Swimming Laps At Home In The Pool

It is a close call whether the world's favourite way of staying fit is hiking or swimming, but only because not everyone has access to enough safe water to swim in. I think that walking is fine, but we do it each day, it is too everyday; swimming, on the other hand, launches you into a completely different world where you need a different set of skills to survive.

Hiking is very efficient for massaging the internal organs and exercising the legs, lungs and heart, but swimming exercises each limb and muscle and massages the internal organs too. In short, swimming is almost certainly a better exercise than walking, but hey, you can do both, eh?

Most people merely have the local swimming pool to go to, and unfortunately they can be a real pain to use now that people are not as considerate of others as they used to be. It is not so bad if you can go whilst the children are in school or if the pool keeps a couple of of lanes free for dedicated swimmers, but otherwise, swimming at the local pool is a bore.

Naturally we cannot all have our own pool in the yard, we do not even all have a yard and we can not all live near the sea. The next best thing is to join a private spa or swimming club. However, if you have a small patch of ground, you might be able to squeeze in a lap pool. A lap pool is long and thin, somewhere you could get one or two lanes in, which is loads of room for swimming up and down.

A lap pool such as this would not be very expensive because it does not have to be deep for diving and you will not require a diving board or slide. Merely a ladder or steps at one end. Four feet of water would be enough for swimming as well.

Therefore, the lap pool need not be deeper than four feet or wider than six feet, but it should be as long as you have room for. Having a lap pool like this does not mean that you cannot only float or stand in it while the weather is hot. If you do not have space for this but would still like something, you could look into procuring a swim spa.

It sounds fantastic and terribly expensive, doesn't it? Well, they are excellent, but they are cheaper than purchasing and maintaining a garden pool. A swim spa is the equivalent of of a treadmill. A motor pushes water at you and you swim into it, so that you are held in one place by the current and your own efforts. You get a free water massage thrown in free too!

It is expensive to be able to take advantage of water sports at home, but the solace is that you will not have to pay to get into the local pool, you will not have noisy kids hindering your way and you will be fitter.