Benefits of Water Therapy

For individuals that have physical limitations due to age, injury, illness, or any condition that limits movement, water therapy is an ideal option for exercise and recovery.   

Water has been used by athletes for years to encourage quicker muscle recovery and has since become a viable option for many others.   Promoting resistance without the heaviness of weights, water has numerous additional benefits.  Given the buoyancy that it provides, it allows for movement without pain, and it takes the pressure off your knees, hips, and ankles.  It also improves flexibility, balance, coordination, and improves cardiovascular conditioning.

Aqua therapy is particularly helpful for conditions like cerebral palsy, which affects muscle coordination making the body often rigid and stiff.  Gentle movement from aquatic therapy can help elongate and stretch the muscle.  Water exercise promotes a freedom that these patients wouldn’t typically receive in attempting traditional movement therapies.  Parkinson's disease, which impairs speech as well as motor control, is another chronic disease where the support of therapy pools improves their function and mobility. Sometimes the progress seen is quicker than just doing traditional therapy alone.

There are various types of aquatic therapies, and the exercises are developed based on your needs.  An individual suffering from arthritis, which causes damage to joints throughout the body, for example, would benefit from a different series of exercises than someone that suffers from weakening muscles and bone mass.

Regardless of what prevents a proper amount of exercise, water therapy provides increased circulation, reduces the stress on the body's joints, and can provide relief to the symptoms associated with varying conditions.