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Installing a lap pool or endless swimming pool in your home is a long term investment in your health and fitness as much as it is one in the overall value of your house. Let's face it - gyms are smelly, nerve-racking places. Many people are turned off by the constant scrutiny of perfectly built athletes as much as they are by the pounding techno favored by most fitness clubs.

When it comes to picking a lap pool design, the first question to arise will be whether you even have enough space in your back yard to accomodate the necessary proportions of an inground lap pool. The shortest you can have a lap pool be without making it ineffective for exercise is about forty feet, with a width of at least eight feet and about three and a half feet for its depth. For most swimmers this may actually be prohibitively shallow - hardly the depth for diving or backflip splashing contests. The good news is that, by contrast with the typical recreational pool, the water requirements of such a pool are pretty minor.

Another option you might not have seen before is to buy an endless pool. Endless Pools. Inc. have been producing the best of these for years. They utilize a bunch of nozzles to create a current the strength of which you can adjust to simulate the effect of swimming fast, slow or moderately, all without moving an inch. People call it the treadmill for swimmers, though it's actually a lot better at simulating the exercise of swimming than treadmills are of simulating running exercise - in fact, studies have shown great improvement in form by athletes who use Endless pools to help them improve their hydrodynamic motion through the water. The company now even produces a movable unit called 'The Fastlane' which can be installed in any pool, for an effect that really gives you the best of both worlds. For those who are most concerned about space, there's no reason your hot tub can't double as an endless pool - it only needs to be about half-again the length of your body.

What's great about endless pools is their low level of electricity consumption, so low they'll barely make for a blip on your water bill. The reason is that they're hydraulically powered for maximal efficiency. Of course, nothing beats having a pool built according to full length lap pool design to train in, but an endless pool is both a showpiece and a great way to get your family back into the water and on track to a healthier lifestyle.