The G-Trainer: it's like running on the moon

Ever wonder what it would feel like to weigh 20 pounds less? Well, there's a device at CU in Boulder that can give you that feeling. However, that's not what it's really meant to do.

For the latest 6:20 sidebar, Susie Wargin experimented with the suspension of gravity on a super-juiced up treadmill that is helping runners throughout the country.

“If it walks or runs on legs, we'll study it,” says Rodger Kram, Assistant Professor in Integrated Philology at CU. “We focus mostly on humans and how walking and running, the mechanics of it as well as the energetics, (effect them). We study everything from elite athletes to obesity.”

Rodger Kram's life is movement and part of his studies includes a contraption called The G-Trainer. It looks like a treadmill... kind of.

“The G-Trainer device is a new piece of equipment that's been developed for both rehabilitation of athletes and everyday people who've had surgery of some kind so they can get back to running or walking sooner,” explains Kram.

It sounded pretty interesting, so I shimmied into the neoprene shorts and climbed into the air chamber surrounding the treadmill. Rodger zipped my shorts to the plastic for an air tight seal and he began shoot air into the chamber. Once it was filled, I felt light as a feather.

“What's unique about it is that it lifts you up,” says Kram. “It literally lifts you up by your shorts, using air pressure and it reduces the loading on your joints so it makes it easier to walk or to run.”

Does it ever. Just three days before testing out the G-Trainer, I had participated in a 5 1/2 hour race and was a little sore. But I didn't feel one ounce of pain, because only half of my bodyweight was hitting the treadmill.

“We found that indeed when we reduce weight by lifting up with this air pressure, the impact forces are basically proportionally reduced. When we lift you up to half of your weight, the impact forces are about 1/2 of what they normally are,” says Rodger.

If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to run on the moon, this is the answer.

“I've run on it at a 4 minute mile pace and you’re not out of breath,” Rodger says with a smile. “You feel like you're flying because you are.”

But at some point everyone has to come back to Earth.

“The idea is gradually you can come back to normal gravity and when your rehab is done, you can go run outside.”

To see Susie running on the G-Trainer, visit the link to the right of this article.

The G-Trainer was originally developed by NASA and then a company called Alter-G took it over and brought the device to CU for testing. The prototype at CU is much different than the G-Trainers sold to consumers. Those $75,000 machines have all the bells and whistles and can be found in some rehab centers, pro sports franchises and at Nike headquarters in Oregon (which is where former CU star Dathan Ritzenhein rehabbed from a stress fracture in his foot so he could compete in the Beijing Olympics).

For more information about the G-Trainer, visit http://www.alter-g.com/alterg/ad.aspx