How Your Pool Can Relieve Your Back Pain

Did you know that about 80 percent of adults experience low back pain at some point in their lives? And with the spread of COVID-19 keeping many workers at home at their kitchen tables instead of their usual office space, it’s likely that this already large problem will become larger. Thankfully, depending on your situation, your swimming pool may be able to provide some relief.

About Water Therapy Exercise

Sometimes referred to as aquatic therapy, water therapy exercise has many benefits you just can’t find on land. These advantages include the following:

• Buoyancy: the ability of water to counteract gravity, making you feel lighter when you are submerged. This relieves downward pressure on your back and joints, reducing the pain you might feel during normal exercise.

• Dynamic resistance: water provides gentle resistance as you move through it, building strength while reducing the risk of further injury.

• Hydrostatic pressure: the pressure that is exerted by the water on your body, which is known to improve heart and lung function, aid in improving muscle blood flow, and decrease inflammation.

All of these characteristics work together to make the pool a perfect place to workout for people with back injuries. If doing exercises on land is too painful at first, then starting in the pool is often the best solution.

How to Exercise in the Water

Thankfully, even if you are stuck at home, it’s as easy as ever to find what you need to get started. Veritas Health has a list of pool therapy exercises that you can do on their site spinehealth.com. There are also some well-done videos from Activ Chiropractic on YouTube that walk you through exercises both with and without a float.

Even if you don’t experience a lot of back pain in your everyday life, the pool is still a great place to get active. If you’re tired of being cooped up in your house, now’s the time to go outside and get moving! And if you don’t have a pool of your own yet, we’d love to help. You can reach out to us at any time for a free estimate here.