Hydrotherapy has been around for many years as a form of exercise - and in the past 15-20 years, has been used a lot more to help with rehabilitation of injuries. It involves doing your rehabilitation in water rather than on land.
There is very limited access to hydrotherapy pools around our area - and you would have to travel to PARC (Frankston), GESAC (Bentleigh) or Oasis (Dandenong) to find a strict hydrotherapy pool. These pools are warmer than standard pools, with a target of 34 deg preferred compared to the average temperature of a normal pool sitting at 26-28 deg. The heat does help to increase blood flow, facilitate relaxation and warmth is good for injury (think heat packs). However due to the limited availability in the area, we are unable to offer these conditions.
However, through our relationships with the local community, we are able to have access to a pool to run sessions out of. This pool is located in Dingley and there is no membership payable to join (just the cost of the class).
So - what is hydrotherapy used for?
Hydrotherapy is used for exercise and rehabilitation of many conditions - including arthritis, post surgery (where the surgeon has given the all clear around wound healing) and pretty much any musculoskeletal injury, especially where full weight bearing is limiting movement and rehabilitation on land (this might be a fracture for instance).
Is if not recommended for certain things?
Hydrotherapy is probably not the prefered management for things like osteoporosis because bone responds best when it is loaded (as in on land). There are some contraindications around skin conditions, wounds and some heart/blood pressure conditions. These will be screened by our Exercise Physiologist prior to the session to ensure that it is safe. If there are any concern, we can contact your GP or specialist to discuss with them whether hydrotherapy is appropriate or not.
Why is it so good?
There are several reasons why hydrotherapy is so good!
- Compression - the properties of water essentially mean that there are compressive forces on the body when submurged. This can help with swelling management or stability.
- Buoyancy - the human body is naturally buoyant, meaning that it will float. This can be used to increase range of movement in stiff or weak joints that are too difficult to do on land.
- Weight changes - If you stand in water at about your belly button, there will be approximately 30% less weight through your legs. Progress to chest depth, this increases to 50% and up to 75-80% at shoulder height. For those struggling to weightbear on land due to pain, this can reduce the load on the legs at the same time as strengthening them!
- Water resistance - Moving through water is hard - have you every tried running in the water versus on land? The resistance made by the water can be used to develop strength in muscles. These exercise can be made harder by using equipment to create more resistance and therefore more strength.
Hydrotherapy is often underused because many don't have access or the knowledge to use it appropriately. We are very fortunate to be able to offer this to patients! If you think that this may be suitable for your, please feel free to contact us on 95801985 and discuss further with our Exercise Physiologist.