Treatment on the underwater treadmill is a successful therapeutic application to treat disorders of the musculoskeletal system caused by illness, injury, or obesity. It helps to mobilize gently and effectively and to relieve pain.
Training on the water treadmill is based on the principle that a body experiences buoyancy in water.
The weight acting on the musculoskeletal system can be reduced in this way. At the same time, the water offers a certain resistance to the moving body. This way, the joints and skeleton of the sick dog are not overstrained. At the same time, the muscles are built up gently and effectively by moving against the water resistance. The body perception is improved, the cardiovascular system and metabolism are stimulated, and helps the body to gain more strength and joy of movement.
Muscle building plays an important role in physiotherapy, because a healthy muscular system gives the animal and, above all, every joint the right support and protection. That’s why it’s important to think about not only giving the animal a loving home when it’s a puppy but also a balanced and healthy diet and enough exercise.
But especially in the case of the four-legged friends with orthopedic deficits and illnesses, a healthy muscle build-up must be ensured. When the animal has movement problems (e.g. pain), it adopts a relieving posture, which causes the affected limb to lose muscle and the healthy limbs to be overloaded as a result. This overload leads to what is known as hard muscle tension, ie hardening of the muscles in the affected region.
Targeted muscle training builds up even and healthy muscles again. This is possible with the help of some devices. Training in a training course not only leads to the development of muscles but is also important for the coordination and perception of one’s body feeling (proprioceptive training). Especially after a long relieving posture, gait training should restore and stabilize a physiological movement sequence and the movement load.