Walking on air with space age treadmill
IT IS the space age treadmill that has users feeling like they are literally running on air.
Central Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Central Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
GORDON Ramsay has one. Sonny Bill Williams used one to get back from an achilles injury and Gina Rinehart reportedly had one delivered to her house but no one was allowed to know.
So when exercise physiologist to the stars Glenn Phipps got a chance to get his hands on a futuristic anti-gravity treadmill he “threw the wallet at it”.
Using NASA patented technology, the Alter-G treadmill sees users put on a pair of neoprene, wetsuit-like shorts, before being zipped into a waist-high bladder.
The treadmill then calibrates how much air pressure is required to pump into the bladder to offset the person’s weight.
Mr Phipps said it could offset as much as 80 per cent of a person’s weight leaving them feeling like they were “walking on air”.
The sci-fi looking treadmills are being used to provide partial weight-bearing therapy to help people with chronic conditions such as multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy or neurological diseases.
They are also being used to help people — including many of the world’s top sports stars — to recover quicker from injury, fractures and surgery.
Every AFL team and almost all NRL franchises have one but at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars, the anti-gravity treadmill is the first of its kind on the Coast.
Mr Phipps, who has worked with the likes of Anthony Mundine, George Gregan and most of Australia’s top paddle boarders, said the treadmill meant people could get back to walking or running exercises quicker but without the jarring impact on their joints.
He said typically it took about six to eight weeks before someone could run after getting off crutches.
“But with the treadmill you can be back running within two weeks,” he said.
“It allows you to focus on things like technique.
“There has been research to show ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries have recovered three times quicker.”
A week after his stunning Coolangatta Gold over-50 division win Terrigal’s Paul Lemmon gave the treadmill a try at Mr Phipps’ Movement Lab studio on Friday.
“It’s fantastic, you could run on it all day,” Lemmon said.
