What Better Time Than Now?
The rise of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has changed our lifestyles and regular habits drastically. Prior to the pandemic, we were mostly free to go wherever we desired, enjoy many freedoms, engage in all types of recreational activities and also participate in essential water-related therapies, without restrictions. Not so much anymore.
For decades, many individuals have utilized the Ameri-Dome to allow them to swim all year round in the comfort and safety of their own backyard swimming pools. Today, interactions with strangers in a public arena can be intimidating for healthy individuals and even more so for those with weakened immune systems and/or age related complications. With this time of great uncertainty looming over us it appears the only "safe" place is right at home for "who knows how long". We’ve seen an increased demand for Ameri-Dome (even during the Spring & Summer months), since the outbreak of the virus.
Individuals who have immune deficiency, a severe illness, or other high-risk factors require physical isolation from other individuals when swimming or conducting water-based therapy, especially with today’s "new normal."
Still, others may make a simple personal decision to swim in a private setting so they do not have to worry about the sanitary aspects of water related activities. IE: Those things over which they have no control.
For those individuals who are hesitant to swim amid the coronavirus pandemic, here’s good news for you.
The CDC stated on March 10, 2020 that the coronavirus had not been discovered in drinking water. In addition, traditional water treatment techniques that utilize disinfection and filtration appears to eliminate and deactivate the virus that causes the coronavirus.
Therefore, if your swimming pool is properly maintained, the sanitizing and purifying chemicals in the water should be sufficient to reduce the possibility virus immensely. As long as a swimming pool is well maintained, the chlorine will kill any virus.
Apart from that, in the last few years, we have noticed a large increase in the number of customers who purchase Ameri-Domes for medical or therapeutic purposes. Many of these individuals were already receiving aquatic therapy at public facilities, and decided doing them at home was a better alternative for them.
For various reasons, they decided it was in their best interest to move the treatments to their pool where they could fully control not only who went into the water, but also what went into the water.
For some with already compromised immune systems, it becomes a necessity to not "share" the water with others.
Here is an assembly of various web postings with applicable content.
Overview
The use of water in therapy can significantly assist patient healing and exercise performance. It’s ideal for a variety of medical conditions. Warmer water assists in relaxing the muscles and increasing blood flow to injured areas, and it can promote quicker healing as well. You don’t have to be an expert swimmer to reap the benefits of water-based therapy.
Under the guidance of a physical therapist, water therapy can be a great treatment for the following:
Bone and Joint Rehabilitation
Did you know that aquatic therapy is considered a minimal impact exercise? These types of exercises are more likely to be less stressful on the muscles and joints. It can encourage a faster and more systematic recovery too.
Sprains, Strains, and Tears
Water therapy provides a relaxing setting, which comforts body "tension". This enables the individual to use less effort and place less stress on the injured areas. Twisted joints are more easily cured with water-based therapy, and it helps to relieve the associated pain earlier. This allows patients to recover a broader range of movement and strength sooner.
Back Pain
Having back pain is a fairly typical problem. Fortunately, swimming works the back muscles in a dependable, recurring way that doesn’t add wear or tear to an already-painful portion of your body.
Arthritis
Water is one of the most pleasing environments in which an individual suffering from this condition can overcome pain and reclaim mobility.
How it Works
Exercising in the water uses the fluid’s resistance to build muscle and regain strength. This resistance offers ease of movement while reducing pain, allowing for a more thorough treatment with less chance of "exaggerating" it.
The buoyancy lessens impact and pressure when exercising while you’re in the water. That supports wounded muscles and joints throughout your recovery. What’s more, water also compresses itself on damaged areas, which lessens swelling and helps to refine motion.
Beyond Rehab
The CDC states that the benefits of swimming extend to cultivating your mood and lessening apprehension for people with fibromyalgia. It can also strengthen the overall health of pregnant women as well as their unborn children. It also is used by many "elders" as a relaxing form of workout.
Which Areas of the Body Does Swimming Target?
Below are the important body areas swimming targets:
The core – this includes pelvic floor muscles, abdominal muscles, and lower lumbar spinal muscles
Lower body muscles such as calf muscles, hip flexors and hamstrings
Chest upper back
Shoulder compartment
Benefits of Aquatic Therapy for Individuals with Disabilities
Water is a unique environment that provides gentle pressure, buoyancy, and calming support that has many benefits for those with disabilities.
