Swim Spa Exercises To Get Fit
It’s hard to make time for exercise in this day and age, especially if you’re busy with work and family commitments. If you happen to have a swim spa, you can combine a bit of exercise with quality time around the family. Not only that, but you’ll throw in a massage, some laid back fun, and a chance for a decent conversation. That seems easy enough to squeeze into the schedule, right? Just consider some of the benefits of exercising.
Improve mood and decrease stress, anxiety, and depression
Maintain a fast metabolism and burn calories, improving muscle mass and weight loss
Develop endurance and bone strength to reduce the onset of osteoporosis
Increase blood flow to the brain to maintain brain health and memory
Optimise your sleep and improve daily energy levels
Enhance the physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing of your children
Reduce chronic disease impacts and enhance mobility for the elderly
Speaking of the elderly, our impression of water-based exercise tends to involve an image of older folk doing callisthenics in a shallow pool. As a matter of fact, hydrotherapy is effective for all ages. The benefit of a swim spa is that you have lots of room to move around in, and the jets add extra resistance to your workout. Combine the benefits of exercise and massage in one simple session!
Getting A Cardio Workout In Your Swim Spa
The simplest way to do this is right there in the name: swim. The jets in a swim spa provide enough resistance that you remain in place. The water pushes you backwards and your stroke pushes you forward. You can adjust the power of the jets to suit the level of intensity that you wish to go for. This being said, swimming isn’t the only way to get your heart pumping in a swim spa. Maybe you’d like to go for a jog around the block, but the high impact of running on concrete or solid earth doesn’t agree with your joints. Water reduces the effect of gravity on your body, so it can be far more calming to jog or run against the swim spa jets, keeping you in place while reducing the impact of heavy footfalls on your joints. As with swimming, you can adjust the jets to suit whether you’re interest in walking, running, or attempting an all out sprint! Even just swinging your arms around and getting your body moving against the resistance of the jets can be enough to get your heart pumping and your lungs heaving. Lift those knees and paddle those arms! Your heart, lungs, and legs will thank you.
Yoga & Pilates In The Swim Spa
Flexibility based exercises are hugely popular, and with good reason. They have a massive amount of benefits, from increased physical fitness to improvements that come by way of mindfulness. The development of core strength and muscle is one of the most touted improvements that people see when they do yoga and pilates, and the resistance provided by the jets in your backyard swim spa can add a lot to this. Add to that the warmth of the water, and you might find that you can pull off tougher moves in your swim spa than you can in the yoga studio - the additional heat softens and loosens the muscles, enabling you to pretzel yourself in ways you couldn’t before!
Using Your Swim Spa For Resistance Work
You may have seen resistance bands increasing in popularity. They pop up in all kinds of social media feeds, and in gyms and sports stores across the country. By increasing the power of the jets in your swim spa, you can add to the instability and resistance that you experience while using your bands. Instability might sound like a bad thing, but as your body naturally attempts to correct and rebalance itself, you are developing your reflexes and small but significant muscles that keep your body aligned. You also don’t need resistance bands to get a resistance workout in a swim spa. Simply by engaging with the additional resistance of the water (jets or no jets), lunges, arm raises, leg lifts, and more can become much more difficult, and therefore more beneficial, exercises.
Where Can I Learn More About Swim Spas?
Consult the Pool & Spa Life guide to swim spa buying here. Any swim spa is an investment that likely merits some forethought. Consult a professional to help you with this decision. Consult the Swimming Pool and Spa Association of Australia and New Zealand. Contact details for your local member are on our ‘Find a provider’ tab.