Are you looking to better utilize hydrotherapy in your physical therapy practice? Hydrotherapy is a great tool for helping patients manage pain, muscle soreness, and other muscular ailments. And when armed with the right equipment and resources, you can make sure that your hydrotherapy sessions are as effective and efficient as possible. But which tools should you be using for the best results? We’ll go through some of the most popular pieces of equipment used by physical therapists to create successful hydrotherapy treatments.
Pool Noodles
Believe it or not, pool noodles are an excellent choice to use during hydrotherapy. This is because the noodle can make the patient more buoyant at any part of their body. And because the noodle is not strapped to them, they have more freedom to do various exercises. For example, noodle biking is a fun way to balance yourself while sitting on a noodle. It also allows you to do a pedal motion, as if you were on a bike. The resistance of the water will help exercise your lower body as you pedal. There are many more exercises you can do with a regular pool noodle that can work on just about any part of your body.
Kickboards
Kickboards are a key tool hydrotherapy and pool exercises in general. You can utilize the kickboard by extending your arms and holding the kickboard out in front of you with both hands. You can then flutter your feet to go to the other end of the pool. This is just one of many kickboard exercises that you can do to improve your core strength and make your workouts more dynamic.
Aquatic Hand Bars
Last but certainly not least are Aquatic Hand Bars. Think of them like dumbbells but for the water. On land, they are as light as a feather. But in the water, they can be a great resistance exercise. You can do a lot of different exercises with Aquatic Hand Bars. Just think of what you can do with dumbbells, and you can pretty much replicate those exercises with these underwater. You can do curls, lateral raises, and much more. All of which can help improve your upper body strength.
These are just some of the tools that you can utilize in the pool. There are so many tools for hydrotherapy that is hard to list them all. But these items will get you started on your hydrotherapy journey.
To check out our selection of pool noodles, click here.
To check out our selection of kickboards, click here.
To check out our selection of Aquatic Hand Bars., click here.
Article written by William Graves.