Man enjoying water therapy in his Hot Spring hot tub.

Warm Water Therapy Leg Excercises to Help Relieve Knee Pain

Almost all of us have suffered from knee pain at some point. Injury-related and arthritis-knee pain are two of the most common joint problems. Of course, some spend too much time walking on hard floors, and knee joints ache from stress. Because of the impact, your knees absorb more than your weight in pressure for every step you take. 

The message is clear – we’ve got to care for our knees to keep them strong and flexible. Strengthening and relaxing knee joints with warm water therapy is a natural and effective treatment.

Turn Your Hot Tub into an Exercise Spa

The Arthritis Foundation states that warm water therapy offers the most well-tested and enjoyable treatment for knee pain. Water therapy allows you to enjoy immediate relief from knee pain and long-term protection from future injuries. 

These simple water exercises won’t require much time or special equipment. Even better, when you perform leg exercises in warm water, it will feel more like relaxation than a workout – that’s a win-win! 

Before You Begin

We suggest giving yourself time to relax and get used to the temperature after you get in the water. Set the temperature in your hot tub to less than 90º so that the water feels warm but isn’t hot. If you’re struggling to get the temperature to the right level, we can help. Once you start moving around, it’s easy to get overheated in hotter water, particularly for older folks. So keep the water warm enough to soothe you but not stew you.

Also, getting dehydrated on a hot day in warm water is possible. Since you may not realize that you’re perspiring, dehydration in your spa may be a more significant risk than walking around outside. We suggest grabbing a water bottle to sip between each round of exercises. By the time you feel thirsty, you’re already more dehydrated than you should be.

It should take no more than 15 minutes a session to get good results from warm water therapy:

Ankle Rolls

From a sitting position, extend one leg at a time and roll your foot around on your ankle. This movement helps relax and invigorate the calf muscles that attach to your knees and gets your blood circulating. 

Do five to ten ankle rolls in each direction with each foot. As an added benefit, ankle rolls usually help relieve sore feet.

Raise Your Knee Towards Your Chest

Now it’s time to start delivering strength and flexibility to your knees. 

Begin from the same sitting position with both feet on the bottom of your hot tub. Slowly raise one knee at a time towards your upper body. You can use your arms to help support your leg by placing them under your upper leg. 

Don’t strain yourself or think you need to get your knee to your chest for this exercise to work. The weight of your lower leg will help strengthen and stretch your knee muscles and ligaments. You should find that the movement gets progressively easier after you repeat it over a few days.

Leg Swings

For this standing exercise, you should brace yourself with one hand against the side of your spa. Plant both feet to stand sideways to the pool wall, allowing you to swing your legs. Begin by loosely swinging one leg at a time. Your knee should normally flex slightly with the motion. 

Once you’re comfortable with this easy motion, you might try to bend your knee more forcefully on both the forward and backward movements.

Water Walking

This is the easiest exercise for warm water therapy. Simply walk around your hot tub. Water pressure and your natural buoyancy will help strengthen your muscles, but you won’t even feel like you are exercising. In fact, this exercise might seem so effortless that you may have to take care not to overdo it.

Take Time to Relax After Your Warm Water Therapy

Leg exercises in warm water may seem so easy that you probably won’t realize how much good you have done for yourself. At the same time, just 15 to 20 minutes of therapy should increase your circulation and improve your range of motion and joint strength. 

As with any workout, you should relax and cool off naturally by moving as you sit or stand in the hot tub.

People often think of hot tubs as luxury items. Unfortunately, many are unaware of the health benefits of owning a hot tub. 

If you don’t have a hot tub, now is the perfect time to invest in one. You can enjoy the warm water for social activities, relaxation, and even the chance to relieve pain and improve your health. 

Set an appointment with our friendly sales team to let us know what you have in mind for the perfect home spa, and we’ll work to exceed your expectations!

Take our perfect hot tub quiz on our home page or call our store at (903) 561-7565 to jump-start your search for the best spa for your East Texas home!

Happy hot tubbing, friends!


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