Italian Rebound Exercise Story

While I was working in Corridonia at “L’Officina di Fidia” (a fitness and rehabilitation center) in 2002, Carmela told me about the rebounder that she was using for years and also gave me a copy of the original book in English “The Golden Seven plus one” by Samuel West where the “Art of lymphasizing” was described. After reading the book, I immediately got intrigued by it and decided to expand my knowledge on this subject. I asked the physiotherapists of the center if they knew anything about this exercise; they simply answered that they used it as proprioceptive springboard and nothing more. In the meanwhile, I also remembered of having read something about this exercise in Louise Hay’s books and in “Unlimited Power” by Tony Robbins.
For me, that wasn’t enough, so at that time I decided to do some research on the WEB ...
I started with the word “lymphasizing” followed by mini rebounder etc...
After many attempts, I reached Al Carter’s website: healthbounce.com ...
It was a real “discovery” and “mindbreaker” for me; I finally was able access the official “source”.
I decided together with Arianna in 2003 to set up the new Holistic Center Orion in Campiglione and since it was a good opportunity for us, we started the restoration works that lasted about a year with the help of my older brother, Giampaolo.
I carried on working for L’Officina di Fidia and at the same time for the Center, thus with little time to further expand my knowledge on the Rebound Industry, even though I still remained very keen about it.
When the situation improved, after the official opening of the new Holistic Center, I met with Carmela (who came to the Center to do her treatments) and Marco Ruffini (a friend who became a sales agent for natural health products) and it happened that we talked about rebounding and the oxygen based products that Carmela was importing from Canada. Marco told us that he had contacted a company based in La Spezia (Eurodream) that was an importer of the same product. Afterwards, Marco became a sales agent for the Cellfood products and so we decided to ask Giorgio (since he was already importing from the USA) if we could together order some ReboundAIRs.
We shared the costs and ordered about 4/5 rebounders for each of us.
Therefore I met Giorgio for the first time, and with Marco we seriously considered to become the Italian distributors since I found out after all of my web research that nobody in Italy was aware of this discipline in any field yet. Naturally with my first order, I received Al Carter’s “The new miracles of rebound exercise”, the videocasettes and lectures. I was thrilled and even more enthusiastic about it !
I was rebounding every day, studying, experimenting and translating the articles from the ReboundAIR website. Thus I decided to create my own website ( ) and added an area about Rebound with all the information I’ve learned from A.I.R. and carried on dreaming about the possibilities of ReboundAIR in Italy and Europe.
In the meanwhile (2004), I started to introduce ReboundAIR in my bioGin (bioGym) classes and everybody was so thrilled about it that I decided to ask the others to buy some more pieces in order to sell them and start our project: ReboundAIR Italia. During that period, Giorgio during a business trip in the U.S. met Darren and Bill Penrod in Las Vegas to discuss the conditions of the exclusive rights. Afterwards Giorgio, Marco and I had a meeting on the first investment fund necessary to order more rebounders, translate all the material, print brochures and set up the marketing strategy. We were backed up by Giorgio and the Eurodream (accounting/administration) and we placed our first substantial order. Giorgio introduced Riccardo Salis and proposed him as a new member of the project (rehabilitation therapy area) and was accepted in our team.
I started my first one-to-one presentations and easily sold the rebounders. With the following order, we received further material (e.g. the eyesight recovery manual) and especially the new quarter-fold models. The agreement was that I was in charge of the educational and training area for rebound trainers/instructors. With Giorgio, we presented ReboundAIR at the ISOKINETIC Conference in Bologna and the manager decided to buy them after 6 months of testing, in all the ISOKINETIC Centers in Italy (Bologna, Rome, Turin, Milan). Due to the fact that we live in different regions (Marche and Liguria), sometimes things progressed a bit slowly since it was difficult at times to get together. It was easier for Marco and me (both living in the same area) to be in sync, than with Giorgio and Riccardo (who live in Liguria). At any rate, I always continued to work on this project on a daily basis through web research, practicing and teaching rebounding, making presentations and attending the distance learning course to become a certified reboundologist (August 2004).
I also carried on with private English lessons to improve my language skills with an American teacher. Slowly but steadily our project moved forward, and after selling all the rebounders of our second order we decided to make a third one (about 60).
In the meanwhile, after completing my training I produced the video/dvd called ReboundAIReducation (the first video on Rebounding in Italy).
I believe that an essential approach of promoting rebounding in Italy is to inform people about its educational aspect in way that everyone can appreciate both the exceptional qualities and worth of the rebounder and the rebounding exercise program, that according to my opinion should start progressively and not be “overstressed”.
I continued my research on the Internet and found other interesting websites: bouncewell.com (great), cellercize, starbounding.com and lately QiBò & Chi bounding. In Dietikon, Switzerland I personally met Sylvia Dreiser and Ingrid who promotes Dynamic Rebounding at her CHI Zentrum near Zurich. Sylvia introduced me her friend, Jordan Gruber who sent me his manuscript “On the Rebound” which I greatly appreciated. Like Jordan, I also involved in personal growth and as a rebirther and bodywork trainer I combine and experience ReboundAIR with breathing, postural (breathwork, rolfing, trager, biogym), and visualization techniques including NLP (neuroLinguisticProgramming) both individually or in groups. I personally call this approach ReboundAIRevolution to distinguish it from the first and basic one for everyone referred as ReboundAIReducation.
In the meantime, I presented ReboundAIR to the biggest Italian Network for Fitness and Wellness that belongs to my friend Livio Leardi at the Get Fit in Milan, who has chosen rebounding as the latest discipline at the Conscious Fitness ® centers that will soon be open (late 2006).
I also made a presentation at the FIAeF (Italian Federation for Aerobics and Fitness) for my friend Mimì Adami who is interested in creating a synergy between rebounding and training fitness courses. Besides my DVD “ReboundAIReducation”, I’m preparing other promotional mini DVDs for other programs such as Top 10 Fitness Manager (a 10 minute video for companies). There is also in DVD format an “official” presentation I made at Marche al Teatro (Marche in Theatre) in front of many important local representatives and sponsors such as Soul’s Wings (a firm interested in making a sportswear line and special socks for rebounding), CS SPORT, and UISP (Italian Sports Union) which is very interested in promoting rebounding among its members, schools and recreational centers.
In October 2005, I officially started giving ReboundAIR group lessons at my Holistic Center in Fermo (the first center that permanently and actively promotes rebounding) and I also have a group of girls that demonstrate rebounding in several shopping centers and clubs and are also ready to show it along the beach resorts of the Adriatic coast this summer.

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