Hydrotherapy
A water therapy with spa treatments
Hydrotherapy uses water in a variety of ways and methods to provide relief for a wide variety of conditions. Water is used in all its forms, whether liquid with pressure as water massage or hot as steam for steam treatments. Hydrotherapy offers you many opportunities for relaxation.
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Hydrotherapy: Healing water therapy
Are you interested in hydrotherapy, a spa holiday with this therapy or are you simply wondering what it is? Then you’ve come to the right place! On this page you will find all the important information about water therapy: where it originates, how it works, the types of hydrotherapy treatments and of course, where you can enjoy it for yourself.
Definition: What is hydrotherapy?
The word “hydro” comes from Greek and means water. “Therapy” is also Greek and means treatment. Hydrotherapy therefore means “treatment via water”. For this reason, it is also sometimes called “water therapy” or “spa treatments with water”.
Using different temperatures and pressures, the water is used for pain relief, treatment of various health issues and, of course, relaxation. Treatments include things like water jets, underwater massage, thermal mineral water baths, spa baths, hot tubs and cold plunges as well as hydrotherapy physiotherapy (exercises in pools directed by a physiotherapist). These treatments are often part of health packages at specific spa hotels, which you will learn more about below.
Amongst all the healing spa therapies, water therapy is one of the broadest categories. It involves all therapies that primarily use water to improve the health and is effectively the grandmother of therapies like thermotherapy, thalassotherapy, Kneipp therapy, aquatic therapy and many more involving water. Perhaps your brow is furrowed as you ask yourself: “the grandmother?” You read correctly - between water therapy and her “grandchildren” there is also balneotherapy, the healing treatment with baths.
Hydrotherapy benefits: What is it used to treat?
The benefits of hydrotherapy are numerous. As well as improving general health and well-being and of course, relaxation, it is particularly good for improving a number of health conditions, such as:
- Arthritis
- Back pain
- Rehabilitation after surgery
- Rehabilitation after sports injuries
- Ankylosing spondylitis
- Psoriatic arthritis
- Osteoarthritis
- Fibromyalgia
If you are curious about this water therapy as a way of helping a specific illness, one of the nicest aspects of doing it in a spa hotel is that you are never simply a patient – instead you are a welcome guest, made to feel relaxed and at home.
What are the types pf hydrotherapy treatments?
A hydrotherapy program takes place in a health hotel or a spa hotel. It is a hotel stay with healing treatments. These are either already fixed in advance (program description) or are tailored to you personally on site by the spa doctor. In this case you will find programs with descriptions such as "24 treatments prescribed by the doctor".
The hydrotherapy treatments are all beneficial treatments in which water is used. Thereby there is a large variety, which we would like to introduce to you briefly here:
In addition to baths, hydrotherapy programs also include many affusions. The affusions that are most often done are on the feet, the legs and the arms. Usually they are so-called alternating affusions, first with warm/hot water and then with cold water. If you are shivering now, we can reassure you. It is incredibly pleasant to dip your feet into cold water for 10 seconds after 5 minutes with hot water. Everything tingles and you feel like you have much more feeling in your toes.
This is a type of physiotherapy that takes place in water. Heated pools are used for rehabilitation of muscles after surgery, sport related injuries or illnesses like arthritis. You will be instructed by a physiotherapist to complete certain exercises in the water, sometimes even with a harness. People often prefer aquatic therapy to normal physiotherapy as the warm water enables muscles to regenerate and the joints to align without much strain.
Water is also used in steam treatments. Along with the classic steam rooms there are also inhalation therapies, often using mineral or seawater. In steam form, the healing water is breathed in and in this way releases its beneficial effects.
These are massages “underwater” and “with water”. The guest lies relaxed in a bathtub, with the whole body (except head) submerged under water. You are massaged with a kind of hose out of which a strong water jet comes. The combination of the general water pressure from the bath and the increased pressure from the jet is very beneficial, especially or the lymph nodes and connective tissues.
Of course, therapeutic washes are not just about cleaning up a dirty spa guest... Washes can either be done by yourself or by a therapist, usually invovling a sponge or cloth as well as water to clean and stimulate the skin through rubbing. It can sometimes feel like a pleasant massage. Washes are often part of Kneipp therapy.
The internal use of water as part of mineral water drinking therapy can have health benefits. This is usually thanks to the mineral composition of the water used. Many thermal and healing waters are also unbelievably beneficial when they are drank slowly, in small sips. Depending on the health resort, you can also buy your own porcelain drinking mugs, which are a perfect holiday souvenir.
This includes all sorts of baths from typical bathtubs to hydrotherapy pools. This also includes full-baths, where the body is completely under water, and partial baths, such as foot baths, where only a part of the body is underwater. Whether the water is thermal spring water, seawater, cold mineral spring water or normal tap water with bath herbs or oils added, it doesn’t matter at first - the most important thing is that you are in water! Even mud baths fall into the category of water therapy, as the mud is diluted with water.
You can expect these programs
Many spa towns and health spa hotels in Europe are specialized in water therapy. However, these programs usually have different names, depending on the region and the specific treatments to that region. In Italy you will find that it is called Fango therapy, which basically means a combination of thermal water treatments and thermal mud treatments. In Hungary and the Czech Republic hydrotherapy is often referred to as thermotherapy instead, as they combine treatments using hot spring water with hot massages and other heat treatments. The spa package name Complex Healing is also common in these countries and it means a health spa program with water therapy treatments in combination with other healing spa therapies as recommended by the spa doctor. In all coastal regions, hydrotherapy is referred to as thalassotherapy, as the water used in treatments is seawater. There is also the large category of Kneipp therapy, which today perhaps use the most water treatments overall, including many hot-and-cold alternating water jets.
As you can see, when it comes to choosing your water therapy package, it all depends on you and what treatments or water type you would like. On the individual pages of the spa therapy programs you can learn more and pick out your favorite hydrotherapy spa package. And if you can’t decide, don’t worry – try the different treatments out one by one: they are all good for you, improve your health and are a great deal of fun.
FAQ - Hydrotherapy
Below on this page you will find our top sellers among hydrotherapy programs. You can be inspired by these for the time being. Via the green button "All hydrotherapy programs" (under the first programs) you will get to our hydrotherapy search, there you can take a closer look at the great variety of our offers and narrow it down further by individually selectable filters, until you end up with the perfect offer for you.
If you are overwhelmed by the wide range of hydrotherapy programs or hydrotherapy centers and prefer personal contact and individual advice, then contact our booking experts either by phone, or by email, or through one of our inquiry forms on the hotel pages. Together we will quickly find your dream vacation with hydrotherapy!
The best offer is the one that perfectly suits your needs.
The following are our best rated therapy hotels:
- Das Ortner´s Resort - Rating: 5.0
- Hotel NEPTUN & SPA - Rating: 4.8
- Lotus Therme Hotel & Spa - Rating: 4.8
- Ermitage Bel Air Medical Hotel - Rating: 4.8
- Hotel Terme Quisisana - Rating: 4.8
- Terme Zrece - Hotel Vital - Rating: 4.8
- Ayurveda Resort Mandira - Rating: 4.8
- Kurzentrum Bad Weißenstadt am See - Rating: 4.7
- Thermen-Hotel Apollo - Rating: 4.7
- Hotel Elbresidenz an der Therme - Rating: 4.7
There is a wide and varied choice of treatments within hydrotherapy. To help you choose, we recommend that you read through the programs and select the countries according to what they offer.