In1911, Charles Leroy Lowman, the founder of orthopedic Hospital in Los Angeles, began using therapeutic tubs to treat spastic patients and those with cerebral palsy after a visit to the Spaulding school for gripping children in Chicago, where he observed paralyzed patients exercising in a wooden tank.

In 1924, Charles Leroy Hubbard developed his tank with warm springs in Georgia. At Hot springs, Arkansas, a warm swimming pool was installed for special underwater physical therapy exercises and pool therapy treatments with chronic arthritis patients.

Dr. Charles Leroy Lowman published his Technique of Underwater Gymnastics in 1937. He detailed the aquatic therapy methods for specific underwater exercises that “carefully regulated dosage, Character, frequency, and duration for remedying , bodily and restoring muscle functions.

During the 1950s, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis supported he corrective swimming pools, and hydro gymnastics of Charles L. Lowman and the therapeutic use of pools and tanks for the treatment of poliomyelitis.

In 1962, Dr. Sidney Licht and a group of physiatrists organized the American Society of Medical Hydrology and climatology, which historically met at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.