Your swimming pool isn’t just for raft floating and sun tanning anymore. The benefits of using your pool for aquatic aerobics, a low impact exercise routine done in the water, are far reaching for long term overall heath solution. The buoyancy of your body mass in the water helps to reduce the shock impacts on your bones and joints that would normally occur when exercising or jogging in a regular non-aquatic setting. Additionally, the resistance the water provides helps to build strength, stamina and an all around good feeling. The benefits are numerous, assuming, of course, you do not have a fear of the water and you know how to swim. While there are exercises designed for individuals without any swimming experience, we're not sure it's a good idea to start exercising in your swimming pool with first learning some basic pool water safety lessons. These lessons are not offered in this article.

Aqua Aerobics are great no matter what your current fitness level. It helps for fat burning, weight loss, builds flexibility and strength. You might be surprised how quickly you will be shopping for a new wardrobe to fit the new you! On average, you can burn about ten calories per minute. That's 450 calories in a 45 minute low-impact workout in your own pool! Turn on the radio and it may seem more like a resort vacation. Okay, the resort thing may be pushing it a bit.

A great way to start is to simply start "jogging" inside your swimming pool. Add in some leg kicking movements and squatting and you making it happen for yourself. As you become more confident you can start jogging in slightly deeper water as to immerse your arm underwater. The added resistance against your arms while jogging will make the workout a little more intense. Depending on your fitness level, for the kicking part of your workout you might want to lean against in inner wall of you pool and use your arms to support and balance yourself. You will, however get more out of your work out if you are not leaning against the wall for support. Please remember to breathe! Proper breathing is important as with any exercise regiment.

Some other benefits you might not have thought of

Working out in your own pool, you can wear what you want, (if anything at all). You don’t have to worry about matching your gym cloths and looking good for people you don't even know. You will not have to thinking about who might be checking you out.

After your work out you are not going to feel sweaty and muggy.

Exercise has been shown to reduce overall stress and since stress has been known to cause the signs of ageing, you might be able to retain a more youthful appearance while increasing your energy.

Aqua aerobics are generally recommended for peoples suffering from back and joint pain, arthritis, obesity and cardiac issues.

WARNING! As with any exercise routine, you should consult with your doctor first. This article is NOT meant as a prescription or remedy to any condition.

Other styles of aquatic workouts:

Using the Noodle. The Noodle is a long tubular bendable foam strip. You will form and position the Noodle is such a way as to move your hands up and down as though you are dog paddling while you are doing "bicycling" movements with your legs. You can substitute the cycling motion with a combination of jogging and cycling. The Noodle can be used in many different workouts including the abdominals by configuring it behind you back while lifting your knees up towards you abdomen and then side to side.

Swimming pool pop-up problems caused by hydrostatic pressure

If you are looking to build a new swimming pool and live in or near the coast line, in a high water table area or the bottom of a hill slope then you need to read this.

What is hydrostatic pressure?

Hydrostatic pressure is a force caused by the build up of underground water pressure that can cause your swimming pool to pop out of the ground. A swimming pool filled with water creates enough counter pressure to offset the hydrostatic pressure pushing up under your pool so you are likely to discover the problem after you drain your pool. An empty pool does not have enough counter or shear water weight to keep the pool in the ground. To understand the concept of how powerful water can become, think of a massive ship at sea being tossed around by the mere displacement of water.

If you think this pool problem is rare and probably will not affect you, think again! If you are about to build a new swimming pool, remodel an existing one or are about to draining your existing pool and you live near a coast line, high water table area or at the bottom of a hills slope you should take this very seriously. Some of the most affected areas are the Greater Houston area extending to the Gulf of Mexico which include Galveston County, Brazoria County, and Harris County and include Pearland, Friendswood, League City, Kemah and surrounding areas. A single pop up can render the investment into your pool worthless and cause you to spend many more tens of thousands of dollars trying to repair damages. In many cases making repairs is futile or cost prohibitive making the only solution to demolish the pool and start over again.

If you have been shopping for a swimming pool contractor you might have noticed that there is a pop-up or lifting clause written into the fine print of the contract that either specifically voids the warranty or waives the contractor's liability when the pop-up occurs. Voiding the warranty or not covering damages caused by the pool pop up is considered normal practice in the pool industry because it happens more than you might think.

What to do?

Make sure you have your builder install a Hydrostatic Relief Valve, collection tube and rock pack into your new pool. This devise is design to release the hydrostatic pressure into the pool before it damages the pool structure. The cost is relatively inexpensive when compared to what you stand to lose if you don't have it. Bedrock Pools has extensive experience with hydrostatic pressure and always installs this device into every pool it builds.

If you are about to remodel or repair and existing pool and you are not sure if you have a Hydrostatic Relief Valve, then you should NOT drain your pool without getting professional advice! A professional will know how to relieve the pressure below the structure before draining the pool of its water.