Physical rehab is used to help clients recover from serious injuries. It can take months or even years to build muscle tissue strength and range of motion, but there’s a way to increase training efficiency that is helpful to clients of all ages. Performing aquatic physical reconditioning utilizes several principles and has a number of benefits that will speed recovery, boost muscle performance, and help to reduce acute and chronic pain. Some of the benefits of aquatic physical reconditioning might surprise you.
1) Hydrostatic Pressure
Because water is more dense than air, it exerts more pressure when entering than the body is used to experiencing. This is because the water constantly adjust its shape to accommodate movement. It compresses skin, muscles, and joints via a concept called hydrostatic pressure. This concept forces the heart and lungs to work harder because the chest cavity is under direct pressure. In addition, it acts like a compression bandage for the entire body, helping to relieve chronic muscle aches when a person is submerged neck-deep. Water has multiple therapeutic benefits that stem from hydrostatic pressure.
2) Dulled Sense of Touch
The nervous system has an acute network of nerve endings in the skin and muscles that can respond to the slightest stimulus. Under a constant stimulus, such as pressure from water that the body is not used to, the nervous system will automatically dull the reticular system, which is the part of the brain responsible for dealing with tactile sensory neurons. This can also help to dull muscle pain, making it easier to stretch muscles to full range of motion to speed up treatment. One of the biggest obstacles to physical therapy is the pain involved in moving injured muscles to restore their function. Patients often have to be coaxed by the physical therapist, which can take up session time. Also, clients who dislike being touched often feel calmer in water because their sense of touch isn’t as acute.
3) Resistance
One of the biggest aquatic physical reconditioning benefits is the constant resistance water offers when compared to air. Swimming, water polo, and other aquatic exercises are some of the most energy-intensive workouts that exist. They don’t require bulky sets of resistance equipment and allow complete freedom of movement. Being forced to exert more energy to perform accustomed motions helps tone atrophied muscles faster by using more muscle fibers, and the presence of water helps reduce pain. It also helps to keep the person standing and minimizes a possible fear of falling due to water’s buoyancy.
4) Rebuilding Muscle Memory
The natural viscosity and resistance water provides forces movement more slowly. This allows the brain to process the signals from muscles more thoroughly because it has more time, an ideal benefit for rebuilding muscle memory. If someone has a neuromuscular condition or other impairment, muscle reeducation is made easier by the presence of water due to this property. Performing exercises in water requires focus on taking muscle properly through full range of motion because the body isn’t able to move as quickly and allows for neural stimulation and processing occurring at a slower rate in clients with affected brain function.
5) Easy Access
During normal physical therapy, the therapist can only work with one plane or side of the body at a time because the client is typically lying on a table or bed. Being in the water allows the therapist to swim around the patient in order to work with all parts of the body, so the client will not have to worry about turning over when they are uncomfortable or when preparing to do another exercise. Aquatic physical reconditioning makes it easier for both the client and therapist.
6) Improved Circulation
Because of hydrostatic pressure, the heart is under constant pressure. Also, water typically used for aquatic physical reconditioning is kept at warmer-than-average temperatures (94-98 degrees Fahrenheit) because warmth promotes circulation. Increased blood flow to the limbs helps promote healing. For clients with weaker heart muscles, this can compensate for poor circulation by getting oxygen-rich blood to reach the periphery of the body.
7) Muscle Relaxation
Warm water helps to dilate blood vessels, improving circulation to the muscles. Muscle soreness is caused by lactic acid buildup, and the increased blood flow carries lactic acid away from the muscles and eases soreness. Sore muscles after a hard workout can result in lack of motivation because of the pain involved. Therefore, one of the biggest aquatic physical reconditioning benefits is that of relaxing muscles. This also helps prevent accidental injury from overtraining, reducing the level of stress inflicted on healing muscles, cartilage, or connective tissue.
8) Massage
Water flows in currents when movement occurs in water. The gentle flow of water molecules around the body can acts as a natural form of massage, helping to further promote circulation and the relaxation of tired or sore muscles. By using equipment such as water paddles or aquatic gloves, the therapist can create gentle currents aimed at specific areas of the body, helping to work on problem areas.
9) Lighthearted, Fun Environment
There’s a reason most clients like to go to the beach in summer: swimming and other water sports are considered fun. One of the most important aquatic physical reconditioning benefits is it helps promote a positive, reinforcing environment to work in. An aquatic physical reconditioning session could easily turn into a few hours of swimming and an occasional splashing contest. The lighthearted atmosphere that water promotes is vital to the healing process, especially because it’s easy to get discouraged when exercises are hard or too painful to perform. Although aquatic physical reconditioning is designed to rehabilitate the body, it can also benefit the mind.
10) Buoyancy
The buoyancy effect water has on the musculoskeletal system makes movement more comfortable. Range of motion and flexibility are increased when in a warm water pool and the cardio vascular system is working more effectively, so an aerobic workout is possible. Additionally, the hydrostatic pressure acts like a “full-body garment” and helps to reduce edema, and stress is reduced when an individual with lymphedema/swelling/pain is in the water.
In short, the movements in the water are resistive, assistive/supportive, compressive, massaging, relaxing and comforting. During a state of recovery, many things that can be achieved in the water cannot be achieved in a gravity environment due to pain limitations and stress on the joints.
If you believe aquatic physical reconditioning is right for you, contact us here at Flow Aquatic Wellness today.