Hot Tubs and natural Hot Spring Spas have been used for a lot longer than many people are generally aware of. The Romans and earlier civilisations clearly new that the beneficial effects of the water was helpful to their general well being. I say this as the Romans had very large public bathing facilities for many hundreds of years, the majority of which were heated. This was accepted as being very much a daily activity for men of all classes and indeed many women. Bathing today is considered a private activity carried out in the home but bathing in Rome was very much a communal activity carried out usually in public baths
One has only to look at the Roman Baths and there is a prime example at Bath (so aptly named in Great Britain) that survive to see that in many ways they resemble the modern health spas although one imagines and hopes that they were less expensive.
The acceptance of bathing as the main event in daily life belongs to the Roman way of doing things and at the height of the Roman Empire, the thermal baths embodied the ideal Roman way of urban life.
Another culture in a different continent some many thousands of miles away with a very long history of hot tub use is found in Japan. These were Called 'ofuro,' and these smaller, stand-alone spas have been in use for many centuries by Japanese families.
The Japanese and eastern cultures have a long history of alternative medicine such as acupuncture reflexology and Reiki spring to mind In Japanese culture cleanliness is a concept which is on a par with compulsive behaviour. This can be seen from the important custom of taking off one's shoes before entering a house, They say that in Japan cleanliness is on a par with or similar to godliness What is the point of this one might ask well it is simply that there is ample evidence that the Japanese of long ago undoubtedly understood the importance of hygiene and much of the therapeutic value of taking a simple soak in Hot Water on a regular basis.
Today in modern Japan the Japanese people continue to honour this age old tradition. In many Japanese Households you will find elaborate wooden hot tubs.
In the United States of America, the history of Hot Tubs spans at least two time lines.
In early American history before the 1800's there are many stories that have been recounted legendary heroes - George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, are two names to mention - who were using natural hot springs to soak their bodies to help ease pains and relive the stress of those days.
Native Americans are also believed to have discovered and used the springs for the very same purpose.
Much later around the early 1900s, the resort spa movement began to grow in popularity in the United States in many ways following the European style of Spa that had been gaining in popularity for many years. The actaul name Spa comes from the original Spa resort of Spa in Belguim.
These Spa resorts were built around naturally occurring hot springs, and sometimes around man-made equivalents in some instances. Some of the Health Spas in Scottsdale near the Camel back mountain in Arizona spring to mind. These resorts tended to attract mainly wealthy patrons who were attracted by the idea of the therapeutic results for treating various ailments and of course that feel good factor. The combination of warm soothing water combined with massage and buoyancy delivers a sensation that not only relaxes the mind and body, but also helps to heal and soothe.
With jets strategically placed in the Hot Tub for maximum benefit, each & every Hot Tub offers supreme therapeutic support in a carefree setting. The Spa treatment helps to increase blood flow and aid circulation, reducing & relieving muscle strain, soreness, pressure and tension throughout your body.
Clearly this was something that the Romans were very well aware of. Calculated buoyancy (and a corresponding feeling of weightlessness) blends perfectly with swirling warm water to deliver a pleasant relaxing soak with healing properties.
In fact, you'll feel noticeably better in just a short spell of say 20 minutes using a Hot Tub. Not only does the warm, bubbling waters melt away tension and strain, but they also provide a gentle and effective massage targeting your joints and muscles, helping you to a better night's sleep and helping to relieve the pain of arthritis and other muscle-related injuries.
In summary both Hydro-Massage Hot Tubs and the original wooden Hot Tubs can both offer a great experience. It depends on ones individual preferences and proposed location of where the Hot Tub is sited as to which one to choose.
It is not just a question of sticking some Jets here and there in some kind of false thinking that the more Jets the better, as it simply does not work like that.
This is often the very area of design where cheap imported spas sometimes incorporate bad designs that in many case may look good but in reality are just not good for the end user. When a specific hydro therapy seat is planned, American designers have had many years experience of being able to consider the very many choices and ideas and of course have feed back from a very considerable number of satisfied clients.
With cheap imported Hot Tubs, they do not consider or give any real thought as to how the human body is going to be placed in front of the jet patterns. In more cases than not it is as if they just want it for its cosmetic appearance that is simply to make it "look attractive" a bit like mutton dressed as lamb. If one does not know about jets and how they work one can easily be fooled into thinking that more Jets are a good thing, which is not true if they are badly designed.
A multitude of many jets, which may simply look wonderful, can often prove to be painful and sometimes even annoying. One of the worst lay outs that I have seen is where the seats that have very many, (say twenty to thirty five), small penetrating jets, where all of the water from one pump can be forced through that seat. What sometimes looks good in the showroom under a spotlight can sometimes simply turn into a form of abuse.
We know a client who had a spa like this some years ago and he has told us that it used to bruise him and he had no control of the water pressure or flow of those Jets. It was of course a cheap Chinese import. In that kind of Hot Tub the client sometimes has to hang on to the sides of the tub just to stay in the seat.
If you have a reinforced concrete back, perhaps you might enjoy that kind of massage for us more normal mortals we need fully adjustable Jets so we can select what we need as otherwise the spa I am describing simply proves to be too much for most people.
Many years ago, various tests have been carried out on middle aged and elder citizens whereby they used a spa having this set up. All of these people and in particular the elderly people had bruises on their bodies in exactly the same pattern as the small "bullet" jets in the seat.
These small Jets are not expensive to fit and look a spa look to have more features than it has in reality. First, directing all the power from one pump into one seat is just plain poor engineering and secondly, the spa pump is too small to operate all of the jets at the same time.
Another example of just plain bad design is the spa with large full sized vibrating jets placed in the upper neck area. The muscles contained in ones neck are small and to frank who wants to have ones neck bruised with a vibrating large Jet. Obviously, you need smaller jets for smaller muscles.
Again the best advice is to buy a Hot Tub from a well known manufacturer with many years staning in the Industry not a cheap import from China.
John Lewis has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Family and Health. The author Jacuzzi John supplies luxury Wooden Hot Tubs and Jacuzzi style Spas from Estepona on the Costa Del Sol In Spain and for more information his web site is at