Los Angeles Lakers: Behind the Alter-G Treadmill

The LA Lakers NBA basketball team posted this article about the G-trainer on their website back in March and one of the players, Chris Miym (Center), tells us what he thinks of it. These guys are so big they have a treadmill made specifically to accomodate 6'6 to 7'6!!

Thats the only difference though and the benefits are exactly the same - sparing the joints and recovering muscles from excessive load and stress, heightening the strength and conditioning effectiveness of a treadmill.

LAKERS: Behind the Alter-G Treadmill:
courtesy of www.nba.com/lakers/

"Behind the Alter-G Treadmill
April 1, 2008

When deflated the Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill looks like any normal treadmill you'd see at your local gym--wrapped in a hefty bag.

Once the machine is turned on the user looks like they're standing up through the sunroof of a car.

The Alter-G treadmill creates a seal around the user's waist and then inflates to create a pressurized environment that can take away up to 80% of the users body weight, lessening the pounding to the joints.

'Essentially you become like a cork in a champagne bottle and you can modify just exactly how much pressure is in there,' said Chip Schaeffer, the Lakers Director of Athletic Performance/Player Development.

'It's a great rehab tool as well as a conditioning tool. If a guy comes off a couple games in a row and wants to blow his lungs out a little bit, but doesn't want to take the full breadth of his body weight and exhaust himself he can get in there for 15-20 minutes and not fatigue his legs too much.'

Andrew Bynum and Chris Mihm have been the main beneficiaries of the new treadmill as they recover from knee and ankle injuries respectively.

After a lengthy recover from multiple ankle surgeries Mihm has a great appreciation for the new piece of equipment.

'This is pretty amazing. It doesn't restrict your movement at all and it allows me to really get some training without all the pounding on my ankle right away."

To see Chris Mihm using the treadmill you will have to go via the article link above.

See Andrew Bynum (below) who used the G-trainer to increase his fitness whilst undergoing rehabilitation for a knee injury.


Here is what the Lakers Director of Athletic Performance had to say...

"The addition of the Alter -G treadmill has allowed us to initiate running with Andrew much earlier than otherwise would have possible. Andrew has been combining aerobic based running (10 minute bouts at moderate intensity) as well as more basketball specific anaerobic bouts (30 to 45 seconds at a high intensity followed by a 1 minute recovery) with a gradual systematic increase in the % body weight that he runs at. The most important thing for Andrew will be the ability to control the ground force reactions in the highly unpredictable environment that basketball demands. His progress to this point has been excellent."