Water therapy exercises offer you myriads of health benefits where it’s good for back pain, cardiovascular problems, neurological problems, fibromyalgia, etc. It’s pretty much effective for strengthening muscles as water has a tendency to restrict the movement within it. Moreover, buoyancy supports a portion of the body and helps in improving flexibility. In this article, we will throw light on water therapy exercises and their benefits.
The water exercise therapy include the following parts:-
- Spa therapy
- Standing or floating pool exercises
- Conditioning through Surgical tubing, flotation devices, resistive devices
The physical therapy specialist can suggest/guide you about active water therapy exercises that can be effective for increasing joint flexibility, decreasing pain, spasticity, and improving balance. In addition, he/she helps you to improve the quality of life, hands-on care, and patient education. Based on your condition or problem, a physiotherapy specialist will guide you on which one is right for you. There are a number of exercises from simple routine to conditioning exercises where you can use the treadmills and other high-tech equipment.
Pool Therapy Exercise Techniques
Now let’s try to understand what are different kinds of water therapy exercise techniques.
Knee to Chest Exercise:- Just stand on one leg, which is slightly bent, and another leg is outstretched. While performing this exercise, you must hold onto the side of the pool. Knee to chest exercise is quite good in strengthening and stretching the muscles in the leg, hip, and lower back.
Wall-facing Leg Stretch Exercise
In this exercise, the doer must adopt the superman position where hands are resting on one side of the pool. The body and legs are outstretched and balanced by the water. This exercise is quite effective for different portions of the back and joints in the back. It’s great for shoulder muscle.
Pool Walking Exercise
In this exercise, people must walk in a forward and backward direction under the chest-high water level. While doing this exercise, there is no impact on the knees and hips region. However, it’s quite effective for those who have arthritis problems in the joints. In addition to this, walking exercise can be good and considered as power walking.
Quadruped Activity and Exercise
In this exercise, people make paddling motions with the help of his/her arms or legs while floating on one’s back. Basically performed with the help of a supporter i.e., using a flotation jacket or therapist supporting the trunk.
Push-Ups
First, stand in the pool by the poolside and keep your arms shoulder-width apart on the edge of the pool. Now start pressing weight with the help of your hands, and raise your body in an upward direction. Do it until it’s halfway out. Just hold it for 3 -5 seconds.
Standing Knee Lift
In this format, you need to stand against the pool wall while keeping both feet on the floor. Now try to lift 1 knee up in a position like marching. The knee must be lifted till the hip position, and now you should straighten your knee. Now continue to bend and straighten your knee. It must be done 10 times and then change the leg. People must complete the 3 sets of 10 on each leg. If you want to make it more challenging, they try it without taking the support of the pool wall.
Benefits of Water Therapy Exercises
When it comes to the advantages, its biggest benefit is for those who are injured, disabled, or not capable of performing the exercise safely on land. Let’s put a cursory glance at the benefits of water therapy exercises.
- It’s beneficial in providing a relaxing and soothing environment that helps aching joints and muscles.
- Water’s viscosity as well as resistance, is effective for muscle strengthening as well as for increasing rehabilitation progressions.
- Buoyancy is the best fit for floatation as well as for reducing the gravity effect. It’s excellent for aching joints and muscles.
- Hydrostatic pressure also works effectively in supporting and stabilizing people. It helps in performing the exercises without any fear of falling. It’s also pretty good in decreasing the pain and to improve cardiovascular return.
- Turbulence and wave propagation also works better to perform the desired exercises within the water.
- It’s perfect for respiratory muscles, as it helps in strengthening these muscles.
- In the above section, we have learned about the benefits of water therapy exercises. However, it’s safe to a greater degree but it’s always recommended that do it in a proper manner under the supervision of the trainer or physiotherapy specialists.
Anodyne Spine for Back Pain, Arthritis & Shoulder Pain
We are the best-known physiotherapy clinic in South Delhi, offering you an array of services for back pain, shoulder pain, sports injuries, and spine related problems. We are equipped with world-class facilities & treatment approaches. By manual therapy sessions, joint manipulation, mobilization, chiropractic care, and other types of approaches, we’ve treated thousands of patients so far. We also offer you the best services in water therapy exercises. You can book an appointment with us if you are looking for back pain, sciatica, manipulative therapy, spondylitis, or many more.