Non-Weight Bearing Therapy

Recover, prevent injury and enhance performance

SSM Health Physical Therapy offers the AlterG^® Anti-Gravity Treadmill to get you moving again. Our skilled therapists will guide your use of the treadmill to help achieve your health and fitness goals. The anti-gravity treadmill reduces stress on your feet, ankles, shins, knees, hips and back. This helps rehabilitate your lower extremities, prevent injury and enhance performance.

What to expect

The AlterG’s technology allows patients to walk and run longer distances without bearing their entire body weight. In fact, 80% of an individual’s body weight can be removed with the AlterG's unweighting capabilities on the lower extremities. This allows for unrestricted, pain-free movement that helps reduce the impact on your body and achieve faster, better outcomes.
Our therapists read the real-time gait analytics and watch video feedback provided by the treadmill. They assess movement patterns and identify where your pain stops and natural movement feels good. Based on that assessment and your personal goals, your therapist develops a customized treatment plan to address your needs and help you to restore and build muscle strength and improve your range of motion, balance and mobility. 

• Faster injury/surgery recovery
• Improved aerobic and sport-specific conditioning
• Less joint impact/stress during exercise and improved cardiovascular health
• Regain/maintain functionality and mobility
• Preserve natural body movement and aid with fall prevention

Good candidates for the anti-gravity treadmill include:

• Post-operative rehabilitation patients and those with lower-body injuries
• Individuals seeking aerobic conditioning
• Athletes for sport-specific conditioning
• Neurologic patients
• Geriatric patients requiring strength and conditioning

SSM Health Physical Therapy understands that certain conditions and injuries are best treated while you are in water maintained at therapeutic temperatures. Aquatic or water therapy, provides a safe, effective environment to positively impact movement, strength and function.

Aquatic therapy uses buoyancy to support your weight, reducing the pain and stress placed on specific muscles and joints and enabling greater freedom. Warm water also fuels muscle relaxation and increased blood flow to injured areas.

Water therapy can also help you function at levels not possible on land, without fear of falling, which affords physical gains and positive reinforcement. Aquatic therapy boosts general conditioning and strength and is used to treat a variety of conditions such as:

• Arthritis
• Back pain
• Balance disorders
• Chronic pain
• Multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease of the central nervous system
• Muscular dystrophy (MD), progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass
• Neurological disorders (Parkinson's Disease, stroke)
• Obesity
• Post-surgery care including joint replacements

What you can expect

After your initial evaluation, your physical therapist may determine that aquatic therapy will help the healing process. Aquatic therapy can help:

• Decrease pain
• Increase muscular strength, flexibility and endurance
• Enhance joint mobility and stability
• Improve balance, coordination and cardiovascular endurance

During ongoing appointments, your therapist will adjust treatment as you improve and incorporate land-based exercises as soon as possible to maximize the functional gains you make in water.

Redcord^® is a unique suspension training system that provides non-weight bearing treatment to activate muscles and restore motor control. It helps individuals with orthopedic and sports-related injuries. The system, developed in Norway and used worldwide, is exclusive to SSM Health Physical Therapy in the greater St. Louis area and surrounding midwest region.  

Decreased neuromuscular control may result in sprains, strains, tears, degenerative changes or other issues, as well as chronic pain. Redcord can be used as a diagnostic tool to help identify weak links related to a patient’s injury. Using the unloading principles of bungees and slings, Redcord’s system offers specific programs to help re-educate the patient’s muscle control. 

SSM Health Physical Therapy’s physical therapists are specially trained in the Neurac (neuromuscular activation) method, a means of restoring movement patterns, muscle coordination and function. It consists of:

• Non-weight bearing, closed-kinetic chain approach
• Suspension exercises using Redcord technology
• Controlled vibration/perturbation to affected body parts
• Specific and gradual exercise program

SSM Health Physical Therapy has experienced therapists who use Redcord technology and the Neurac treatment method to help individuals of all ages and activity levels –recreational to elite athletes and those with orthopedic conditions or post-surgical needs. We maximize neuromuscular control for those with:

• Persistent pain
• Decreased motor control
• Joint replacement surgery
• Reconstruction surgery (including rotator cuff, labrum, ACL, UCL)
• Hypermobility from repetitive use