![]() ![]() ![]() marathon great Alberto Salazar has most of his world-class runners in the Nike Oregon Project train on them on a regular basis. You can run sub-5:30-mile pace while carrying on a conversation or rev your heart rate to the moon and, as Brown found out, still be gentle to your ailing big toe because your footsteps are much lighter than they would ever be in the real world.īut lately, elite coaches are seeing those high-tech treadmills as a supplemental training tool for healthy athletes.įormer U.S. ![]() A 144-pound athlete like Brown could run with a simulated weight of 72 pounds or even much less and be able to reduce the stress on an injury while still maintaining or even increasing fitness. “I didn’t seem to lose a whole lot of fitness and had some strong early-season races.”Īt first, the AlterG apparatuses were seen primarily as rehab machines. “It’s not as good as being outside and really running, but it’s pretty cool,” says Brown, a two-time U-23 national champion. Running on one produces an incredible feeling of weightlessness, even though you’re still running with your normal gait.īrown’s injury wasn’t getting any better by running on it, so, instead of taking time completely off his feet or running in the pool- blech!-he logged copious miles on an AlterG positioned in front of a large flat-screen TV for about a month and a half. Once accessible only to pro athletes, they’re starting to pop up in health clubs and rehab centers where age-groupers can use them. It’s only coincidence that the 750-pound machines utilize technology that was first proposed for use on a space station. It creates a sealed chamber below the waist-the runner is zipped into a pair of neoprene shorts with a closure similar to that of a whitewater kayak-and lifts the runner slightly with upward air pressure.Īn anti-gravity treadmill looks likes a compact personal spaceship ready for orbit. What is an anti-gravity treadmill? It’s a machine that essentially allows an athlete to run at less than his full body weight, thus reducing the pounding on joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. ![]() He missed his first race of the season but wound up maintaining his fitness pretty well thanks to getting the chance to train on an AlterG anti-gravity treadmill at the U.S. Not bad considering he started the season on a down note because of foot pain that was eventually diagnosed as an irritated joint in his left big toe. He also fared pretty well against the big boys, finishing a respectable 34 th in the ITU HyVee World Cup on June 28 in Des Moines, Iowa. In fact, the 24-year-old third-year pro turned in a pretty solid first half of his season, with a runner-up finish at an ITU Continental Cup race in Mexico and a sixth-place showing at the ITU Pan-Am Championships in Oklahoma City. Or pretty out of shape.īut neither thing happened. With as much time as he spent nursing a foot injury last spring, Ethan Brown could have gotten pretty bummed out. Is the use of an anti-gravity treadmill for recovery from an injury a fad, or is it a tool that will someday be available to the everyday athlete? Brian Metzler explores this topic and finds out why so many elite athletes have made it a part of their recovery process. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! ![]()
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