How Hot Tub Therapy Can Help You Relax

Hot tub lovers everywhere agree that the feeling of hot water and bubbles is incredibly soothing. Even doctors will prescribe hot tub usage for certain cases, often when the patient needs an effective way to relax. The medical community recognizes how hydrotherapy can improve a person’s mental and physical health.

How Can your Hot Tub Relax You in Houston?

Since ancient times, bathing in hot water has been recognized as an effective calming treatment. Modern technology has improved upon the process with water jets that target sore areas, lights for colorful soaking, and more. These accessories are more than just luxuries, however, as many are proven to contribute to your well-being to reduce stress and pain. Hot tubs can help in a variety of ways, particularly through:

1. Water jets and buoyancy
2. Consistent heat
3. Soft lights for colorful soaks
4. Antidepressant hormone production
5. Enhanced sleep cycle

1) Water Jets and Buoyancy

Simply put, the human body weighs significantly less when mostly submerged in water. Combine this near-weightless feeling with massaging jets of hot water, and you have a recipe for relaxation. Take some weight off your joints after a long day.

Because of the reduced feeling of weight, exercising in the hot tub may help prevent injury or pain often associated with high activity. Less weight means less strain on the joints during movement, so your workout can last longer than it otherwise would and result in far less pain.  

2) Consistent Heat

When you’re soaking in warm water, the heat evenly distributes itself all over your body and soothes sore muscles and joints. You also don’t have to worry about reheating the water, as you would in a traditional massage setting.

Hot water therapy has multiple proven health benefits. Most notably, heat relaxes stiff muscles, making a hot bath the perfect end to a jog or cardio session.

Pro Tip: Hot water & hot tub jets work together to increase your heart rate and stimulate blood flow. 

3) Soft Lights for Colorful Soaks

Many hot tub models come equipped with underwater LED lights that do more than just make the water look magical. Chromotherapy, the usage of light and color to improve mood and overall health, is widely recognized as an effective psychological treatment. Pairing an already relaxing hot tub soak with calming blue or green lights can soothe you even further.

4) Antidepressant Hormone Production

How exactly does a hot tub help your mood? By stimulating your body to release “happy” hormones and painkillers such as dopamine and serotonin to make you feel amazing. This particular benefit does depend more on your individual body, however. The overall relaxing feeling of the hot tub prompts your body to produce these calming hormones, which in turn amplifies the relaxation even further. Hormone production is more a consequence of sitting in a hot tub than a direct benefit. Either way, your body’s natural response to relaxation makes you feel even better.

5) Enhanced Sleep Cycle

On the surface, you may believe that the hot tub only helps you sleep by relaxing your body. While this is partially true, your hot tub actually helps your sleep cycle on a much deeper level. Every night, your core body temperature decreases slightly as everything shuts down for the night. Soaking in hot water an hour or so before bed increases your body temperature above its normal range, making the later decrease all the more dramatic and shutting your body down even faster. Consequently, you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

Personalizing Your Hot Tub Time

Ultimately, you know your body and needs better than anyone else. Determine what you want or need to get out of your hot tub. No matter what you desire, you will inevitably benefit from regular hot tub use.

Want to learn more about hot tub therapy? Connect with us and see how our hot tubs have helped others relax after stressful days.