Exercise and relaxation can lift your spirits during the long winter months. Hydrotherapy is a centuries-old method used to improve  mental and physical well-being — the CDC reports that water exercise is beneficial for people with chronic conditions such as arthritis as well as for mood and mental health.

But, getting out to the gym or to the spa can be a struggle to schedule. Recently, there have been many closures and changes due to the pandemic, or those icy cold mornings can make it hard to get out in the morning. This year, skip the gym membership and create your own at-home workout and spa space with a swim spa or hot tub. A hot tub or swim spa can upgrade your backyard or finished basement space, to make relaxing and exercising easy for the whole family. Here are tips for creating your own home gym and spa:

Select Your Vessel

Is a hot tub or swim spa better suited to your wellness needs? A hot tub is optimal for hydrotherapy, with high temperatures and jets that can help with stress relief and muscle relaxation. You can also do light workouts in the hot tub, but if exercise is your goal, a swim spa may be the right choice. Swim spas are larger, allowing for more movement like lunges, rowing, aerobics, crunches, and even swimming laps.

You’ll need to consider the location, maintenance plan, and budget before making your choice and building your space. Read here for more information about hot tubs and swim spas, and how to decide what’s right for you.

Build A Workout Plan

If you’re not already into water aerobics or swimming laps at your local pool, find which exercises are right for you to meet your goals. For your home gym or spa time, set a schedule for your workouts so you can prepare the hot tub or swim spa, like heating up the hot tub in the morning for exercise and again in the evening for a soak. Picking days and times will help keep you on track and on schedule, to get the most physical and mental benefit.

Create Ambiance

Create a calming space for your at-home spa days. Set up lighting around your hot tub or swim spa, you can add outdoor lights or maybe colored lighting inside the vessel. Add scented candles in the room – away from the hot tub – or an essential oil diffuser. Make sure to find a space to store the equipment you need, such as noodles or weights for swim spa workouts and towels and a hamper nearby.

Keep the It Clean and Ready for Anything

Hot tub water and sweat from swimming laps in a swim spa can make cleaning and maintenance a challenge. The chemicals need to be balanced regularly to prevent bacteria that can cause hot tub rash. Technology can make managing a home gym or spa easy: The pHin Smart Water Monitor helps you keep water in balance by taking measurements, sending alerts, and guiding you through custom chemical dosing instructions.

Learn more about pHin at phin.co.

The post Conquer the Winter Blues with Hydrotherapy At Home appeared first on pHin.

Peter Cox

www.calistogapool.org

Spice up your fitness routine to get active and stay healthy all winter long. A swim spa, hot tub, or indoor pool will be your new favorite spot for exercising for an intense, full-body workout with low impact on your joints.

If you’re considering adding water to your exercise routine and want to add a hot tub or pool to your home, the pHin team is here to help you get started:

The Benefits of Water Workouts

Water offers resistance, making exercises in the pool or swim spa more challenging without additional equipment. Aquatic exercises are beneficial for a full-body workout to build muscle and boost cardio endurance.

Seniors and those with chronic conditions can also benefit from aquatic exercises that can help to soothe with frequent joint and muscle pain from. The water buoyancy is gentle and low impact to reduce the stress on joints. Some exercises use foam “weights,” but many can be done with no extra equipment!

Set Your Goals

As you plan your aquatic workouts, decide which part of the body you would like to focus on. Are you looking to build muscle in your arms and core, or do you want to increase your cardio endurance? Tailor your exercise plan to fit your personal needs whether that be strength or cardio training.

If you want to increase overall cardio endurance, consider walking or jogging in the water. Swim spa owners can take advantage of their system’s water resistance feature, and some swim spas even allow them to swim “laps.” In an indoor pool owner, you can walk or jog back and forth across the pool and increase muscle with arm and leg raises, pushups against the wall, butterfly kicks, and other routines that require more space.

Stay Safe

Using your indoor pool or swim spa as your exercise routine can put you on the path to achieving fitness goals, big or small. As you build your aquatic exercise plan, check with your doctor to make sure the plan is acceptable for you. You should always wear water shoes in the water to prevent yourself from slipping during your workout. It’s important to pay attention to your body as you are exercising: because you’re working out in the water, you may not realize how tired and sweaty you become, so it’s important to stay hydrated.

