Hydrotherapy

What is hydrotherapy? How can it help me?

Hydrotherapy involves specific exercises prescribed by our qualified hydrotherapy trained physiotherapists for your condition. Our mineral pool temperature is kept around 34 – 36 degrees celsius, which is warmer than the usual swimming pool.

On the side note, hydrotherapy exercises are different to aqua-aerobics, which can be high intensity. Hydrotherapy exercises are targeted on your condition and focusing on controlled movements and relaxation.

It has been shown that Hydrotherapy is beneficial for many joint pain conditions.

Just to name a few: arthritis, sciatic pains, lower back pain, neck pains, shoulder pains, elbow pains, wrist pains, hip pains, knee pains, and ankle pains. It can be useful for joint replacement surgery, osteoarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, and psoriatic arthritis. It is also good for relaxing tensions in your tight muscles and promote regulation of your nervous system.

How does Hydrotherapy work?

The warm mineral water in our hydrotherapy pool works in a few ways to help your condition(s).

The warm water kept at 34-36 degrees celsius makes your muscles relax and decreases the tension. It can relief your pain and allow for you to do exercises.
The water buoyancy helps to support your body weight. It offers unloading of your joints and decreases your pain.
In the water, there are resistance towards your movements and it is utilised to promote strengthening of your muscles.
The hydrostatic pressure in the warm water helps to reduce and improve on post-injury swelling. This allow for safe exercises and rehabilitation without causing excessive swelling.

“What to expect from our hydrotherapy sessions?”

Prior to commencement of your hydrotherapy sessions, our physiotherapist need to assess you on-land to ascertain your condition and level of tolerance. This is for exercise prescription purposes.

Our hydrotherapy sessions run for 45 minutes per session. These may have a few patients in the pool with you. However, your exercises will be tailored specifically to your condition, and guided one-on-one by a qualified hydrotherapy trained physiotherapist.

You need to bring along :

a swim wear / set of dry clothes
your own towel
a bottle of water

“I can’t swim, can I still come for hydrotherapy?”

Definitely, yes! You do not need to swim to do hydrotherapy.

We do exercises in the hydrotherapy pool, but not swimming. We will have you at the shallower end of the pool to build your control and water confidence in order to guide you along.

“I feel the exercises in the water is too easy for me.”

That is a common feeling about exercising in warm water. Because the properties of the warm water has taken most of your pain away, everything seems to be normal again.

It will feel easier to do the movements that affected you on land.

Be careful not to overdo them! You may feel that everything (exercises) seems easy. However, it is very normal to feel (extra) tired after the session. Hydrate lots before and after the session, and have plenty of rest after the session is the way to go.

“How can I access your hydrotherapy services?”

There are several options. You may use:

Self referral
Medicare care plan (Enhanced Primary Care Program) – subjected to your eligibility / referral from the GP.
My aged care package (please contact us for details)
NDIS (please contact us for details)
Work-cover (approval letter required)
TAC (approval letter required)