It wasn’t all that long ago when hot tubs and in-home spas were a rare find in residential homes. Save for the elite who wanted to bathe in luxury from time to time, many homeowners couldn’t afford or justify such a seemingly extravagant purchase. As the New Jersey Daily Record recently pointed out in a feature piece, though, those times have certainly changed.
“Now they [fall into] more of a health and wellness niche,” said Rich Smith, operations manager for Henry Bona Pools and Spas. “You are 90% buoyant when you’re in water up to your neck, so it takes a lot of pressure off. It’s such a totally relaxing experience that it helps with anxiety and stress.”
Even the standard relaxation effects a hot tub has can be classified under personal health, not just for stress and pain, but in the amount and quality of sleep a person can achieve afterwards. Along with the reduced stress, both physical and mental, the improved blood circulation hot tubs have on the body can help people sleep better, too.
Naturally, hot tub manufacturer Nordic agrees with this assessment. One of the products they offer is a unique dual-therapy system, which includes pressure-relieving jets that target areas like the wrists, elbow, and hips.
“This gentler therapy has proven better at peeling away tensions and stress from the entire body by releasing lactic acid from all body zones and allowing oxygen to flood every tissue and fiber,” the company said in a statement.
In another study of Finnish men over the course of 20 years, frequent sauna baths were even found to have a positive effect on overall life expectancy.
Additionally, there are so many ways to customize hot tubs and the surrounding setup to fit virtually any and all preferences and needs. The Daily Record even provides the example of one dealer who included a unit that had a hot tub on one end and a personal training area for swimming and other activities on the other.
Today, technology involving computer and smartphone-driven controls is creating even more opportunities for people to be able to control the quality and functionality of their hot tubs.