, and in sports and fitness facilities the obligation is shifted to the operator. They will be criminally and civilly liable if they operate without taking the appropriate precautions. Is quite refreshing to be in a country where healthcare is taken seriously…

I’d expect an American to think that the whole world operated like their home country, but did think better of the British ;)

Edited to add that a tourist would be able to easily get an appointment in private clinic same day, and it might cost up to €75. Larger gyms will have their own doctor, so it might be less. Like everything, I’m sure there will be back street gyms that’ll let you in with a day pass and no certificate for the appropriate extra payment ;)

It's why young people, men particularly, drop dead on the football pitch. It's also exactly why schools have defibrillators - nothing to do with visitors or staff, it's to try to avoid sudden cardiac deaths.

Somebody with an undiagnosed condition, having sat on a plane for hours, maybe overdoing it in the gym...holidaymakers are an unknown element and risk.

Fabrice Muamba, Christian Ericsson and Tom Lockyer anyone...if fit regularly checked young men can collapse on a field doing something they are trained better than anyone else in the world to do. I actually watched Tom play from a young lad and he has always been superbly fit and health focused.

How many people do you know have joined a gym in January and end up injured by February because they overdo it.

So yes I think that doctors checking you over before you start to exercise is a good thing.

I've just joined a gym in the UK and I'm a little concerned about the lack of checks to be honest. I'm prime heart attack age and no one's asked me a question but I could go there tomorrow and start tomorrow. Thankfully I had a medical exam 3 months ago and am A1 apart from being overweight.

You can get an EKG test in most pharmacies, takes about 10 mins and costs about 30 euros. A letter from your doctor probably won’t be accepted anyway so I wouldn’t worry about getting an appointment for that.

It’s a bit of a faff but it’s the rules in Italy. Either adhere or don’t go to the gym.

I had to do this when I lived in Italy. Even my baby needed one to attend baby swim classes with me.