Whether you are a competitive athlete or a health and fitness enthusiast like me, one common anxiety we share is the dilemma of how soon we can recover from an injury and how fast we can get back to the saddle to achieve that performance level again. Among runners, those sprained-ankles, ITBS, or some other recurring joint pains we experience every now and then tend to beat down our momentum. And oftentimes, if we get anxious and push ourselves during the recovery period, we ended up relapsing, which takes us back even further away to full recovery. Cross training sometimes works but not quite the ideal because it focuses on a different set of muscle groups.
Finally, those sports and injury issues can be addressed by an indoor treadmill which is so advanced that it actually allows you to workout with much less pressure and impact to the injured body part you wish to isolate.Kinetics Advance Physiotherapy Center introduces a revolutionary treadmill, the technology of which came directly from NASA, very much the same what astronauts use to train themselvesfor an anti-gravity environment.
ALTERG has a special bubble chamber that will be filled with compressed air. The athlete positionshimself on the treadmill wearing special shortswith zippers that snuggly fits to the air chamber. This will be filled with air to calibrate the runner’s current weight, then adding more pressure will make your body be lifted just a bit to make yourself a little lighter. The pressure can be adjusted according to your preference or the percentage of body weight you wish to carry as you run on the treadmill. More pressure will make you lighter; depending on the amount of weight you want to take away.
Last October 6 at RUPM, I finished my seventh full-marathon on barefoot. My time was decent but not as fast as I expected it to be. At the 27th kilometer mark, I felt a sudden sharp pain on the top of my right ankle. At first, I thought it was negligible so I continued with my pace. But in the last four kilometers of the race, the pain was almost unbearable so I had to limp-walk. It was frustrating because it was my first time to experience it, but I pushed myself to finish the race. After that, my recovery was longer than expected. I didn’t expect that my injury would be that “severe”. Nonetheless, I made all the necessary recovery and healing protocols, enough to prepare me for the Rexona Run scheduled on October 26th.
In my personal assessment, I thought that I’m okay to go for a half-marathon. I made good time after crossing the finish line but with a consequence. My ankle sprain returned with a vengeance to further my present injuries. With that, healing and recovery became a much longer path. I feltlethargic most of the time and, as a result, I gained weight. I found it difficult to do even indoor callisthenic exercises that don’t involve putting pressure on my right foot. Simple squats and lunges, even jumping jacks, were impossible.
Last week, I visited Kinetics AdvancePhysiotherapy Center in BGC and I was introduced to the ALTERG, Anti-Gravity Treadmill. At first, I felt a little awkward running on a treadmill with half of my body inside a chamber filled with air. But as soon as it lifted me up, I started to run comfortably on the treadmill without any feeling of shock-load impact on my right foot. The therapist added more air pressure to create more lift thereby reducing my weight to almost half. At that point, I askedfor the speed to be increased to 20 kilometers per hour at almost sprint pace. I almost could not believe I was able to run a much further distance with much longer time at that pace! After 10 minutes, I was able to run more than three kilometers with no pain felt on my injured foot. One great thing about it was I reached the same heart pumping cardio workout burning almost seven hundred calories in 10 minutes.
I also felt the expected muscle strain on my legs and calves, which is good because I was able to get the usual workout on those muscle groupswithout my right ankle hurting. The treadmill can also work on reverse thereby working on the hamstrings. The machine can also be tilted up to a 20-degree incline to simulate a steep uphill climb. Soon, the machine may allow an athlete to run sideways to work on the side lateral movements needed for sports like basketball or football.
Currently, the therapy center also offers the ALTERG machine for people who suffered strokes or for children with cerebral palsy. This machine is far better than having these patients walk on a pathway with hand-railings to support them. The machine even has cameras on three sides so the workout could be viewed on the monitor screens in front of you. This way, you can view your own gait and the way you are running allowing you to subsequently correct them as you move.
I think ALTERG is the most comprehensive treadmill not just for athletes recovering from injuries but also for fitness-conscious people who wish to improve their physique in a much slower pace without carrying the shock-load impact of their own body weight. The ALTERG can be found only in Kinetics Advance Physiotherapy Center, located at Unit 1102 20th Drive Corporate Center, Bonifacio Global City.
For more information on their programs, you may log onto their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/keneticsadvancephysiotherapy , or call Tel. 887-1409, 09154260680, info@alterg.com.ph
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