The hot tub shop team is a seriously chilled-out group of people. No wonder when this is such a relaxing way to spend your down-time and party time. As it turns out there are plenty of worthwhile hot tub wellness benefits to sitting around enjoying yourself in the clear, hot, bubbly water.

As long as you maintain it properly, keep it spotless and get the blend of chemicals right, you’ll do more than luxuriate in the water. You’ll maybe notice an overall improvement in your wellbeing too. So what, exactly, are the wellbeing benefits of hot tubbing? Here’s what you need to know. 

Snow monkeys understand hot tub wellness benefits!  

If you haven’t seen photos of Japan’s famous snow monkeys bathing in hot springs to keep warm, Google it. You’ll laugh out loud. Their blissed-out expressions are just like ours when we slip into a hot tub and feel our everyday worries and stresses draining away.

Monkeys usually avoid water. Apparently these ones learned hot tubbing from watching humans and they’ve been doing it ever since, passing the knowledge down through many monkey generations. They spend hours relaxing and socialising neck-deep in the hot water through the freezing cold winters. We like their style!

Science to take note of but not trust

First, a common sense warning. Some say hot tubbing could help the body burn more calories but the test group was too small to draw trustworthy conclusions. And there’s some theorising around improved insulin sensitivity but again, nothing proven. Think ‘wellness’ rather than actual health or medical benefits and you’re on the right track.

Feeling the heavenly hot tub love   

The way it makes you feel is a benefit on its own. When you’re physically relaxed you feel happier, more at ease, more able to dream up solutions to niggles and problems, more creative, more fun to be with, more human and more you.

Together the warm water and massaging action helps soothe emotional, mental, and physical stress. Add hot tub accessories like music, scented candles, subtle lighting after dusk and thick, soft towels for the Full Monty. As knotted muscles and tense tendons ease in the hot water, smoothed by the refreshing rolling bubbly waves, things come back into perspective. Angst drifts away, your priorities re-set, real life returns.

When you’re chilling on your own the water’s sound helps send you into a meditative state, the same fabulous ‘in the moment’ feeling you get when totally absorbed in doing something you love. Hot tubbing with friends lets you share the pleasure with people you love. Great conversation, a luxurious setting, attention to the small details, it all makes for hot tubbing perfection. You’ll feel so good afterwards.

Soothing sore, stiff muscles

Tense, tight muscles tend to loosen up in hot moving water, easing aches and pains. Because hard exercise takes a toll unless you warm up properly beforehand, you can factor a hot tub session into your exercise routine – before you go circuit training, running, rowing, Zumba-ing or playing the beautiful game. Once you’re warmed up you can push yourself harder with less risk of injury.

Science supports the positive properties of warm water. As The Guardian reported in 2006, “The old wives’ tale has it that a hot water bottle can relieve pain deep in the body – and now scientists have discovered why. A hot compress can physically shut down the normal pain response involved in stomach aches, period pain or colic.

“The heat doesn’t just provide comfort and have a placebo effect – it actually deactivates the pain at a molecular level in much the same way as pharmaceutical painkillers,” said Brian King, a senior lecturer in physiology at University College London, who led the research. Dr King found that if heat of more than 40C (104F) is applied to the skin near where internal pain is felt, it switches on heat receptors at the site of injury. These in turn block the body’s ability to detect pain”

The Patient Info website confirms heat’s benefits to our wellbeing. They say, “Heat is an effective and safe treatment for most aches and pains. Heat causes the blood vessels to open wide (dilate). This brings more blood into the area to stimulate healing of damaged tissues. It has a direct soothing effect and helps to relieve pain and spasm. It can also ease stiffness by making the tissues more supple.”

So a hot tub may relieve some pain types because it relaxes tense muscles, tendons and joints. That means arthritis sufferers can benefit from the heat and massaging action, easing the stiffness and inflammation that causes the pain.

People with fibromyalgia often say it helps and everyday office and work-related stiff necks and sore backs feel better after a hot tub session. And newly-developed lower back strains, where most of the pain comes from muscle spasms not damaged tissue, can respond well to a hot tub experience.

Taking the weight off your feet

Because water supports the body so well, it also helps take the weight off your joints to make them more flexible. That’s one reason why floating feels fabulous.

Creating the right mindset for sleep

There are few things worse in everyday life than a bad night’s sleep. More than one poor night in a row soon starts to drive you nuts. There’s a lot to be said for minimising distractions, relaxing properly for long enough to wind down before you go to bed.

A hot tub is ideal. No phones or screens, podcasts or telly. No snacks or drinks, chatting or reading.  Just you, the sound of the water, and the heavenly heat. Give it twenty minutes and you’ll be ready to drop off into a refreshing, peaceful sleep.

Because hot tubbing can raise your heart rate and lower your blood pressure it may have some cardiovascular benefits. A 2016 study showed immersing yourself in hot water can have a ‘robust’ impact on the vascular system and blood pressure, making this sort of passive heat therapy useful for people who can’t exercise much. Another group of researchers discovered sitting in a hot tub for ten minutes could lower blood pressure, making it potentially safe for people being treated for high blood pressure.

Know the facts

So they are the wellness benefits of hot tubs. If you see any wild health or medical claims being made online, take care to check out the source of the science and make sure it stands up to scrutiny. There are too many crazy claims being made about miracle products and while a hot tub is an excellent thing, it isn’t magic.

Don’t miss our post about the health risks behind hot tubbing, the perfect complement to this article. Once you know all the risks and hot tub wellness benefits you can make a wise decision, knowing in advance exactly what to expect.

You can also explore our hot tub collection. That’ll get your imagination going!