Hydrotherapy Room Design

Post workout recovery should never be an afterthought. The University of Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns insist their athletes take the plunge – a cold one – to accelerate post-workout recovery in their new hydrotherapy room. Read more about how this 35′ cold plunge pool gets the job done right.
ULL’s new hydrotherapy room is ideal for post workout recovery and aquatic exercise. One key element is their extra large custom cold plunge pool. What began as a request for a cold plunge tank to accommodate the whole football team concluded with the ideal cold water therapy pool. “From start to finish, this was an exciting project for us,” says Mark Fyrer, SwimEx product engineer/operations manager, who worked closely with the ULL staff and 360 Architecture/HOK to design and build the cold tank for the hydrotherapy room.

The SwimEx custom cold plunge tank measures 7’9” x 35’. It has benches down each length, a stair entry on both ends, and multiple jets with independent zones. The SwimEx chiller system is engineered specifically to keep water temperatures at a consistent 50°F (10°c), ideal for the therapeutic benefits of cold water therapy.

WHY SHOULD YOU INCLUDE A COLD PLUNGE POOL IN YOUR HYDROTHERAPY ROOM?

Sports medicine professionals know that an athlete’s post workout recovery is just as important as the workouts themselves. Athletes who undergo rigorous training schedules need to perform at peak capacity at each and every session. Cold water hydrotherapy can help them do just that. The low water temperature in a cold plunge helps minimize muscle inflammation, pain, and soreness to quickly facilitate post workout recovery.
According to Ned Brophy-Williams, author of a leading study on cold water therapy, “…quantitative and qualitative analyses demonstrated that immediate cold water immersion (CWI) performed after a high intensity interval exercise session resulted in better next day running performance, while delayed (3 hours) CWI was also likely to result in improved performance, compared to no CWI.”

The report also lists three key recommendations:

• Performance of cold water immersion as a recovery procedure following exercise is better than performing no recovery procedure
• Athletes, coaches and sport trainers should implement cold water immersion post-exercise irrespective of the time of administration.
• Where possible, cold water immersion should be performed immediately post-exercise to gain maximal recovery benefits.

CUSTOM PLUNGE POOL DESIGN: BENEFITS AND PROCESS

SwimEx plunge pools come in four standard sizes, but this custom design was ideal for ULL.  “It was great to use our (SwimEx) ability to customize a cold plunge that specifically suits ULL’s needs. Now, the entire ULL team can use the tank at the same time following each football training session,” says Fyrer.

Once the order was placed and SwimEx started construction, it took five weeks to manufacture the tank at the SwimEx factory in Fall River, MA.  Built in fiberglass, the plunge pool is well insulated for superior temperature retention, is easy to maintain, and easy to install. The completed space is the perfect aquatic therapy space for the Ragin’ Cajuns successboth on and off the field.

If you are looking to maximize your post workout recovery, learn more about cold plunge pools and how they can improve athletes’ recovery and performance.