Exercising on land certainly has its share of advantages. But what about when it comes to helping people with chronic pain, balance issues, weakened muscles, surgery-related stiffness, and weight issues? The benefits of aquatic therapy are hard to beat. At STI Rehab, our facilities offers state-of-the-art aquatic therapy sessions.
But, even when you can’t work in a session with us, simple moves you can make in the pool or at the beach will soon have you reaping the benefits of aquatic therapy.
Muscle-Building Benefits
Water exerts far more pressure on your muscles than air does. In fact, it offers as much as 700 times the resistance of air. An aquatic therapist is likely to use equipment that focuses on water’s natural resistance. Equipment with a larger surface area, such as kick boards or flotation devices, help encourage even more strength-building.
Flexibility Enhancement
Whether you want to work on calorie-burning without feeling pain in your joints, or need to work with joints themselves, aquatic therapy uses water’s natural buoyancy. Depending on how deeply you are submerged, the pull of gravity is reduced 50 to 90 percent. Water’s natural buoyancy is just one of the benefits of aquatic therapy.
If you need to increase the range-of-motion of your hips, for example, water’s cushioning effect allows you to take your hip flexors through more movement, with less pain. Not only can you extend your limbs more when the affected body part is partially floating, but the moves that you make continue to yield results in your daily life.
Injury Recovery
After surgery or an injury, your body’s tissues swell around the affected area. While that swelling offers added protection to the injury, it also makes for increased stiffness. In turn, your limited ability to move weakens the surrounding muscles. Aquatic therapy helps by moving that concentrated fluid buildup more evenly throughout your body. When the swelling goes down, as a result you’ll have an easier time with overall recovery.
Balance and Tonal Work
Many patients start aquatic therapy because they need to work on balance issues. The water’s natural buoyancy prevents falling. It also allows patients to build confidence as they learn dry land balance techniques. The warmth of the water is also helpful for manual therapy. As your aquatic therapist works to address muscle spasms, tonal issues or rigidity from a neurological injury or disorder, the warmth helps relax those muscles.
Meeting a Broad Range of Health Goals
Because aquatic therapy works on so many levels, it can help a greater number of patients. The water in which they’re working offers more resistance than air to encourage their strength workouts, while also cushioning joints and muscles, which decreases pain during aquatic sessions.
For patients with joint pain or who have recently had hip, ankle, or knee replacement surgery, aquatic therapy helps them build flexibility with less pain than land-based workouts offer. The joint relief of aquatic therapy is also helpful for people with arthritis or fibromyalgia.
People who find it difficult to walk or do any sort of weight-bearing exercise will also find aquatic therapy beneficial. If obesity or balance problems are an issue on land, being in the water will ease those concerns.
