The anti-gravity of the AlterG® Anti-Gravity Treadmill® provides a boost for athletes and rehabilitation patients to shorten recovery time, reduce injury risk and enhance athletic performance. We are among only a few locations in southeastern Wisconsin to offer this NASA-inspired, zero-gravity treadmill that is used by Olympic teams, professional sports teams and top university-affiliated rehabilitation and sports centers.
Athletic Training and Physical Therapy
During any weight-bearing exercise, the hips, legs, knees, ankles and feet feel the stress. The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill uses a lifting effect to ease the impact on lower extremities. It is ideal for physical therapy after sports injuries, knee and hip replacement or stroke. It is also used to incorporate weight-bearing exercise into fitness and weight loss routines.
Recovering patients — The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill assists patients who have been prescribed by their physician to start weight-bearing exercise as tolerated, such as those recovering from ACL surgery, stress fractures, joint replacement or stroke. In many cases rehabilitation with the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill can start sooner than with hydrotherapy. And due to it's unique design, tethers and harnesses are not needed.
Overweight and irregular exercisers — Users may find the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill is a gentle way to add aerobic activity to their lives, key to strengthening, building intensity and losing weight.
Endurance athletes — Power walkers, distance runners and frequent exercisers with occasional lower-limb soreness may find the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill is much easier on the body during and after exercise. For athletes who cross-train in water, it offers as much resistance as, and is more convenient than, a hydro workout.
Injured athletes — Many athletes in physical therapy find they bounce back more quickly with the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill. Many physical therapists and sports trainers find it reduces their clients’ post-surgery recovery by days or even weeks.
How to Use the Anti-Gravity Treadmill
To use the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill, the patient or athlete wears specially designed shorts and is zipped into an air chamber on the treadmill. Once activated, the chamber surrounds the lower extremities in a cocoon of air, supporting the patient's body and reducing the amount of weight felt. Users can walk, run and practice other weight-bearing movement in this reduced-gravity environment.
The degree of lift is based on an anti-gravity factor recommended by our staff. Users can feel 20 percent to 100 percent of their body weight and many training programs rely on gradually increasing the amount of weight felt. For example, a 150-pound person at a 20 percent anti-gravity factor would effectively weigh only 30 pounds in the chamber. At 50 percent, the person "weighs" 75 pounds.
The treadmill keeps a pace of up to 18 miles per hour, has adjustable incline and allows training staff to view a patient's movement from many angles.
Try It Out
AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill are available at the Sports Medicine Center and Moorland Reserve Health Center.