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Anti-Gravity Treadmills Offer Effective Physical Therapy: NASA Inspiration Also New Training Tool For Pro-Athletes
Anti-gravity treadmills are the latest tool in physical therapy and have been found effective in rehabilitating patients post-surgery. AlterG, screen capture
The goal of rehabilitation therapy, according to the NYU Langone Medical Center, is to restore function of the involved joint or muscle so that patients can perform functional activities in accordance with their individual goals. New research in the field of rehabilitation has recently begun to explore the anti-gravity treadmill as a new tool for achieving positive patient outcomes. So far, all signs point forward.
What Is An Anti-Gravity Treadmill?
AlterG bills itself as “the next stride in physical therapy and athletic training,” yet the anti-gravity treadmill is not a new idea by any means. Originally conceived over 20 years ago, Dr. Robert Whalen and Dr. Alan Hargens developed the idea while designing an effective exercise program for use on the space station by NASA’s astronauts. NASA had found by studying astronauts returning from space that bone loss and muscle deterioration were a consequence of lack of gravity. To mimic the feeling of gravity, Whalen and Hargens used Differential Air Pressure (DAP) technology to create a machine that sucked air out of a chamber in which the runner exercises.
The AlterG treadmill essentially does the reverse and pumps air into a chamber to counteract gravity. In this way, DAP technology “unweights” a user and so reduces the impact of walking or running on both muscles and joints. In practical terms, while on the AlterG, a patient weighs less so that stress and impact are significantly reduced during exercise. In turn, this experience of carrying less load enables patients to maintain their natural gait while rehabilitating and may even speed the process of therapy.
In Guidelines for Using the AlterG: Patients with Orthopedic Problems, the chief medical officer and clinical specialist of AlterG, Inc. explain how “unweighting an individual to the appropriate loads” may:
Does It Work?
In one study published earlier this year, researchers examined anti-gravity or “lower body positive pressure” (LBPP) treadmills to understand if they have the potential to enhance recovery following lower limb surgery. Through an extensive experiment that involved implanting custom electronic tibial prostheses to measure forces in the knee in subjects, the researchers monitored tibiofemoral forces while subjects exercised on a treadmill at certain speeds, inclines, and pressure settings (that reduced body weight up to 25 percent).
What did the team decide? After making a series of adjustments in speed, incline, and pressure setting for each of the subjects, the researchers determined that the anti-gravity treadmill “allows for more precisely achieving the target knee forces desired during early rehabilitation.” The anti-gravity treadmill, then, “might be an effective tool in the rehabilitation of patients following lower-extremity surgery,” the authors wrote in their study.
Sports therapists as well as sports trainers have already incorporated anti-gravity into their sessions. There’s an Instagram photo of Kobe Bryant running on an AlterG and tweets of Eddy Lacy (Green Bay Packers) and Barrett Jones (St. Louis Rams) following suit. Since American professional athletes probably have the most expensive, if not the best, sports programs in the world, you can bet that anti-gravity treadmills must be living up to their claims of offering 'remarkable' recovery times.
Reason alone suggests the anti-gravity treadmill, with its ability to progressively re-introduce weight as an injured patient exercises, is an excellent tool for rehabilitation. Although very few studies have been conducted so far, only positive comments have been made and meanwhile therapists and researchers continue to study the impact on real patients. If nothing else, anti-gravity treadmills sound like the next wave in gym exercising.
Running with a lot less impact on my knees? Sign me up!
Source: Patil S, Steklov N, Bugbee WD, et al. Anti-gravity treadmills are effective in reducing knee forces. Journal of Orthopedic Research. 2013.
Anti-Gravity Treadmills Offer Effective Physical Therapy: NASA Inspiration Also New Training Tool For Pro-Athletes
Lightening the Load of Recovery
A unique treadmill—invented by a NASA scientist—supports people trying to get back on their feet
Ask the Denver attorney who whose legs were smashed in a car accident. Ask the veterans rehabilitating from injuries sustained while defending the Nation. Ask NBA star Blake Griffin, or NFL safety Jim Leonhard, both who endured leg injuries playing their sports. Ask U.S. soccer pro Charlie Davies, who returned to the field only a month after suffering life-threatening trauma in a car crash.
All will tell you about the benefits of NASA-derived technology.
Each of these people were aided in their recovery by an innovation that emerged from NASA research and now provides a lift to people around the world who suffer from mobility issues.
