What is aquatic physical therapy exactly?

Water-based exercise: Aqua therapy is an exercise program performed in water. There are many benefits of aqua therapy - buoyancy of the water helps to decrease the weight bearing stresses to the joints. This may benefit patients with arthritis, recovering from an injury such as fracture or muscle strain, or patients who are overweight. Exercises can also use the water resistance for muscle strengthening.

Pool therapy: Aquatic therapy combines the advantages of buoyancy from being in the water with standard physical therapy principles used on "dry land." water also gives the additional benefit of providing a graduated resistance to movement, whereby the more force applied to move through the water, the more resistance felt by the patient doing the moving.