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By Land or By Sea
Lynda Huey combines aquatic and land therapy for total body fitness
by Jeffrey Still
Published in the June/July, 1997 issue of Rehab Management magazine.
In the summertime, everybody wants to cool off in the pool. but in Southern California, fitness seekers and those recovering from injuries are doing more than just relaxing and getting a tan -- they're getting a workout and regaining function with one of aquatic therapies leading proponents, Lynda Huey, MS.
Her goal is simple: "I want to see patients get in shape and move better when they leave than when they came in." With her determination, energy, and love of fitness, Lynda Huey definitely wins a gold medal for promoting aquatic therapy.
A former world-ranked track star and coach, Huey has spent most of her life around those who love sports and competition. "I didn't anticipant working with injured people, but because I worked with injured Olympic athletes and other high-profile athletes, the recreational athletes want what the pros have, then the general fitness population wants it, then the people who are injured want it too." She says her unique program aims to do more than just temporarily heal a patient.
After her own foot injury, Huey began studying aquatic therapy and realized she could continue to exercise in the pool, even though she was unable to perform weight-bearing exercise on land. She then began working with athletes like Wilt Chamberlain, Bo Jackson, and Florence Griffith Joyner. Since opening her fitness business Huey's Athletic Network in Santa Monica in 1983 and CompletePT in Los Angeles in 1993, Huey has written several books on the subject, including The Complete Waterpower Workout Book (1993, Random House).
Her partner at CompletePT, John Koegel, P.T., operates his private clinic in Beverly Hills, California, specializing in the land-based portion of sports and orthopedic rehabilitation.
The Whole Person
Both Huey and Koegel are concerned with wellness, so they take a holistic approach to treating their patients. Reconditioning is the first important step, whether it is a workers' compensation patient, a child, or a senior with rheumatoid arthritis. They have found a combination of land-based and aquatic therapy more effective than standard therapy. "The first thing you must do is bring the patients back to a conditioned level to improve their quality of life," Koegel says. "That's the problem with modalities – they don't improve the quality of life. But reconditioning and mobilization and strength-building will decrease pain and improve quality of life. When aquatics are combined with land therapy, we can treat patients in a more holistic way.
For Koegel, aquatics has offered a way to provide functional restoration of strength. "When we get them in the water, they can walk, run, bend, push, lift, and pull. They're doing functional things, and being strengthened in their skills."
Huey and Koegel's basic philosophy is to get the whole body in shape, which will help the injury heal faster. They use a three-pronged approach that incorporates a total body fitness component, specific rehab exercises at the injury site, and the correction of body mechanics.
From her days as a coach, Huey is a stickler about proper form. "I saw how dropping a knee in a hurdle race caused an athlete to fall and cost her the gold medal," she says. "I don't like to see one foot turned out, or one shoulder up, one down. I want to see symmetry in all movements and the body balanced in strength front to back and side to side."
Huey thinks her program is successful and popular because it offers people an alternative fitness tool. "Maybe our patients can't run because of a bad knee or bad hip. We offer them a way to satisfying their workout craving -- a safe way to stay in shape -- and we teach them ways not to exacerbate their injuries."
Physicians continue to refer failed backs (patients whose pain has continued despite back surgery) because "at the very least, the patient will enjoy the program, get stronger, and become more functional even if the pain continues." Huey finds that many really enjoy the social scene and the fun of being in the water. "There's a real sense of camaraderie at the pool because there might be three of us (therapists) there and maybe six patients in the pool. It's like going to the gym, hanging out with friends."
Come on in, the Water's Fine
From her 14 years in the water, Huey has quite a few tips for those looking to start or refine an aquatics program. First and foremost, she strongly recommends deep water -- either building a pool with an adequate deep end (6.5 feet deep) or renting a lane at a local pool that has both deep and shallow ends. "So many people settle for a shallow pool," she says. "You're giving up three quarters of what you can do with a patient if you don't have deep water. You can't completely unload the body from gravity, have no weightbearing, unless you have deep water." As the rehabilitation progresses and the injury heals, patients progress toward the shallow end. Decreasing water depth increases weight bearing and facilitates transition to land exercise.
When scheduling time with patients, Huey insisted on longer sessions than the typical 30-minute physical therapy time frame. "I was used to working out athletes for 1 1/2 hours -- that's how long it takes," she says. "you just can't do total body fitness in a half-hour; all you can do is address the injury. We now spend 45 minutes to an hour with each patient."
Huey's latest book Heal Your Hips with orthopedic surgeon Robert Klapper M.D., was published in May, 1999 by John Wiley & Sons. Klapper has been a huge supporter of Huey's work, sending literally hundreds of his patients to the pool.
For a devoted trainer, athlete, and coach like Huey, achieving total body fitness should be everyone's ultimate goal, injured or not. "I really like to see people in shape," she says. "I love to see their happiness when people will say, 'You know, that car accident was a blessing in disguise. I'm in the best shape of my life; I've learned to exercise in water, and I'm going to have this for the rest of my life.