Safety equipment is important, but don’t forget the water quality. Especially in hot water where you’ll be sweating, the water must be well maintained to prevent harmful bacteria from growing. Choosing a pool workout doesn’t have to add more work, you can easily use the pHin Smart Water Monitor to keep the water balanced and safe. From the app, you can simply check if the water is safe before each workout. And it’ll keep your water in-shape with water testing and simple chemical dosing instructions.

Happy exercising!

The post It’s Time to Build Your Winter Fitness Plan appeared first on pHin.

Peter Cox

www.calistogapool.org

Are you looking to upgrade your backyard for entertaining and relaxing this winter? A hot tub or swim spa might be the perfect addition to your home!

Many homeowners assume hot tubs and swim spas are similar, but there are different benefits to each system. The pHin experts share factors to consider before deciding between a hot tub or a swim spa for your backyard oasis.

Purpose for Purchase

Are you looking for a new place to relax or a space to entertain and exercise? Hot tubs are designed with seating and jet placement for optimal relaxation and recovery. Whether you’re feeling stressed or you’re looking for muscle relief after a tough workout, hot tubs are a great place for practicing hydrotherapy. Soaking in warm hot tub water helps loosen tense muscles and stimulates blood supply to various organs in the body.

Swim spas, on the other hand, are more spacious and are a better fit for people who are looking for a place to exercise with more space to move around, you can even swim in a swim spa.  Exercising in swim spa water has many benefits. The resistance from the water will result in more calories burned and aquatic exercises are low impact taking pressure off joints which is ideal for users recovering from an injury or are concerned about potential injury risk. Swim spas are larger than hot tubs making them a good spot for hosting a larger group of friends or family.

Location, Location, Location

Before you make a purchase, start planning the new home for your hot tub or swim spa. The space available inside or in your backyard can determine which system is the best for your home. Are you looking to put the system in the yard or on your deck? Hot tubs are more compact, they can fit on a deck or in a small yard, whereas swim spas are longer and require a larger area. For reference, most swim spas are around 180 inches long and 90 inches wide whereas the average size of a hot tub is about 84 inches long and 84 inches wide. You may also want to consider placement in terms of trees, to allocate enough space with the least amount of possible debris getting into the water.

Maintenance

Because they’re larger, swim spa maintenance is generally more complex than hot tub maintenance. Measuring, chemicals, and dosing can be a challenge but pHin is here to help! The pHin Smart Water Monitor floats in your hot tub or swim spa, measuring the water over 1,000 times per week If the water gets out of balance, pHin will notify you in the app and give you instructions to correct it. You could also ask pHin (or Alexa) for the temperature of your hot tub or swim spa water before heading out for a dip. Whether you’re maintaining hot tub or swim spa water, it can be frustrating when you go out for a post-workout soak or you’re prepping for a night with friends and the water isn’t at the right temperature. This pHin user shares how pHin helped him get his hot tub relaxation ready.

Budget

Once you have a set budget, consider the size of the vessel. Swim spas tend to be more expensive than hot tubs because they are generally larger in size with more features including swim current and high-powered jetting systems. Or, a basic hot tub might suit your needs, and can be more economical.

Before you purchase a new hot tub or swim spa, consider which system is the best solution for your family. Swim spas may suit a family who is looking for a place to get active, go for a swim, and entertain groups of family and friends and hot tubs are a good solution for those who want a place to relax and loosen muscle tension. Make the most of your swim spa or hot tub with the help of pHin.

The post Hot Tub or Swim Spa, What’s the Difference? appeared first on pHin.

Peter Cox

www.calistogapool.org

Homeowners in Northern, cooler states are expecting temperatures to drop over the next few weeks. When the first autumn leaves fall, it’s time to start closing your pool for the season – A general rule of thumb is to wait until outdoor temperatures start to steadily fall below 65 degrees. To avoid damage or other issues next pool season, follow these steps and precautions:

Clean the Pool

Before it can be closed, you’ll want to get your pool as clean as possible. Using a vacuum or skimmer, make sure there are no leaves or other debris floating in the water. The pool walls and stairs should be scrubbed with a brush to break up any algae build up. You’ll want to get your pool as clean as possible before it’s closed for the season.

Lower the Water Level

As you’re getting your pool ready for the off season, drain water to avoid problems with ground water and temperature levels if/when they drop below freezing. How much water should you drain? That depends on the climate of the area you live in. If temperatures are generally cold in the winter, you’ll want to drain the water 4 to 6 inches below the tile line to avoid any potential issues with freezing water.

