If your feet are already tingling, you might be thinking of classic Kneipp water treading pools in wellness oases, spas, swimming pools or modern parks. And of course you're absolutely right! But there are many more ways to indulge in this fine little health ritual: As long as the water is cold enough (i.e. a temperature below 18 degrees) and doesn't reach higher than your knee, the stream around the corner or the shallow shore of the nearest lake will do just as well. And then there's your own four walls. If you have a bathtub in your bathroom, you can use it as a great alternative to the pedal pool and the like to easily implement the popular Kneipp water treatment in private.

• Fill your bathtub with cold water so that it reaches no higher than the back of your knees.
• Get into the bath and walk on the spot.
• Important: With each step, pull one leg and foot completely out of the water - like a stork walk - and bend the tip of your foot downwards. This is the only way for the application to work optimally.
• As soon as the feeling of cold becomes too strong, stop the process.
• Afterwards, it is best to wipe the water off your legs with your hands and then dry your feet.
• Now put on socks and shoes and give yourself a pleasant feeling of warmth by exercising your feet or walking.

When is it better not to tread water?

Caution: Be careful when treading water during menstruation - observe carefully whether your body tolerates the treatment well or feels weakened. If you have urinary tract infections, bladder and kidney disease, abdominal infections and severe arterial circulatory disorders, it is better to avoid treading water altogether.

When it comes to water treatments, the term "hardening" is often used - which ultimately means strengthening the body's own defenses. But can this also be scientifically proven? A research team from the Clinic for Orthopaedics and Physical Medicine at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg got to the bottom of this question in a study¹ in which the specific effects of Kneipp water treading on the immune system were investigated. Blood samples were taken from test subjects between the ages of 18 and 30 before they completed a four-week series of water treading. This was followed by further blood tests after 1, 3, 6 and 12 months, accompanied by an "infection diary".

The results were surprisingly clear: Compared to the control group, whose members had not carried out the Kneipp treatment, the concentration of T lymphocytes, which are important for the immune defense, was significantly higher in the test subjects in the first group. At the same time, there were hardly any infections in the first four weeks; during the following months, infections were also shorter and milder than in the control group. The scientists were thus able to provide "watertight" evidence both in terms of laboratory chemistry and clinically: