Benefits of a Treadmill Pool

Whether it’s to ease joint pain or achieve a more challenging workout, many boomers and professional athletes are turning to pools with treadmills. These high-tech swimming pools offer adjustable speed and water current, and can be pre-programmed for specific workout routines.

The natural buoyancy of the water supports body weight, with less stress on joints. This allows users to walk, jog or run at their desired pace, and add the swim current for increased resistance against core, leg and upper-body muscles.

Low-Impact Running and Walking Options

Whether you’re walking, jogging, or running, the natural buoyancy of water reduces the impact on your joints and provides a low-impact workout. For patients with knee, hip or back pain, this means exercise can be safely performed without exacerbating injury or discomfort.

Our hydraulically powered underwater treadmill lets you vary the speed from gentle walking to invigorating run, while also offering a variety of core conditioning exercises. You can even turn on the swim current for increased resistance that works the same muscles as running on a traditional land treadmill.

Running and walking in the treadmill pool can be modified to suit your fitness level, and you can also perform other strength-building exercises such as squats and lunges, to improve balance and strength. The water’s resistance also increases your breathing rate, which gives you a better cardio workout and burns more calories.

Those undergoing rehabilitation can use the treadmill in a controlled water depth that gradually introduces weight bearing to prevent further injury. This allows them to get the exercise they need in a supportive and therapeutic environment, and speeds up recovery from lower-body injuries such as sprains and broken bones. Our treadmill pool is popular at elite sports medicine facilities, physical therapy clinics and senior-living communities. It’s also a favorite at home for people with arthritis or joint pain, as it offers an effective and enjoyable way to exercise.

Zero Gravity Gait Training

For runners dealing with injury, or those who want to increase their training volume without the risk of re-injury, the zero gravity AlterG anti-gravity treadmill is a valuable tool. Developed by NASA, the AlterG uses a pressurized air chamber to simulate some of the weight treadmill pool of gravity. This allows patients and athletes to participate in walking or running workouts while reducing their body weight by as much as 40%.

The device has been shown to reduce fall risks in stroke patients, improve locomotor function and physical fitness, decrease spasticity, increase balance and bone density, and provide a faster return to overground running. A recent study found that patients who trained on the AlterG treadmill showed significant improvement in the TUG test, a measure of functional gait speed.

In addition to the AlterG, our treadmill pool also has a Lever Runner system that allows clients to exercise with partial body weight support. This is a similar design to the AlterG, but instead of using a pressurized air chamber, it utilizes a skeleton frame and an elastic cord. During the session, the runner wears a pair of neoprene shorts that connect to a nylon pulley on each side of the machine. The cord runs through the skeleton frame and then feeds into two more pulleys connected to the back of the treadmill.

Increased Mobility

For patients with balance issues and those recovering from an injury that limits movement on land, a treadmill pool can help them build up their strength in a safe environment. With their treadmill pool adjustable speed, water resistance and hydrostatic pressure, these underwater treadmills can allow patients to gradually reintroduce impact exercise at the level that is right for them, without aggravating their injury or increasing pain.

Physical therapists and trainers alike rely on the anti-gravity treadmill pools to offer patients a unique rehabilitation experience. In fact, a study of OA patients in their mid-sixties found that walking in a therapeutic water environment was more effective than other exercise methods at improving their knee and hip flexibility, range of motion and strength.

Athletes and professional athletes are gravitating toward this technology for its benefits in weight loss, rehab and training. Many of them use the treadmills to increase the frequency and intensity of their workouts while reducing the joint stress they would be accumulating on land.

The versatility of the treadmills also makes it easy to build a variety of workouts into one session, from walking and jogging at different paces to performing exercises like lunges and squats that provide additional strength building benefits. In addition, the resistance provided by the water can add an extra challenge to your workout and help you burn more calories.

Reduced Joint Pain

Getting exercise on land can put stress on joints, but walking or running in a treadmill pool eliminates this strain. The buoyancy of the water reduces joint impact by 80%, making even a 200-pound person feel as if they’re floating with each step. And the warmth of the water soothes sore muscles and joints.

In fact, a study of 71 OA-afflicted sexagenarians found that after six weeks of aquatic workouts, 72 percent reported reduced pain and 75 percent experienced less stiffness. This positive effect was attributed to the increase in strength in their legs, hips, and back as well as the confidence gained from water fitness that translated to improved on-land activity.

Walking on a treadmill in warm, supportive water has also been shown to decrease the knee pain of people with osteoarthritis. Specifically, walking on the underwater treadmill decreases the force from the ground that travels up through the knee (the so-called ground reaction force). This reduction in joint load leads to a more normal gait pattern and improved balance and decreased risk for falls.

In addition to reducing joint pain, swimming or walking on the treadmill in warm water can burn up to 700 calories an hour! This makes a treadmill pool an ideal choice for individuals who want to boost their cardio endurance but have difficulty or cannot exercise on land.