Zero Gravity and Vertical Treadmills - The Future is Here

The zero gravity treadmill is becoming a common sight in nearly every rehab center of every professional sports team in North America. Along with this remarkable device, which was developed using NASA technology, take a look at the elite equipment of today including: the pressurized treadmill, the vertical treadmill, and even NASA’s futuristic horizontal treadmill.

Pressurized Treadmill (or Anti Gravity Treadmill)

Built by Alter-G Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., the G-Trainer was created to help astronauts maintain fitness while living and working in the near zero gravity of space. But it’s also been tried and praised recently by professional athletes who needed high tech rehab after going down with sports injuries. It worked so effectively in fact that world class runners and Olympians began incorporating anti-gravity into their training using this innovative machine.

The pressured treadmill is a large inflatable plastic bubble that encases the lower half of a runner’s body while the person stands on a treadmill located inside the bubble. The runner is zipped inside the chamber from the waist down, like a kayaker’s spray skirt while the upper body remains outside the bubble. Once the system pumps air into the air-tight tent, the air pressure lifts up on the runner creating a zero gravity treadmill environment.

The device offers a very comfortable environment and feels a lot like running in water – or bouncing in zero gravity on the moon or inside the space station. As the user runs normally on the treadmill, the low-gravity chamber effectively cuts the body’s weight in half, thereby lessening the impact on the back, knees, and joints. In this way, athletes and astronauts can train longer without fatiguing, as well as work more efficiently in rehab without fear of re-injuring the body part.

Vertical Treadmill

You’ve seen Spiderman do it in movies, but can you physically run up a shear wall? Yes, now you can using a $10,000 device known as a vertical treadmill. It’s basically a self-powered tread wall and you may have seen one at a large sporting goods store or in a health club.

What it looks like: It’s easy to picture the vertical treadmill — just think of a climbing wall with a treadbelt gliding around rollers located on the top and bottom. The wall panels slide down as you climb up. Spidey uses micro-hooks in the fingers of his suit but on the moving wall you’re provided with knobs for climbing. (Here’s a video to get an idea of what it is.) To make it more fun and adventurous, the wall tilts forwards so you can start out with an easy climb, or tilts backward so that you can attempt to maneuver a difficult overhang angle. It even has a Polar Heart Rate Monitor so you can check your cardio fitness.

Obviously, this is a futuristic kind of “treadmill” that requires a full body effort including working the shoulders, arms, and back. You don’t “climb” very high because the belt is moving down while you’re trying to move up. You stay safely in one place a few feet off the ground thus eliminating that small problem that comes with real free-form rock climbing — falling to your death.

Horizontal Treadmill

NASA has developed a new horizontal treadmill to help astronauts prepare for long-duration missions and while living at the proposed lunar station by 2020. If you’ve read science fiction books set in outer space, you are already familiar with the problems humans experience in a weightless environment, such as bone loss and muscle atrophy. Currently, crews living on the International Space Station must exercise daily to overcome the affects of the prolonged absence of gravity on the body.

What it is: Inside the Standalone Zero Gravity Locomotion Simulator, the astronaut is suspended by cables horizontally then positioned next to a vertically-mounted treadmill where their feet can run and walk on the walled belt. It’s a bit confusing since it’s the human who is horizontal here – but otherwise it seems that this is a vertical treadmill as well as being a zero gravity treadmill. Simulating zero gravity in this manner allows the user to imitate the physiological effects of spacewalking as well as giving the spaceman a feel for the conditions they will encounter in any zero gravity environment.

It’s a cool toy but with one major drawback: the price of these NASA fitness machines is steep, in the neighborhood of $75,000.

Like the zero gravity treadmill, this horizontal model is all about giving the body new ways to exercise to offset loss of muscle strength through a combination of aerobic activity and cardiovascular training. These machines are designed for space travelers, but they work well for earthbound athletes too.