Developed for Astronauts, Adapted for Earth
In order to prevent bone loss and muscle atrophy, astronauts exercise on treadmills equipped with a loading harness. However, the treadmill loading harness is uncomfortable and prevents astronauts from exercising normally and with the same intensity as on Earth. While he was studying the biomechanics of exercise, Ames Research Center scientist Robert Whalen suggested using air pressure as an effective way of applying a high force, equal to body weight, to astronauts during treadmill exercise to replace the harness system.
After patenting his gravity differential technology in 1992, Whalen licensed his patent in 2005 to a private company called AlterG to help rehabilitate patients needing support as they learned (or re-learned) to stand, walk, and run. The Menlo Park, California company adapted the technology for athletic and medical uses here on Earth in the form of a specialized, “anti-gravity” treadmill. This rehabilitation device applies air pressure to a patient’s lower body in order to unload up to 80 percent of a patient’s weight, which reduces the stress placed on the body during rehabilitation.
Help for Soldiers, Athletes, and Seniors Alike
A variety of patients—whether suffering from brain injury, neurological disorders, athletic injuries, or other stresses on the joints such as arthritis or morbid obesity—now use the NASA-derived technology in physical therapy. Professional and college sports teams across the United States feature the AlterG treadmill in their training facilities. Injured soldiers walk and run with the technology’s assistance at military hospitals and rehabilitation centers. Seniors get essential exercise using the support the machine provides, as do people with bariatric weight issues who cannot normally support their own weight. The treadmill has been a proven option for neurological uses as well, including helping patients re-learn proper balance and gait and transition to independent movement after traumatic brain injury.
The success of AlterG’s NASA-derived technology has allowed the company to add 65 employees, and the anti-gravity treadmill is now used around the world.
“We have been able to have players that are recovering from injuries start to run at least a week and sometimes up to a month before they would have been able to normally,” says Bill Tillson, head athletic trainer for Italian soccer club AC Milan.
Ask U.S. soccer star Oguchi Oneywu, who recovered from a knee injury with the help of the AlterG treadmill. Ask podiatric surgeon Arnol Saxena, who believes the technology “will become the standard in rehabilitation and training.” Ask the bariatric patient in Colorado who, using the treadmill, was able to walk—for the first time in over a year.
They will likely agree: Innovation for space has a place here on Earth.
NASA - Lightening the Load of Recovery
Anti-gravity treadmills are the latest tool in physical therapy and have been found effective in rehabilitating patients post-surgery. AlterG, screen capture
The goal of rehabilitation therapy, according to the NYU Langone Medical Center, is to restore function of the involved joint or muscle so that patients can perform functional activities in accordance with their individual goals. New research in the field of rehabilitation has recently begun to explore the anti-gravity treadmill as a new tool for achieving positive patient outcomes. So far, all signs point forward.
What Is An Anti-Gravity Treadmill?
AlterG bills itself as “the next stride in physical therapy and athletic training,” yet the anti-gravity treadmill is not a new idea by any means. Originally conceived over 20 years ago, Dr. Robert Whalen and Dr. Alan Hargens developed the idea while designing an effective exercise program for use on the space station by NASA’s astronauts. NASA had found by studying astronauts returning from space that bone loss and muscle deterioration were a consequence of lack of gravity. To mimic the feeling of gravity, Whalen and Hargens used Differential Air Pressure (DAP) technology to create a machine that sucked air out of a chamber in which the runner exercises.
The AlterG treadmill essentially does the reverse and pumps air into a chamber to counteract gravity. In this way, DAP technology “unweights” a user and so reduces the impact of walking or running on both muscles and joints. In practical terms, while on the AlterG, a patient weighs less so that stress and impact are significantly reduced during exercise. In turn, this experience of carrying less load enables patients to maintain their natural gait while rehabilitating and may even speed the process of therapy.
In Guidelines for Using the AlterG: Patients with Orthopedic Problems, the chief medical officer and clinical specialist of AlterG, Inc. explain how “unweighting an individual to the appropriate loads” may:
- decrease pain and minimize swelling in the early stages of recovery
- increase hip, knee, and ankle mobility by encouraging assistive range of motion
- progressively load the lower extremities to assist with strength, endurance, and neuromuscular re-education
- increase cardiovascular and muscular endurance in the later recovery stages of recovery
- initiate weightbearing activities earlier
Does It Work?
In one study published earlier this year, researchers examined anti-gravity or “lower body positive pressure” (LBPP) treadmills to understand if they have the potential to enhance recovery following lower limb surgery. Through an extensive experiment that involved implanting custom electronic tibial prostheses to measure forces in the knee in subjects, the researchers monitored tibiofemoral forces while subjects exercised on a treadmill at certain speeds, inclines, and pressure settings (that reduced body weight up to 25 percent).
