—Affordable sports, floating board games, and other fun pool gear for healthy, high-energy fun

Your inground swimming pool offers numerous benefits. It beautifies your home, cools you off on a hot day, enhances family togetherness, and often boosts your property value.

Along with being a convenient setting for relaxation, your pool can also serve as an endless source of healthy outdoor recreation. Kids love to actively play in a pool with their pals, as do many adults.

Your pool is a fun-filled amenity on its own, but you may want to safely up its sun-splashed fun factor in a number of ways, especially by adding toys and games into the mix.

—Check out these muscle-building options designed for using in the water

By Guest Expert Matt Dustin, BS Exercise Science, Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist

Tired of boring workouts at the gym? It might be time to consider some aquatic fitness. 

A swimming pool is an ideal environment for exercise, and resistance training in water can be a great alternative to stale routines with the same old gym equipment. Plus you get to keep cool in the water and skip getting sweaty.

—How working out in in heated H20 can enhance your fitness and overall health 

By Guest Expert: Matt Dustin, BS Exercise Science, Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist

When the temperature drops outside, thoughts of going for a run or making a trip to the gym in the cold can be unappealing, to say the least.

Rather than break your good regimen, consider taking your workout to the closest hot tub, inground spa—or a heated whirlpool or hydrotherapy pool that may be available at your gym or housing complex.

Whether at home or at a public facility, the warm bubbling water is ideal for both exercise and hydrotherapy—even when it’s cold outside.

Enjoy functionality and style in a private pool designed for fitness

Form & Function: Unlike generic lap pools at public facilities, the design you have custom built for your backyard can have eye-catching features like this towering planter-cascade waterfall, as well as a private hydrotherapy spa.

Swimming laps is an excellent form of exercise that delivers a full-body workout. While you may currently make them part of your fitness routine at a community pool or public facility, you could be doing so more comfortably in your own residential lap pool!

Fitness, family fun, convenience, hydrotherapy, and avoiding public-pool dangers 

Residential pools provide homeowners and their families with multiple opportunities for beneficial exercise, relaxation, and family fun in the privacy of their backyard.

UPDATED

Along with adding beauty to your outdoor space and value to your home, a swimming pool can contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

What to seek for maximum skin protection in and around your pool

While enjoying your swimming pool with friends and family, it’s easy to get caught up in the all the fun and relaxation and forget about guarding your skin against the sun. Before spending the day in or around the pool and patio, make sure everyone is using an effective sunscreen that blocks harmful rays and stays put even in the water.

Simple steps that make all the difference

Whether you’re an active or recreational swimmer, you’re probably familiar with how chlorinated pools can wreak havoc on your hair, skin, and nails. For your hair in particular, chlorinated water can break down and dry out the cuticle─leaving you with a brittle, tangled mess!

Unfortunately, chlorinated swimming pools are tough to avoid: While pool sanitizing technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years, many public and private pools still use heavy chemical loads in their water. Outside of the controlled environment of your backyard pool (where safer, gentler methods like UV light and ozone can be used), you’re bound to encounter chlorine─and all of its nasty side effects.

Looking to enjoy a dip in the pool while keeping you hair fresh, happy, and healthy? Stay low-stress and tame your tresses with these 5 Ways to Protect Your Hair from Harsh Pool Chlorine.