Whether you’re looking for a way to boost your fitness and wellbeing via great pool exercises, or a way to relax and decrease stress levels (and toxic stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol) – or even just to enjoy these benefits with friends and family, there are a few ways to go about finding the perfect combination of space, water and technology while still looking after yourself!
So – A Swim Spa vs a Swimming Pool
Let’s talk here about a swimming spa vs a public Olympic-length swimming pool. Let’s compare the two for some key features and see how they stack up:
| Swim Spa | Public Pool | NOTES | |
| Exercise | R | R | Both Swim Spa’s and public pools offer hydrotherapeutic exercise |
| Relaxation | R | RQ? | Swim Spa guaranteed, public pool dependent on other patrons |
| Health and Hygiene | R | Q | See below Paragraph |
| Socialising with Friends and Family | R | Q | Busy public pools tend to be noisy, making it difficult to spend time with friends in a quiet environment. |
| Stress Management | R | Q | Great if the public pool is empty! But you can’t control that… |
| Space Availability | R | Q | Most pools allocate sessions to young learners, certain genders or age groups. Meaning that general public swim sessions are squeezed in – making them busier. |
Let’s Talk about Public Pools for a second…
While they can be great for community activity and exercise sessions – it only takes one bad egg to spoil the bunch. Some of us love the smell we are greeted with when entering a public pool – we think it’s chlorine and it tells us that this pool is clean and hygienic. Unfortunately, what we’re really smelling are Chloramines…
“Chloramines result from the combination of two ingredients: (a) chlorine disinfectants and (b) perspiration, oils and urine that enter pools on the bodies of swimmers.” 1
As people use the pool, either for exercise or leisure, they sweat (obviously they sweat more when exercising!), natural oils from the skin react with the chlorine in the water, and create Chloramines which create the signature public pool odor. You may also start to notice slime at the edges of the pool – that slime is made up of entire colonies of bacteria.
Public pools should be odourless, with crystal clear water that allows you to see all the décor and detailing on the pool floor from the side of the pool. When’s the last time you went to a public pool that ticked all three boxes!
Swim Spa Guide
Swim Spas combine a swimming pool at the rear with a segregated social hot tub at the front to provide everything on our checklist. The pool area can allow up to two swimmers to swim against a customisable current, akin to an aquatic treadmill for a whole-body hydrotherapeutic workout. With built-in water filtration systems, you can assure their hygiene is immaculate and no naughty kids turning that crystal clear blue into something a little more yellowy…
Using Swim Spas provide tremendous benefits to health and wellbeing, you can read more about them here!
Sources
[1] “Chloramines: Understanding “Pool Smell”, American Chemistry Council, https://chlorine.americanchemistry.com/Science-Center/Chlorine-Compound-of-the-Month-Library/Chloramines-Understanding-Pool-Smell/ | Retrieved 13/10/19