We all know how important exercise is for our overall health, but are you confused about the amount of physical exertion
you should be doing due to your health issues? Of course, it’s imperative to speak to your healthcare provider when adding any new exercise routine to your repertoire. However, there is significant evidence that shows water therapy is ideal for nearly everyone, including those with disorders like heart disease, arthritis, and obesity.
Regardless of the cause of your health-related condition, individuals with maladies often times are extremely challenged and uncomfortable when trying to exercise or perform daily activities that are necessary to live a quality lifestyle. This is why Aquatic Therapy is extremely helpful in getting these individuals moving to keep their hearts healthy, increase oxygen uptake and in turn, relieving a majority their symptoms of pain and stiffness.
Aquatic Therapy for Arthritis, Obesity & Pain Inducing Disorders
On land, every one-pound of body weight exerts about 5 pounds of force on the knee joints. When the body is submerged under water, we have buoyancy, which reduces stress on joints and muscles because the water opposes the weight of the immersed limbs. If an individual that weighs 180 pounds is under water, that person will only weigh about 10 pounds in the water. Since our bodies are approximately 15-18% fat, the fat weighs virtually nothing in the water, which helps with agility and promotes a feeling of lightness.
A professional rehabilitation therapist can help increase your range of motion and flexibility within aquatic therapy treatment. From underwater treadmills to bikes, weights, and tubes, there are many different types of equipment that can assist in water therapy, but it is sometimes just as beneficial to use no equipment in aquatic exercising. The specially trained therapists can help to build the strength of your muscles, making them stronger without weights, through resistance training, utilizing your own body against the pressure of the water.
If you are immersed up to your waist, your body will weigh only 50% of its actual weight, and if you are immersed up to your chest, it’s approximately
25% of your weight. This weight reduction is helpful to relieve pain and to protect weak bones, muscle tears or joint friction. Water exercise can help you lose weight, as you will burn calories, and it also promotes relaxation throughout the entire body, which is beneficial for healing and overall health and wellness.
Cardiovascular Benefits
In recent years there has been a multitude of studies on the effectiveness of aquatic therapy and the heart. As it turns out, Aquatic Therapy is not only more comfortable on the joints and bones, but it is easier on the heart and vital for getting a healthy, safe, cardiovascular workout.
While cardiovascular exercise is extremely beneficial, many people are better suited for water rehabilitation due to its soothing effects on the entire body including the heart. The resistance of the water against the body increases cardiovascular circulation. Not only is aquatic therapy easy on the joints and muscles, but also the buoyancy allows individuals to exercise for longer periods of time, with more intensity than that of land-based physical therapy.
A prime example of a suitable candidate would be, if a patient had a vascular stent placed in their leg, they might be better suited to walk on an underwater treadmill, because most likely they will experience a more pleasant workout in the water with little to no pain as opposed to on land.
They also would be able to walk farther, and the hydrostatic pressure of the water is proven to assist with edema, which is critical for healing and cardiovascular health.
There have been significant studies on the benefits of aquatic therapy for individuals that suffer from cardiac diseases and disorders. These cases have proven that the level of oxygen in the blood increases in water, which is ideal for most vascular issues. The oxygen consumption (VO2) is three times greater in water than on land. Working large muscle groups leads to this uptake of oxygen or VO2, but doing a lot of running and legwork on land increases the heart rate at a higher level than with water-based therapy. For obvious reasons, maintaining a lower heart rate is ideal for those suffering from any heart ailments.
To find out more about aquatic therapy, please visit, freedomrehabaqautictherapy.com, or call Freedom Rehab at 941-400-1505.