Aqua Therapy

Aqua-Therapy, physical therapy is performed in a warm-water pool, allowing for earlier intervention, greater tolerance of activity, and easier gains in range of motion with less pain.

Aqua therapy has many natural health and healing benefits applicable to any type of rehabilitation, especially for individuals who are not yet ready to perform exercises affected by gravity and weight-bearing tolerance.

Aqua therapy reduces impact on joints, helps improve overall body strength and conditioning during post-rehab, and aids individuals who have weight-bearing problems -- such as back pain -- as the buoyancy of the water reduces the stress of body weight on a particular area of the body.

Features

* Warm, Aquatic Environment
* Aqua-Therapy
* Physical Therapy
* Injury Assessment & Treatment
* Wellness Programs

Who Can Benefit?

* Orthopedic Injuries including
o Shoulder
o Hip
o Knee
o Ankle
o Back
* Post-surgical orthopedic injuries
* CVA’s/Stroke Neurologic
* conditions including: multiple sclerosis & arthritis

Aqua therapy makes big splash
Mercer Business, Oct 01, 1996

At first glance, it's a typical busy afternoon at the community pool. After all, this is the Hamilton Area YMCA, where the spacious Olympic-size pool is always full of splashing customers, from children just learning to swim to adults working to keep in shape in the lap lanes.

At second glance, the visitor notes there must be something special going on. There are perhaps a dozen people in the pool. And while all of them are moving, none of them is swimming.

What's going on here is special indeed. It's called aquatic therapy, and it's a growing specialty in the field of rehabilitation. The people in the pool are patients and physical therapists from the Hamilton Regional Rehabilitation Center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton. They are there because the job they have to do is more easily done in the water than on dry land.

Some of the patients have arthritis. Others have suffered joint injuries, fractures or muscle strains. One is recovering from the debilitating effects of cancer and one is a paraplegic. What all of them have in common is pain, difficulty in moving, and the need for physical therapy to help restore their flexibility, strength, and endurance. Some of them can barely move at all when they are out of the water.

The therapy prescribed for each of these patients is unique, because every physical therapy program is specifically customized for the individual patient. But all the therapy programs will involve movement of the affected joint, muscle or limb. These movements are likely to be painful. But when the motions are performed under water, the patients experience less pain--and more mobility. Some of the people here can perform movements in the water which are impossible for them to perform on land.

The paraplegic patient, for example, is paralyzed from the waist down and cannot stand or walk. But here in the pool, with the help of flotation devices and assistance from the therapist, he can not only stand, but stretch. These carefully planned movements help him to control pain and muscle spasms as well as experience weight bearing that prevents debilitation.

At the pool, Physical Therapist Gayle Thurston guides the group of patients through their individual programs. At the beginning of each aquatic therapy session, all the participants do warmup laps of walking back and forth through the water across the pool. They move forward, backward, and sideways in order to exercise different muscle groups. Some of the patients use kickboards placed across the front of their bodies to give them more resistance. They are exercising not only their legs, but their abdominal muscles.

"Some of these people are unable to move around at all on land," says Ms. Thurston. "Before coming here for this kind of therapy some of them were in such pain that they couldn't move at all. Most of them cannot tolerate on land what they do here in the water."

Many individuals suffering from pain develop ways of moving--or not moving--so as to avoid the pain. These patterns are called compensatory movements. After a long periods of time, these movements become habits, and the individuals come to believe that these limited movements are the only ones possible. When these kinds of patients enter the new environment of aquatic therapy in a pool, they find that they can indeed move without pain. This discovery can result in a positive psychological effect. The patient finds himself free to move, because he is confident he can move in comfort

Ms. Thurston displays the tools of her trade. In addition to the kickboards, there are hand-held weights, hydrotone boots, aquaflex paddles and barbells. She and a patient demonstrate how the barbells are used. The patient places a floating barbell under each arm and, thus supported, either "bicycles" or merely hangs in the water. This activity gives a weight-bearing stretch and relieves pain.

"For those frustrated by the pain and the pace of traditional therapy, aquatic therapy can be a great alternative," says Maureen Judd, Director of Hamilton Regional Rehabilitation Center. "Reduced body weight in water allows patients to gain greater mobility more quickly and to move more freely without jarring or straining the body. Buoyancy alleviates pain, and water resistance strengthens muscles and improves cardiovascular fitness."

Water--specifically, temperature-controlled water in a therapeutic pool like this one--provides a neutral environment. This environment eliminates extreme temperatures and decreases the effect of gravity. "The greatest benefit of aquatic physical therapy is that a person's body weight in the water is only 10% of what it would be on land," says Mrs. Judd. "This reduction is the factor that allows for more mobility in the water and decreases the amount of stress put on the body while exercising."

Water also creates a traction force on the joints; this is the catalyst which results in less pain. The decrease in pain allows the patients to tolerate more strenuous exercise for longer periods of time. The combination of all these advantages--more resistance, more mobility, more exercise, less pain--adds up to success. Patients regain more motion and strength at a quicker pace-and faster recovery.

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