.png?auto=format&auto=compress&h=150)
A running injury specialist in Brooklyn isn’t easy to find. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place.
As we mentioned in our last post, running injuries are common and it’s important to see a healthcare provider that specializes in running injury evaluation and treatment and understands the challenges and demands of distance runners. Click here to review that post.
One of Our Secret Weapons to Optimize Running Injury Recovery
Our AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill can help elevate your physical therapy treatment program to a new level.
When you’re recovering from an injury (especially a running injury), the force of gravity actually works against you during this process, whether you realize it or not. In our normal environment, gravitational forces move through the body from the foot and ankle, to the knee, the hips, and the trunk. If these forces are too much for the injured soft tissue, they can cause repetitive stress disorders and slow the recovery process. But what if gravity could be reduced or nearly eliminated from this equation?
The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill is essentially the answer to this question. Using technology developed by NASA to allow astronauts to exercise in space, this treadmill was created to help patients recover from their injury or condition more efficiently in an environment in which the amount of gravity can be controlled. The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill can be added to many different physical therapy treatment programs, and at Park Sports Physical Therapy, it has been working wonders in helping many patients to improve more quickly.
Here’s How Limited Gravity can Help Get You Back to Running Faster
Here’s how it works: patients wear a special device on their waist and then step onto the treadmill. When they’re ready, an air chamber is then inflated, and the seal is secured to their waist device with a zipper. Once inflated, the gravity in the air chamber can be adjusted from as low as 20% to 100% of the patient’s normal body weight. This allows them to walk or run with a feeling of weightlessness that many patients say feels like “walking on the moon.”
By offering this ability to patients like distance runners, the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill can be used in a physical therapy treatment program for just about any injury or condition of the lower body, as well as for those who are overweight. Here are just a few of the many diagnoses the treadmill is used for:
- Foot fracture
- Ankle sprain or tear
- Stress fracture
- Plantar fasciitis or plantar fascia tear
- Knee or hip osteoarthritis
- Knee or hip replacement recovery
Case Study – Chronic Knee Pain in a Runner
The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill, cutting edge physical therapy equipment, was utilized early in the rehab process in order to restore normal gait and running mechanics. The patient had excellent carry over from AlterG training and was able to demonstrate normal gait and running mechanics outdoors on level ground at the end of the treatment session. By the end of week 5, the patient was able to achieve normal gait and running mechanics on level ground without warm-up or training on the AlterG. The patient continued to progress running for endurance training on level ground as part of home exercise program.
The patient was able to achieve all her goals and return to full time competitive level cheerleading without symptoms.
Reference: https://www.alterg.com/case-study/chronic-patellofemoral-pain
Numerous other case studies found on the AlterG website, have shown that the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill is effective for treating a number of problems by increasing strength, flexibility and fitness levels. So if you’re dealing with any sort of lower body injury, find out how a physical therapy treatment program with this treadmill can help you next.
