Hydrotherapy – what is it and how do we use it?
Exercise has many therapeutic benefits, by increasing muscle strength, cardiovascular fitness and stress reduction. There are times however, when exercise can be painful or trigger a flare up of painful symptoms. This can create a negative perception of exercise leading to a fear avoidance of physical activity, causing people to become deconditioned.
Hydrotherapy is a safe way to reintroduce physical activity as it helps to reduce the weight on your joints, which makes movement manageable and less provocative. Doing exercise this way can also retrain the brain to recognise that movements do not need to cause pain and thereby reducing pain sensitivity to movement.
Even small amounts of exercise activate a release of endorphins which interact with opioid receptors in your nervous system, producing a mild analgesic effect – the body’s innate pain relief. This can be particularly helpful for those living with chronic pain, osteoarthritis and post-operative patients, among others.
Hydrotherapy is the use of a pool for facilitating rehabilitation by utilizing the properties of water to implement different treatment methods that may otherwise be difficult to perform on land. Hydrotherapy exercises use water to assist in the application of established treatments such as strengthening, stretching, endurance, balance and stability training and gait training.
How water helps:
The properties of water and immersion in water have different implications for exercise than what we are familiar with on land.
These properties are:
Buoyancy:
- Provides you with relative weightlessness and joint unloading by reducing the forces of gravity on your body – leading to improved or eased joint ranges of motion.
Hydrostatic pressure:
- Pressure exerted inwardly against an immersed body is proportionate to the density of water and depth of immersion
- Put simply, exercises can be made harder or easier depending on the depth of the water.
Viscosity:
- “Friction occurring between molecules of liquid resulting in resistance to flow.” – just think thickness of fluid e.g., trying to move in a pool of water vs a pool of custard.
- Increasing the speed of movement through a liquid increases the resistance to movement, which is useful for strength focused exercise.
Thermal Conduction:
- Water conducts heat much quicker than air, which is good for soothing and relaxing muscles and modifying the perception of pain while in the water.
If hydrotherapy is something you would like to try, speak to one of the Physiotherapists at Physio on Ross ( ph 47282116 ) to see if hydrotherapy can help you with your condition.