Whether you’re training for a race, rehabbing an injury, trying to lose weight, recovering from a stroke, or simply trying to improve your physical fitness and personal health and wellness, everyone is looking to get better results, faster.

The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill, offered at our York, PA location, can help you get there. Unlike a regular treadmill, the AlterG uses patented “unweighting” technology to significantly reduce the effective force of gravity on your body as you work out, sparing your feet and joints from impact forces and pressure. Pain goes away, and our clients frequently tell us that it feels like they’re flying or walking on the moon.

As part of a comprehensive physical therapy program, the AlterG can help you get on your feet sooner, train harder, and reach your goals faster than conventional equipment.

How It Works                                          

Developed by NASA engineers, the AlterG seals the lower half of your body into an airtight chamber that inflates to a user-controllable pressure. The air pushes up on you as you stand, walk, and run, negating up to 80% of the force of gravity on your feet and joints. If you’re a 200-pound individual, you can feel as light as 40 pounds when you use the AlterG! This level can be manually adjusted in 1% increments, up to 100% of your full body weight.

Although you have to be zipped into the chamber, it does not impede your range of movement in any way. You can walk or run normally at any desired speed, just as you would on an ordinary treadmill.

Who Can Benefit

The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill offers significant benefits for people in a wide range of rehab, physical therapy, or training scenarios.

Injury Rehabilitation

If you’re recovering from a torn hamstring, foot surgery, other lower body injury, or even a brain injury that affects motor control (such as a stroke), the AlterG can help you jump-start your rehab by getting you on your feet faster and allowing you to maintain higher fitness and activity levels during the healing process. Even if you wouldn’t normally be cleared for full weight bearing, you may still be able to walk and even run normally—using your normal, healthy gait—thanks to the unweighting technology of the AlterG.

Athletic Training

Even if you’re otherwise healthy, the AlterG can help you boost your athletic performance and reduce your race times by allowing you to train longer and harder while significantly reducing your injury risk at the same time. You can build your endurance and strength in a lower-impact environment and practice “active recovery” after races or games, with fewer rest days required.Athletic Training

Weight Loss

If you’re significantly overweight, it can be very difficult to just get started with an exercise program. Because running puts several times the force of your own body weight on feet and joints, early efforts and progress may be limited by pain. The AlterG dramatically reduces these impact forces, so you can significantly reduce the pain of exercising and sustain longer cardio workouts, helping you lose weight faster (and have more fun doing it)!

Seniors

The AlterG is an excellent tool for helping seniors (or other patients struggling with mobility, arthritis, or range of motion) regain strength, balance, and coordination in a safe and controlled environment. This can help seniors prevent damaging (and costly) falls, improve general fitness and wellness, and maintain a greater level of freedom and independence.

If you’re struggling with any kind of foot pain, walking instability, injury recovery, or just want to improve your athletic performance, visit Martin Foot & Ankle and ask us about how the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill can help you. You can request an appointment online, or give us a call at 717-757-3537.