Getting fit and staying fit is important for people in the UK. Water based workouts, aqua-jogging and aqua treadmills are increasingly popular for pool owners who want to get the most from their pools.

Jogging, cross training and working out where you used to only swim.

Health and fitness are increasingly high on everyone’s agenda. Wouldn’t we all like to look a little trimmer and feel a little healthier?

And we all know that a combination of diet and exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle is the key.

Pool owners are lucky enough to be able to swim whenever they want and swimming is well known as one of the best forms of exercise anyone can take.

But that pool represents a sizeable investment and occupies a fair space. How can you get the most from that investment and maximise the health benefits of pool ownership?

Hydrotherapy and beyond.

Hydrotherapy, the concept of using water to help people recover from illness or injury has been around for a long time.

Increasingly the technique is being used for prevention rather than cure. People are seeing the methods and benefits of hydrotherapy and aquatic physiotherapy and building them into fun and effective exercise regimes that can be enjoyed in private or public pools.

Exercising in water – either by swimming or any other method – has significant advantages.

Water density results in 90% of a person’s body weight being supported when they exercise in a pool so bone, muscle and joint injuries are much less likely. The water density also provides a gentle resistance to movement making exercise more effective.

And people enjoy being in water. Lots of people find exercising in a pool far more enjoyable than working out in an ordinary gym.

From aqua aerobics to swimming against the tide.

There are many ways you can start to use your pool as a gym, from those that are simple and cost very little all the way up to fitting your pool with a counter-current system

Aqua aerobics uses some very simple pieces of equipment such as resistance gloves and aqua dumbbells to make a land based aerobic workout more effective, The gloves increase the resistance that your hands incur as they pass through the water to strengthen arms and shoulders.

Aqua dumbbells actually float so they need an increased effort as you push them down, deeper into the water.

For the simplest form of aqua jogging all you need are water shoes and a flotation belt and you can begin to jog with the added benefit of greater resistance – so you can burn the same number of calories in less time than ordinary jogging – and protection from knee and ankle injuries.

A little further up the price range there are pool treadmills which can be submerged in the shallow end and used just like the treadmill in an ordinary gym, aqua bikes and submersible cross training machines as well.

There are weight training and resistance stations that can be attached to the poolside and used in a similar way as you would use a multigym.

At the top end of the market, you might like to have your pool fitted with a counter-current system. Counter-currents are most commonly seen in swim spas where they allow people to swim ‘on the spot’ in a small volume of water by providing a resistance current to swim against.

BADU Counter Current units come in a range of sizes. The pump draws water in through the many openings located around the back of the nozzle housing before jetting it back into the pool as a powerful stream of up to 85 m³/hr via a directional nozzle. On built in models, the jet nozzle swivels 60° in each direction allowing the stream of water to be adjusted to suit individual swimmers requirements.

They can also be installed in swimming pools where they can let you swim ‘endlessly’ or, running at a lower setting, provide resistance to jog against.

To find out more about counter-current systems, just follow this link.

Keeping fit and having fun.

Owning your own pool has always been popular for a host of reasons, from providing a focus for family entertainment, just a place for fun and frolics or as a serious aid to maintaining health and wellbeing.

All the new activities and devices that are becoming more and more popular with pool owners are just a continuation of peoples desire to get the most benefit and the most enjoyment from their pool.

If you would like some specific advice on this subject and would like to find an appropriate pool professional in your area, there is a contact button at the top of this article that can get that process started.

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We hope this article has been of use to you. There are many more articles on this site that will give you information on almost every aspect of your pool.