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Water therapy, called aqua therapy, pool therapy or hydrotherapy, is one of the best alternatives for traditional training for people with osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis is a regressive disease that put pressure on some part of the body depending on the area affected. The common areas are spine, hands, knees and hips. Because of extra weight put on damaged areas, people with osteoarthritis have a difficult time to practice many types of land-based exercises.
How to decrease pain and keep exercising with osteoarthritis?
Frequent exercise is necessary to strengthen the joints and prevent the progression of osteoarthritis. Aqua therapy is one of the best options; the water helps your body to overcome the pull of gravity, thus decrease the weight carried by your joints and ease the process of exercising. According to the Arthritis-health journal, waist-high water reduces the weight by 50%, whereas neck-high water helps to escape from 90% of the weight on your joints. That means you can maintain your muscle strength and structure of your joints without increasing the risk of further progress of your condition. In general, the person suffering from osteoarthritis should choose low-impact, comparatively short, gentle exercising activities like swimming, water therapy or simple walking.
Additional benefits of exercising in water
Water also has a soothing influence on the brain, thus supporting the elimination of pain mentally.
Water exercises are ideal for people with any type of osteoarthritis to manage their weight and muscle proportion over time.
As water supports your body, you can choose between intensive or gentle exercises in the water with the supervision of a professional. Swimming is an intense exercise, whereas stretching and other vertical water training are considered a more mild type of activity. Gentle stretching exercises designed by our therapists help to reduce stiffness in knees, hips and back.
Spending time in the water is also a type of natural massage therapy; when you move in water, it adjusts to your movements and water massages the whole body by helping to increase blood circulation.
Therapists work easily to treat your body while you are doing your exercises in water; no need to turn or adjust your position. It also helps people who don’t like to be touched. In the water, you feel less pain, and the sense of touching is minimum.
Here at Hydroactive, our Aqua Therapy programs are designed individually by our qualified professionals to meet your individual needs. We use salted water kept at 32 degrees at all times to maximize your experience.
Gains from aqua therapy in summary:
Less pain during exercising
Possibility to awake dull muscle areas
Improve mental state by decreasing the stress level caused by constant pain
Developed muscle strength and joints structure
Developed muscle memory
Increased muscle flexibility, reduced stiffness
Weight control and prevention of further arthritis
General improvement in the peripheral nerves’ system and blood circulation
Improvement of hear condition
Benefiting from positive side-effects of being in water compared to land-based exercises.
We are conveniently located in the Vaughan area and are ready to consult you any time book by you on our website or by calling (905) 879-1251.