Check and Clean Filters

Even through the winter, check on your filters regularly to make sure they are running properly and keeping the water clean and safe. Pool filters help remove debris from the water but can’t do their job properly if they aren’t cleaned regularly. You’ll be thankful later – this step will help to preserve the lifespan of the filter system and keep your pool clean during the off season for an easier opening in the spring.

Adjust Chemical Levels

Before you close your pool for the winter, test the water’s chemistry levels and get it balanced. Closing your pool with unbalanced levels will make it difficult to open it up the next season. For help checking and correcting the balance, you can turn to pHin. The pHin Smart Water monitor will help you understand if your pool is balanced with color coded discs. pHin’s simplified chemical dosing instructions will help you understand how much of each chemical needs to be added to get the water balanced.

Set to Winterize

pHin has a special setting for winter: Pool owners can get their monitor and pool ready for hibernation by tapping on the “subscription” icon on the app homepage and click “winterize pool.” Then they can remove pHin from the pool and store it in a safe spot until next season.

The post Prep Your Pool for Winter Hibernation appeared first on pHin.

Peter Cox

www.calistogapool.org

With pHin data at their fingertips, service technicians can efficiently initiate proactive water care schedules.

pHin has added Compact Mode to the pHin app, enabling service technicians to remotely view customer water data with an easy filter view and alerts.

A pHin Smart Water Monitor deployed in a client’s pool, hot tub, or swim spa measures the water pH, oxidation reduction potential, and temperature, with charts showing seven day, 60-day, and 90-day views. The measurements are taken over 1,000 times per week, and the proprietary algorithm analyzes the results to provide a color-coded status indicating whether the water is balanced, needs an action, or is unsafe.

Client management is streamlined with Compact Mode. Technicians can monitor a vast number of pHins through the app, streamlined with a filter view to search clients by location, vessel name, water status, and cellphone number. Technicians can also assign a custom name to the connected pHins, such as client name, address, location, or even a client’s separate units in a hot tub and pool. When the water is unbalanced and needs attention, they’re alerted in real-time in the app or via email so they can proactively schedule maintenance be

fore the customer even notices an issue. The data provided in Compact Mode can also be used to manage service schedules and delegating teams.

Compact Mode can be activated in the pHin app with a simple on/off in account settings with the most-recent version of the app. Technicians can add client pHin Smart Monitors to their account by scanning the QR code on the box or entering the serial number during setup to add the pHin to their account.

The post pHin App Compact Mode Enables Remote Client Management appeared first on pHin.

Peter Cox

www.calistogapool.org

Keeping pool water balanced all season can be stressful. But for many pool owners, measuring and adding chemicals is a lot of guesswork. Converting the ppm of chlorine in the water to how much chlorine to add can be a challenge, even for veteran pool owners.

Instead of making the wrong measurement that can leave your pool water over chlorinated or cloudy, technology can remove the guesswork.

pHin is a powerful new product that has built-in analytics that make water care easy for any pool or hot tub owner. The device floats in the pool and measures the water over 1,000 times per week, using the information to make pool water care easy for anyone. Here’s how:

Easy-to-Read Status

How do you know if your water is safe before you jump in? With the pHin app, pool and hot tub owners can easily see whether their water is safe, needs action, or is unsafe. A color-coded disc on the home screen provides at-a-glance status:

If the water is out of balance, a red disc will alert users indicating that the water is unsafe and requires action. When water is balanced and safe, a blue disc will indicate that the water is ready to go.

Alerts and Instructions

pHin is also proactive, it sends alerts in the app or via email when the water is out of balance or needs action, like adding shock or chemicals.

Instead of guessing how to fix the water, users get step-by-step instructions about which chemicals to add and how much of each chemical is needed to bring the water back to a safe level. pHin’s app also features detailed graphs of the pool’s chemistry levels in the past giving pool owners easy access to their pool’s chemical history.

Chemical Database

pHin works with leading chemical brands to provide customized chemical dosing instructions based on the brand of your choice. Users can simply scan any supported chemical’s barcode and pHin will calculate exactly how much of the chemical you need to add to the water. pHin recently doubled the number of scannable chemicals, you can see the full list of scannable chemicals here.

pHin takes the guesswork out of adding chemicals to your pool with easy-to-read alerts, action notifications and instructions, and customized chemical dosing instructions. pHin handles the pool chemistry guesswork so you can simply add the necessary chemicals and enjoy!

The post 3 Ways pHin Removes the Guesswork Out of Water Care appeared first on pHin.

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Peter Cox

www.calistogapool.org