AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill in Bentonville, AR
A treadmill that lifts part of your body weight off the joint, so you can walk or run at a set percentage long before full weight would be safe. Most clinics do not have one. We do.
Available at our Bentonville clinic only. The AlterG is not currently offered at our Springdale location.
What is the AlterG anti-gravity treadmill?
You have been told to stay off it. That is usually the right advice, and it is also why you are losing conditioning by the week, because the injury heals while everything around it gets weaker. The AlterG is the machine that solves that specific problem. You step into a treadmill surrounded by an air chamber that seals around your waist. The chamber pressurizes, and the lift it creates carries a set percentage of your body weight. Set it to sixty percent and you walk at sixty percent of what you weigh. The joint only feels what sixty percent feels like. Your legs are still doing the walking.
The number is precise and adjustable in small increments, and that is what makes the machine useful rather than novel. Your therapist can put you at forty percent this week, fifty the next, and full weight when the tissue is ready, and every one of those steps is measured instead of guessed at. You are also walking with a normal gait instead of limping, which matters more than most people expect, because the movement pattern you rehearse while you are healing is the one you keep. This is real equipment we own, here in the clinic, used inside a plan your therapist builds. It is not a shortcut around healing time. It is a way to keep training while the healing happens.
Who the AlterG is for.
The AlterG is built for the gap between not allowed to load it and cleared for full weight. That gap is where conditioning quietly disappears and where confidence in the leg gets lost.
After surgery, inside your restrictions
A repaired knee, a replaced hip, a rebuilt ankle. When your surgeon has you at partial weight bearing, the AlterG lets you walk at close to that percentage with a normal stride, so the leg keeps working while the repair keeps healing instead of waiting in a chair.
Arthritic hips, knees, and backs
Walking hurts, so you walk less, so the joint stiffens and the muscles around it weaken. Unweighting takes enough load off that you can put in real minutes without paying for it the next day. For a lot of people that is the first honest exercise an arthritic knee has allowed in years.
Runners coming back from injury
Stress injuries, tendon problems, and post-surgical returns all need graded loading, and the road does not offer grades. Running at a set percentage of body weight, then stepping it up as tolerance builds, turns a hopeful return into a controlled one you can actually track.
What to expect in a session.
AlterG time is scheduled inside your visit as part of your plan, not sold to you as a standalone gym session. Here is how it goes.
Fit and setup
You put on a pair of shorts made for the machine that zip into the air chamber. Your therapist checks you against the machine's limits, seals you in, and the treadmill calibrates to your body weight. Setup takes a couple of minutes and it happens the same way every visit.
Setting your percentage
Your therapist picks the starting percentage from your surgeon's weight bearing orders, your pain response, or how your gait looks. Then you walk. If it hurts, the number comes down. If it is easy and your mechanics look clean, it goes up. Your therapist watches you the whole time, which is half the point of doing this here rather than alone.
Progression and what comes next
Time, speed, and percentage all get written down, so the next session starts from a real number instead of a memory. AlterG work gets paired with strength and balance exercise on the floor, because unweighted walking on its own will not rebuild a leg. As your percentage climbs toward full weight, walking outside gets easier at the same rate.
The AlterG has manufacturer limits on user height and weight, and it needs a proper seal at the waist to work, so your therapist confirms fit before the machine is ever written into your plan. It is also not appropriate for every situation. Open wounds, certain skin conditions, active infection, uncontrolled cardiac issues, or pregnancy can rule it out. You get a straight answer at your evaluation about whether the machine is a fit for you, before anyone builds a plan around it.
When I first came, I was not able to bend over or walk for too long. After coming in twice a week and doing all my workouts. I am now able to walk for as long as I want and bend over.
Where to go next.
Manual Therapy
Hands-on work to restore the joint motion that a long stretch of not loading a leg takes away.
IASTM
Instrument-assisted work on surgical scar tissue, so the tissue around a repair moves the way it should.
Arthritis
Stiff, painful joints. A plan that keeps you walking rather than resting your way into weakness.
Ready when you are.
Fri: 8:00am - 1:30pm