Aquatic Fitness: Jump in if you're ready for a hike

[Guest guest]

Jump in if you're ready for a hike

Powerful gorilla jets that create strong, fast currents as well as

treadmill-like devices in pools can give walkers a workout.

http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/home/la-hm-

pool15feb15,1,7171306.story

LAP pools are for swimmers, but what's a walker to do to stay cool

when working out? Pool equipment makers are coming up with powerful

jets and underwater treadmill-like devices to lure walkers into the

water.

Gorilla jets, three to four times stronger than normal spa jets,

shoot hundreds of gallons of water a minute into a pool or spa,

generating a fast, strong current that is hard to walk into.

Just ask Bradford. When she moved into her new Placentia home,

she wanted a pool for entertainment and exercise. So she had

California Pools & Spa design and build a " spool, " an oversized spa

(8 feet wide by 15 feet long) with a faux rock waterfall to lounge

under.

Installed on one end, however, are four super-powered swim jets that

each pump out 250 gallons of water per minute. Her grown sons have

to fight the jets to walk forward in the 3 1/2 -foot-deep water

while her husband stands against the jets for a pummeling back

massage.

Usually in a spa, all jets share one pump, but in this spool, there

is a pump for every two jets, which supplies more pressure and

allows more water to be moved, says designer Quinton Steimle of

California Pools ([626] 974-9417; http://www.californiapools.com ).

The currents will be stronger in a smaller pool. The additional cost

of the 2-inch-wide jets and installation in a new pool is about

$5,000, he says.

Nonmotorized as well as motorized treadmill-like devices — once used

only in physical rehabilitative programs — are being dropped into

pools deeper than 4 feet and used as part of a resistance-exercise

routine. Compact, noncorrosive frames with walking belts that can be

added to existing pools start at $1,900 and are sold by several

companies. SwimEx Inc. ([800] 877-7946; http://www.swimex.com )

makes one that can be adjusted to increase the resistance.