AlterG Anti Gravity Treadmill
Change the way patients can recover mobility, maintain health, and enhance physical performance with the AlterG® Anti-Gravity Treadmill™. Our recovery gym in 7DMC is equipped with the latest AletrG Anti-Gravity Treadmill which helps in defy the effects of gravity, enhances freedom of movement, and redefines what’s possible in rehab and training.
The AlterG® treadmill provides patients with a unique rehabilitation and training experience. Using NASA-developed Differential Air Pressure (DAP), our physical therapists can adjust the AlterG® treadmill to apply gentle lifting forces using air pressure to unweight patients to as little as 20% of their body weight. This reduces the impact on healing tissues from total knee replacements, total hip replacements, and other weight-bearing conditions that can benefit from progressive weight-bearing while walking, running, or performing closed kinetic chain exercises.
Patients can now begin walking sooner to normalize gait mechanics and improve conditioning. Patients with neurological conditions can benefit from working in a safe, fall free setting on static and dynamic balance, muscular control, and strength. Athletes can continue to train pain-free without adversely affecting healing tissues.
What is AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill?
Nearly 25 years ago, Robert Whalen, a bio-mechanics researcher at the NASA Ames Research Center, invented and patented a treadmill that would allow astronauts to run in a more natural way.
Whalen designed a treadmill that would let astronauts run in a more natural way. The design, patented in 1992, encloses a treadmill and the astronaut’s lower body in an airtight chamber. Lowering the air pressure inside the chamber pushes the astronaut down, simulating gravity.
But Whalen’s idea never made it off the ground. In 2005, the technology was licensed to a company called AlterG, which appears to have coined the term “anti-gravity treadmill.” Instead of adding weight to astronauts in space, AlterG uses the technology to take the weight off of rehab patients recovering from leg and foot injuries.
How Does AlterG AntiGravity Work?
The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill uses unloading and progressive loading to achieve the aforementioned benefits. The treadmill uses air pressure to help unweight the participant. Specific shorts are worn, generally over the top of shorts or tight leggings. The patient then steps inside the chamber of the machine, similar to a large bubble, and is zipped inside. This allows the lower body to be enclosed and supported by the air pressure. Once the machine has calibrated to the individual, the body support percentage can be adjusted as desired. From there, the treadmill operates like a regular treadmill with speed adjustments for walking or running. From a clinical perspective, the sides and back of the bubble are clear to allow the therapist to observe mobility and gait mechanics for better treatment. The patient continuously maintains contact with the treadmill belt and never floats within the machine.
Check out this video where Captain Issac used our facility at our recovery gym
Who Benefits from the Alter G Anti-Gravity Treadmill?
There has been research to support the use of body assisted support systems in rehabilitation for joint pain such as arthritis, or for returning to walk after surgery or conditions like stroke.
This is because the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill can be used to restore normal walking and running mechanics while also supporting the healing tissue.
What’s more, the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill can be used to assist in recovery from fractures, stress fractures, knee or hip surgery or replacement, as well as for weight loss.
Overall, the use of this machine can help facilitate rehabilitation, improve recovery times, and optimize rehab.
The ability to continue training despite stress-related injuries such as runner’s knee or stress fractures means you can train harder and smarter in a safe environment.
Benefits of using the AlterG at 7DMC Physical Therapy:
- Lightened Load: Using “unweighting technology” to reduce a patient’s body weight by up to 80 percent, the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill helps rehab patients, athletes, seniors, and even those suffering from traumatic brain injury to exercise safely.
- Safe and Comfortable Therapy: The AlterG meets all safety requirements and delivers a comfortable experience, but’s that’s just the beginning. Unlike some gyms and fitness centers, CORA Physical Therapy clinics are welcoming, judgment-free zones. In our facilities, patients exercise with like-minded individuals, all of whom appreciate our non-intimidating, friendly environment with certified physical therapists always on hand.
- Earlier Return to Activity: The AlterG Treadmill provides patients with a painless, controlled, low-weight bearing form of exercise early in their recovery. Studies have shown that returning to activity as early as possible with the AlterG helps prevent muscle atrophy, decreases swelling, and improves patient outcomes.
What Types of Injuries Can be Treated with the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill?
According to our in-house Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Stephan Ortner and Chiropractor Dr. Jena Barnawi, some of the injuries and conditions that can be successfully treated through the use of the AlterG include:
- Achilles tendinitis
- Balance/proprioceptive issues
- Early weight-bearing for surgical recovery
- General deconditioning
- Foot pain
- Low back pain
- Obesity and weight loss
- Osteoarthritis
- Osteoporosis
- Plantar fasciitis
- Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)/Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD)
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Shin splints
- Spine fusions
- Stress fractures
- Total knee or hip arthroplasty
At 7DMC, nothing is run-of-the-mill. Not even our treadmills. Just ask us about our AlterG’s if you want to get back on your feet fast. These treadmills are only available in a few clinics across the UAE, and most of the time sports personalities from across UAE soccer train in our facility, so be sure to contact our Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation Clinic to book the AlterG in advance.
If you are looking for a demo session please book a Free E-Consultancy so we can help you understand the benefits of physical therapy and the services that our clinics offer, including access to the AlterG Treadmill.
- CATEGORIES : Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation
