How It Works

The buoyancy of water reduces body weight by 90 percent, reducing the stress on joints, muscles and bone from compressive, vibrational and torsional forces. By eliminating some of the stress on the body, training in water daily dramatically reduce their risk of training injury.

According to David Brennan, an aqua running expert and assistant clinical professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, the land runner’s foot strikes the ground between 800 and 2,000 times per mile, each time at a force of up to four times the runner’s body weight. The knees, ankles and back take the brunt of this pounding; however, in water, the joints and skeleton are cushioned. You can work as hard and as fast as you want in water without impact-related problems, making aquatic therapy an optimal choice for Tennis players who are looking to recover from a long match and are injury-prone or already injured.

Marv Marinovich of Marinovich Training is another advocate of aquatic training. He explains that aquatic workouts allow water to support an athlete’s body and stimulate the nervous system to overcome compensations when dealing with an injury. The injured limb can travel comfortably and safely through a wider range of motion, thus removing scar tissue and regenerating a muscle’s connection to the nervous system. A recent study even found that this type of training may help reduce the symptoms of fibromyalgia, a chronic condition characterized by fatigue, tender points and widespread pain in the muscles, ligaments and tendons.