Pool Workouts for Competitive Athletes
As much as any competitive athlete hopes to avoid injury, it’s a common risk in the sports industry. Aquatic therapy provides numerous benefits for anyone looking to prevent or recover from injury. In many ways, it’s an essential aspect of sports medicine.
Using Hydrotherapy to Recover From Athletic Injury
A HydroWorx pool is a supplemental training routine option while recovering from injuries or muscle strains. During pool training for injured and recovering athletes, water’s buoyancy lets you continue running on the underwater treadmill or performing strength-building exercises against resistance jets. Thus, aquatic therapy enables you to maintain your fitness level even when you are injured or your muscles are fatigued.
After an intense workout, enjoy a deep penetrating massage. Deep massages decrease lactic acid build-up in overworked muscles, making them a great feature for overall pain management and recovery enhancement.
Benefits of Aquatic Therapy for Overuse or Athletic Injuries:
Pool workouts after an athletic injury are a clinically proven, important part of the recovery process that helps provide:
- Increased mobility and strength: Research shows that aquatic treadmill training enhances strength and lean muscle mass. In contrast, land treadmill training fails to increase lean body mass. Part of the reason for increased strength and lean muscle mass with underwater running is the resistance that water provides. In this way, underwater running is a form of resistance training. Underwater running also increases mobility, both for injury recovery and performance enhancement.
- Maintaining fitness levels: Besides increased mobility and strength, aquatic therapy and underwater treadmill training also improve metabolic and cardiorespiratory function. Due to the resistance water provides, aquatic therapy increases energy expenditure by 30%-56% compared with land-based exercise. As such, underwater treadmill training optimizes metabolic function. Likewise, underwater treadmill training elicits peak cardiorespiratory responses without maximal exertion.
- Decreasing swelling: Research also shows that aquatic exercise reduces joint effusion. In contrast, land-based exercise can increase swelling due to its high-impact potential. As a result, aquatic therapy is an ideal exercise option for individuals recovering from a torn ACL or similar injuries where swelling and effusion are a distinct concern.
- Pain relief: Aquatic therapy can relieve pain in several ways. Warm, water-based exercise reduces inflammation, soothes tight muscles and makes the body more buoyant.
- Removes weight from joints and bones: Whether you’re dealing with excess weight or are recovering from a significant injury or procedure, aquatic therapy provides an ideal exercise environment. As water increases your body’s buoyancy, it reduces the load your body places on your joints and bones. The reduced load has several benefits — it makes you lighter on your feet, relieves joint pain and helps you exercise with fewer injury concerns and risks.
Enhance Your Performance With HydroWorx Pools
HydroWorx has provided innovative workout solutions to professional athletic organizations for over 20 years, including the Philadelphia Flyers and Chelsea Football Club. Our underwater treadmills and adjustable-depth pools are ideal for any athlete recovering from an injury or looking to enhance their performance.
If you’d like to learn more about how HydroWorx can help you optimize your athletic performance, contact us today!
