What is Hydrotherapy?
Hydrotherapy is magical. Even from the perspective of a rehabilitation specialist like myself.
Where people struggle to raise a limb off their bed to perform simple home exercises, the buoyancy of water makes that same task a piece of cake. This means more repetitions, greater sense of fulfillment and an improvement in the overall mental and physical well-being of the individual receiving hydrotherapy.
The magic is no secret: It stems from the 5 natural properties of warm water.
Bouyancy, warmth, hydrostatic pressure, drag and turbulence.
These properties create a totally different environment for the body when immersed in it.
1) Gravity creates natural resistance for our body to overcome on a daily basis. Just raising your arm up takes effort that the buoyant nature of water can negate. This means being able to finally do movements that you are unable to perform when on land when you are in water. Similarly, for some of us who are weaker or heavier, standing up and walking creates too much pressure and impact in our injured joints, causing us to be bed-ridden or wheelchair bound. Hydrotherapy gives you the chance to stand and walk again without that grinding pain in your joints, allowing you to regain a sense of normalcy and functional mobility once again!
2) Ambient temperature can affect how much blood gets to our peripherals. A room temperature of 28-30 deg C in Singapore is close to the temperature of a heated pool that is 32 deg C. However, most conventional swimming pools are 18-20 deg C in our climate, causing our superficial vessels to constrict to help us maintain our body temperature. This results in shivering or tensed up muscles and an uncomfortable experience.. especially if it had just rained! The warmth of our rehabilitative pool’s water stimulates increased blood flow to your skin, helping to bring nourishment to the superficial soft tissues that are furthest away from our body’s main circulation. Also, the warm creates a sedative effect, calming nerves and relaxing tense muscles. This means an immediate reduction in pain levels and greater flexibility.
3) Regular atmospheric pressure on land means that you will have to rely on your body’s own vessels to push blood back to your heart against gravity. This means that a swollen ankle or calve will be needing regular elevation in a supine position intermittently through the day, disrupting your daily activities and choices of physical exercise. When immersed in a body of water, your swollen limbs will experience continuous compression akin to that of wearing a high compression stocking - but without the itch and discomfort!
4) Most resistance exercises that we adopt on land require tricky setting up and equipment to get started. Moreover, stretch bands commonly used at home are tighter only with greater stretch induced to them, making certain exercises difficult to perform without risk of excess strain to our healing joints. Doing the same movements in the pool gets a lot simpler. All you need to do is to move through the water which provides natural resistance through drag. Additionally, the resistance that you experience in the water is consistent and uniform regardless of the range of motion you are moving through. This means a more effective and safe strengthening program for those who need to build strength safely. Movements will also be slower in the pool, allowing you time to react and control your physical movements.
5) Water is hardly still. It moves and ripples according to what is stimulating it. In the enclosed and controlled environment of our pool, we can control how much turbulence the water provides you to either challenge your balance and stimulate sensory feedback on your skin, or create a peaceful and calm environment to relax and feel secure in. All it takes is some creativity and good foundational of knowledge in exercise and physiology that our therapist will be bringing on board for you to maximize the benefits of hydrotherapy for you!
As such, we are able to take on multiple types of conditions and rehabilitate them to a point where the client is able to function confidently on land and consider moving back to land-based rehabilitation or personal training in the gym.
It is in our special interest to bring this service to those with chronic diseases. Where others see a dead end or limited rehabilitative potential, we see HOPE.
Enquire today and we will be more than happy to let you know how to take the next step forward towards an enhanced rehabilitation program.
You may also read this article to find out more on what to expect during a session of hydrotherapy with us.
Contact us at hydrotherapy@physiotherabeat.com or via Whatsapp +65 83220284