AlterG: One giant leap for rehab

By Keith Bradford

When you’re struggling to walk due to injuries or pain, taking a leap of faith on a space-age treadmill might just change your view of the world.

The AlterG anti-gravity treadmill at Mount Royal University’s Injury & Prevention Clinic, one of only a handful in the city, gently lifts you up and gets you moving again thanks to a unique differential air-pressure system.

Using technology originally developed for NASA, which wanted to simulate gravitational load in space to help astronauts maintain their strength and bone density, the AlterG allows users to walk or run with less weight or load on their lower body.

“If you could picture what people look like walking on the moon, that’s what it’s like for people using the AlterG,” says athletic therapist and pedorthist Lee Mackenzie. “It uses differential air pressure to inflate a big bubble around you and hold you up.

“Walking is the most important thing you can do, and this allows people who can’t walk to get moving.”

AlterG treadmills are popular with professional sports teams, who use them to help athletes returning from injury to walk or run again.

They also offer tremendous rehabilitation opportunities for the public, but access is limited. The Injury & Prevention Clinic is one of the few places in southern Alberta where people can book an appointment to use an AlterG treadmill.

“There’s more availability in many other cities in North America,” Mackenzie says. “We get a lot of referrals from other clinics.

“When you’re in pain, if you can offload weight, suddenly the muscles in that area work again and you can gain strength. Being able to move pain-free is a powerful thing for rehab.”

Before patients step onto the AlterG, they put on a pair of neoprene shorts that attach via airtight zips to an inflatable bag that wraps around the lower half of the body. The bag is zipped up and inflated.

“The shorts are as tight as you can wiggle into and the AlterG inflates a big bubble around you to hold up the shorts,” Mackenzie says.

“I’ve had people who can’t walk go on the AlterG and they can safely walk right away.”

The pressurized air chamber allows the user to reduce gravitational load and body weight in precise 1% increments. Patients can move unrestricted and pain-free, which helps them build muscle strength, fitness and range of motion.

“I had a patient arrive for an appointment in a wheelchair and I was able to reduce 20% of their bodyweight so they could walk for half an hour,” said Mackenzie. “That benefitted them so much more than any other form of exercise they could have done. It’s almost like walking on air.”

The AlterG treadmill can benefit older patients who have pain or restricted movement, as well as those rehabbing from surgery or various injuries.

Patients can book an appointment with Mackenzie to ask if the AlterG is right for them or call the clinic at 403.440.6917.