They can benefit in many areas such as:
- − Communication skills
- − Improved socialization
- − Physical exercise
- − Sensory processing
It also supports them to develop improved self-regulation.
The majority of disabled children and those who have autism, may suffer from sensory integration condition as well. These individuals can have trouble with understanding, processing, and reacting to sensory input.
You see, those sensory processing concerns could result to unsuitable behaviors and outpourings such as self-harming or anti-social.
Physical Benefits
Water exercise has been revealed to support muscles in the body. On top of that, children who exercise underwater typically will have:
- − A superior range of motion
- − Improved coordination
- − Upgraded balance
- − Amplified physical endurance
Students with autism often have physical shortages in these areas. The good thing is that aquatic therapy can have momentous health benefits for them.
Water has buoyancy making their entire body lighter. That allows students to feel a sense of lightness. That buoyancy can lessen uncertainties of injury and support them to feel more self-assured in trying actions that they would not try on land.
That self-assurance has understandable psychological and physical advantages. The sense of achievement and mastery can’t be undervalued.
More physical advantages of water therapy for students with special needs consist of:
- − Amplified oral motor skills
- − Heightened breathing control
- − Adequate & more refined motor skills
- − Developed motor planning
- − A reinforced core
- − Less stress for joints and muscles
- − Lowered pain
Some youngsters with disabilities have lowered oral motor skills. That means they could have trouble utilizing a straw or simply sticking out their tongue or blowing out candles.
One of the best things about aquatic therapy is that it can enable students to recover their oral motor abilities and respiratory control as they’re able to acquire how to blow trivial objects across the top of the water. On top of that, water therapy not just offers vital sensory and physical advantages for students with special needs. It also offers a huge amount of fun.
Students also love the physical interaction with the water, as well as the socialization impacts. In fact, a lot of psychotherapists observe that disabled kids are more chatty, outgoing, supportive, and social after a hydrotherapy appointment with them. Win!
Sensory Processing Benefits
Aquatic therapy to strengthen their sensory processing skills in different ways:
- − Hydrostatic pressure
- − Proprioceptive feedback (stimulus)
- − Vestibular stimulation (balance)
Aquatic therapy not only helps enhance sensory processing for the disabled. It also supports them to advance physically and become tougher. Moving while you are underwater functions more muscles all at once than any other activity due to the heaviness of the water.
Social and Communication Benefits
Aquatic therapy decreases pressure and nervousness. It enhances the capability to focus, and it offers individuals a stronger sense of assurance. Those outcomes aren’t simply anecdotal, either. That’s because research has proven that aquatic therapy lessens unwillingness to participate in group play and it can help promote imaginative processes.
The calming and soothing properties of hydrotherapy can last beyond the time spent in the session itself. Psychologists have distinguished a reduction in apprehension, and difficult actions after individuals with ASD have been in the water.
They also noticed enhanced temperaments, improved confidence, and body image together with an affinity towards signs of progress in self-regulation and better impulse control.
What’s more, the pool atmosphere can be exceptionally stabilizing. It enables children the independence they might not have when they are in a wheelchair or on land. They can move and play just like anybody else while they are in the water. That is an extra psychological benefit for the majority of students with special needs.
Hydrotherapy and Treating Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy
Water therapy in a swimming pool has long delivered a harmless, measured atmosphere for low-impact physical movement. People with conditions such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and cerebral palsy, among others, can improve muscle tone and agility while decreasing rigidity.
Hydrotherapy utilizes water-based exercises to enhance the overall welling and physical functions of a person. Medical specialists have extensively acknowledged this therapy technique as a valued cure option for both children and adults who are suffering from cerebral palsy.
Bear in mind that it’s the buoyancy of the water that makes it simpler for these patients to move more successfully and safely. Hydrotherapy can help progress the mental and physical health of cerebral palsy patients, especially when done under the management and control of a qualified therapist.
Water Therapy
Water therapy is very possibly the ideal path of treatment for many people. As you can see, there are definite advantages to using hydrotherapy. To learn more about Ameri-Dome, please feel free to call us today. 800-982-6966
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