Exercise Tub
This is my pride and joy! With my degenerative neuromuscular disorder, it’s a use it or loose it situation when it comes to my muscle strength and the safest way to exercise those muscles is in a pool – easier said than done. To make a long story short, I designed my own in-house exercise tub.
As you can see in the pictures, I designed it so I could stand up while holding onto the sides of the tub with the water at chest height. As a point of reference, my son in the picture is 6’2” tall and my daughter is 5’9” tall.
It’s long enough that I can rest my elbows or sit on the steps leading into the tub and do leg exercises, such as flutter kicks. Here are the design specs for the exercise tub.
Again, I hired my local utility trailer manufacturer to build and install the tub. I added cedar paneling to the outside, to cover the spray foam used for insulation.
Because of its height, I had a small deck built next to the tub and installed a used stair lift so I could access the deck (I can’t do stairs). Once on the deck, I transfer to the ledge of the tub and lower myself in, using the tub’s built-in stairs.
This is my filter system: an external fifty-five gallon fish tank which is on the floor next to the exercise tub. The water is circulated through some mesh filters located in the middle of the tank.
Within the tank, I have an external inflow pump at one end, drawing water from the tub, with another pump at the opposite side, pulling the water through mesh filters and back into the exercise tub.
In this picture, you can see the two water pipes both of which have one-way valves installed just in case of a power outage. This prevents the water from the exercise tub draining into the filter tank and flooding the room.
Additionally, I have two tropical fish tank heaters in the filter tank as well as the bromine dispenser (that’s the duck in the previous pictures). In summary, it’s a glorified hot tub but much larger and with no jets. So you maintain it just like you would a hot tub.
This has been a game changer. I can stand in the tub and weight-bear, maintaining a full range of motion, including my arms and shoulders. Furthermore, it is the only form of exercise I can take part in that actually raises my respiratory rate. I love it.
This is my cat Quinn who also loves just hanging out on the railing as I exercise.
A hot tub could work as well. Maybe add some grab bars for you to hold onto while you exercise. Again, keep thinking outside that box.
