Do you shower before you swim? Do you ask your friends and family to shower before they jump into your swimming pool? If not, maybe you should — on both counts.
Remember when you were in high school or when you go to a public pool and they admonish you to “shower before entering the pool”? This is for a reason and once you know what it is, you may just institute the same shower before you swim rule.
Do You Shower Before You Swim?
When you shower before you swim — and believe us, this is one of the least practiced forms of hygiene you will typically see — you are getting rid of outside contaminants. Consider for a moment… would you want people to jump into your bathtub with you, if they were wearing clothes they’d been out in all day, or had been sitting on a bus or had spilled food on? Probably not!
When you shower before you swim, and ask your guests to as well, you are:
- Getting rid of outside contaminants. We’d mentioned dirty clothes, germy clothing but we didn’t mention sweat, dead skin, urine, feces, shampoo, deodorant and perfume. Do you want any of those contaminants in the water you’re swimming in? We bet you don’t. Sure, the volume of water ratio compared to the gunk coming off your guests is probably miniscule, but really do you want to swim in any of those contaminants? We don’t.
- It’s common courtesy. If you’re going to a friend’s house to swim, just ask them, “would you like me to shower off first?” They will probably be thrilled that you asked but may have been afraid to request it for fear of hurting your feelings. BUT it should be common courtesy for anyone using your pool to offer to shower off first.
- Water chemistry benefits. When the water is contamined, the chemicals don’t perform as well as they should and it can become much harder to keep the water clean and the chemicals balanced. If your guests don’t shower, you will have to use more chlorine, the filter and pump will have to work longer and harder — you can see how it’s just easier to take a quick shower, right?
The water is cleaner and safer when you shower. This is a given, right? When water is filled with bacteria and outside contaminants, you can become ill. A small cut could become infected. No one wants to get an infection or fall ill just because they wanted to spend time in your swimming pool and you certainly don’t want to risk illness or infection because your guests wouldn’t shower.
You don’t have to take a long shower. You don’t have to soap up or shampoo your hair, but a quick rinse would be helpful! Also, when you get out of the shower you may want to shower — this time soaping up and shampooing — to remove any chemicals from your body.
Everyone into the pool… after you’ve showered!