The health benefits of water therapy have been acknowledged throughout history to help treat various ailments, including muscle pain. Today, we also use water therapy to manage various musculoskeletal conditions, including low back pain.
We all know that water benefits us from the “inside out” –as we have all heard the advice to drink eight glasses of water each day. Water also provides numerous benefits from the “outside in.” For instance, working out in water can increase your cardiovascular fitness, improve your flexibility, and help you relax. If you have back problems, aquatic exercise can help to:
- Stabilize your lower back. Water naturally provides resistance when you move. Exercising, even walking against this resistance, with the right pushing or pulling motions, gently develops muscle strength in your back, abdomen, and hips. When you target these core muscles, you help stabilize your posture and support your lower back. The deeper you immerse your body, the greater the resistance and the more challenging the water workout will be. We start our back pain patients with a very light program, individually developed and based on their level with a goal to avoid aggravation of their symptoms.
- Minimize pressure on your spine, joints, and muscles. Because water is buoyant, it supports your weight, thereby minimizing the pressure placed on your spine, joints, and muscles. This results in a number of benefits. First, the reduced stress can help alleviate pain and decrease the chances of further aggravating your back. Second, you can move through the water with relative ease, which enables you to stretch your back muscles and improve your range of motion. Third, you’re able to perform movements in water that may be too difficult or painful to carry out on a hard surface during land-based exercises. In addition, the pool has a lift chair to help even the most painful back patients in and out of the water if taking the stairs is too painful. Often we find after some time in pool therapy our patients develop enough strength and gain enough pain relief they eventually no longer need the lift chair.
- Soothe and relax your muscles. Even without exercising, being in warm water—as is generally recommended for people recovering from a back injury. The pools we use are a comfortable 91 deg— can relieve pain, reduce swelling, and relax your back muscles. In addition, the soothing, warm water environment may motivate you to exercise more consistently and, in turn, enable you to achieve better results from your exercise routine. Our water therapy programs run 2 times a week and have a consistent participation which facilitates a camaraderie that in its self has many health benefits.