Here's the report for caito & anyone else interested...
My chiro uses the Alter G for gait analysis, so that's what we did today - I can also use it for workouts if I want/need to.
So first you put on these funky neoprene shorts with a little "skirt" around the waist that has a zipper along the edge - that's how you zip in to the sealed inflatable part of the treadmill.
They set it up with my weight, height, and then I got on, zipped in, and turned it on - the enclosed part fills with air. At first it's set at 100% of your body weight, and you can adjust the speed like any other treadmill.
This one is set up with some kind of gait analysis program, so he had me walk at first with 100% body weight, to measure stride length and cadence, and a bunch of other stuff. Then I bumped up the speed to an easy run, and he measured the same things, noting places where there had been imbalances from left to right, and how that changed/improved from walk to run, etc.
The cool part comes in when you change the body weight percentage - so then we set that to 80%, and it felt so strange! The skirt/shorts combo basically feels as if it's lifting you up just a little as the level of inflation changes, and you're lighter on your feet. Some things about my stride smoothed out, and it was much more even from side to side - pretty interesting. And it's much easier to go faster!
So even though I don't currently need it for rehab, they use it for gait analysis and this established a baseline that they can compare later. And I can use it for recovery runs, etc.
Pretty neat. I do like me some gadgets.
Anyone else here ever used one?
