Aquatic Therapy
Aquatic therapy is a unique form of physical therapy that incorporates water to unload the body during exercise to improve movement with less pain and difficulty.
Performing exercise in the water provides many benefits. The unique properties of the water decrease compression through the joints, can reduce inflammation and improves pain-free movement. Aquatic therapy is a great tool for those patients who have difficulty performing exercises on land.
Benefits of the water
Buoyancy
- Reduces Joint Impact
- Allows for ease of movement
- Improves range of motion
Therapeutic temperature (94 degrees)
- Facilitates muscle relaxation
- Decreases Pain
- Decreases abnormal tone, spasticity and rigidity
- Increases flexibility
- Increases blood flow
Hydrostatic pressure
- Increases venous return and circulation
- Provides joint positional awareness
- Decreases edema
Viscosity
- Provides resistance for strength training
- Stimulates body awareness
- Improves trunk stability
Psychosocial benefit
- Improves attitude and patient morale
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Positive medium to allow patient return to prior level of function
Common Diagnoses Seen
- Low back pain
- Post-op (spine, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle)
- Imbalance/Fall Risk
- Neuro patients
- Chronic Pain
Who benefits from Aquatic Therapy at Preferred Physical Therapy?
When exercising in a physical therapy pool, hydrostatic pressure, water temperature, and resistance combine to enhance cardiovascular stamina, muscle strength, and flexibility to drive early range of motion gains during post-surgery recovery. Gait training in a low-impact environment allows for earlier replication of proper ambulatory biomechanics and reduces the accumulated damage of land exercise.
After any type of injury or surgery, increasing your mobility while still maintaining conditioning is a top priority. By taking advantage of the body’s buoyancy in water, the advanced technology of HydroWorx’s fitness and physical therapy pools eliminates 20% to 100% of a person’s bodyweight. As a result, patients or athletes who are unable to exercise on land can achieve immediate rehabilitative results with little to no bodyweight underwater.