What did the team decide? After making a series of adjustments in speed, incline, and pressure setting for each of the subjects, the researchers determined that the anti-gravity treadmill “allows for more precisely achieving the target knee forces desired during early rehabilitation.” The anti-gravity treadmill, then, “might be an effective tool in the rehabilitation of patients following lower-extremity surgery,” the authors wrote in their study.
Sports therapists as well as sports trainers have already incorporated anti-gravity into their sessions. There’s an Instagram photo of Kobe Bryant running on an AlterG and tweets of Eddy Lacy (Green Bay Packers) and Barrett Jones (St. Louis Rams) following suit. Since American professional athletes probably have the most expensive, if not the best, sports programs in the world, you can bet that anti-gravity treadmills must be living up to their claims of offering 'remarkable' recovery times.
Reason alone suggests the anti-gravity treadmill, with its ability to progressively re-introduce weight as an injured patient exercises, is an excellent tool for rehabilitation. Although very few studies have been conducted so far, only positive comments have been made and meanwhile therapists and researchers continue to study the impact on real patients. If nothing else, anti-gravity treadmills sound like the next wave in gym exercising.
Running with a lot less impact on my knees? Sign me up!
Source: Patil S, Steklov N, Bugbee WD, et al. Anti-gravity treadmills are effective in reducing knee forces. Journal of Orthopedic Research. 2013.
Anti-Gravity Treadmills Offer Effective Physical Therapy: NASA Inspiration Also New Training Tool For Pro-Athletes
Lightening the Load of Recovery
A unique treadmill—invented by a NASA scientist—supports people trying to get back on their feet
Ask the Denver attorney who whose legs were smashed in a car accident. Ask the veterans rehabilitating from injuries sustained while defending the Nation. Ask NBA star Blake Griffin, or NFL safety Jim Leonhard, both who endured leg injuries playing their sports. Ask U.S. soccer pro Charlie Davies, who returned to the field only a month after suffering life-threatening trauma in a car crash.
All will tell you about the benefits of NASA-derived technology.
Each of these people were aided in their recovery by an innovation that emerged from NASA research and now provides a lift to people around the world who suffer from mobility issues.
Developed for Astronauts, Adapted for Earth
In order to prevent bone loss and muscle atrophy, astronauts exercise on treadmills equipped with a loading harness. However, the treadmill loading harness is uncomfortable and prevents astronauts from exercising normally and with the same intensity as on Earth. While he was studying the biomechanics of exercise, Ames Research Center scientist Robert Whalen suggested using air pressure as an effective way of applying a high force, equal to body weight, to astronauts during treadmill exercise to replace the harness system.
After patenting his gravity differential technology in 1992, Whalen licensed his patent in 2005 to a private company called AlterG to help rehabilitate patients needing support as they learned (or re-learned) to stand, walk, and run. The Menlo Park, California company adapted the technology for athletic and medical uses here on Earth in the form of a specialized, “anti-gravity” treadmill. This rehabilitation device applies air pressure to a patient’s lower body in order to unload up to 80 percent of a patient’s weight, which reduces the stress placed on the body during rehabilitation.
Help for Soldiers, Athletes, and Seniors Alike
A variety of patients—whether suffering from brain injury, neurological disorders, athletic injuries, or other stresses on the joints such as arthritis or morbid obesity—now use the NASA-derived technology in physical therapy. Professional and college sports teams across the United States feature the AlterG treadmill in their training facilities. Injured soldiers walk and run with the technology’s assistance at military hospitals and rehabilitation centers. Seniors get essential exercise using the support the machine provides, as do people with bariatric weight issues who cannot normally support their own weight. The treadmill has been a proven option for neurological uses as well, including helping patients re-learn proper balance and gait and transition to independent movement after traumatic brain injury.
The success of AlterG’s NASA-derived technology has allowed the company to add 65 employees, and the anti-gravity treadmill is now used around the world.
“We have been able to have players that are recovering from injuries start to run at least a week and sometimes up to a month before they would have been able to normally,” says Bill Tillson, head athletic trainer for Italian soccer club AC Milan.
Ask U.S. soccer star Oguchi Oneywu, who recovered from a knee injury with the help of the AlterG treadmill. Ask podiatric surgeon Arnol Saxena, who believes the technology “will become the standard in rehabilitation and training.” Ask the bariatric patient in Colorado who, using the treadmill, was able to walk—for the first time in over a year.
They will likely agree: Innovation for space has a place here on Earth.
NASA - Lightening the Load of Recovery
