New sports performance and rehabilitation clinic Elevate have become the first place in the Channel Islands to offer clients the use of the Alter-G treadmill.
The equipment utilises NASA technology and enables people to train at up to 20 per cent of their total bodyweight, giving the impression they are walking on the moon.
The weightless effect allows people with chronic, debilitating injuries to train without pain and elite athletes including Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah have used it to allow them to train beyond their maximum and stay injury free.
Last weekend Elevate, which is based at Castle Quay in St Helier, opened its doors to the public for an open-day.
Islander Ali Flavell (42), who suffers from chronic dysphasia a condition that has rendered her wheelchair bound for the last 18 years, attended the open day and was helped to walk for the first time in nearly two decades.
Miss Flavell said she was overwhelmed by the experience.
‘Amazing, Amazing, Amazing, better than meeting Michael Jackson,’ she said.
‘I’m coming here to walk every day.’
Mark Stewart, founder of Elevate, said the open day was extremely positive and several Islanders who have suffered from sports-related injuries experienced the benefits of the new treadmill.
‘We had some amazing stories from the day,’ he said.
‘This lady was Mary Poppins and Snow White in Disney World giving immense pleasure to thousands of kids every year – we could not wait to show her what it would feel like to defy gravity and have her up walking – she was not expecting that.’
Using a system known as differential air pressure technology, the machine is able to provide partial weight-bearing therapy, in one per cent increments, to as low as 20 per cent of a person’s normal body weight.
This enables the user – who may be a training sportsman or a patient rehabilitating after surgery – to run or walk at much lower impact levels. The effect is very much like walking on air.
‘The machine was invented by NASA scientists to help astronauts to reacclimatise after returning to Earth,’ explained Mark Stewart, Elevate’s performance director. ‘After long periods of weightlessness experienced on visits to the Space Station, astronauts can find it difficult to walk again when back to their usual body weight.
‘The treadmill helps them to relearn the walking process once back on Earth.’
Mr Stewart, who opened Fitness First in the Island in 2001, travelled to the US in search of equipment that would bridge the considerable gap between fitness and rehabilitation.
‘There are clearly different markets for this machine,’ Mr Stewart said. ‘In training for a marathon, for example, there is massive stress on the joints. The treadmill can help the runner to increase training volume but without the risk of injury.
‘When it comes to post-surgery rehabilitation, we can take body weight out of the equation and treat the injury. We are removing the ground reaction force.’
For a patient recovering from a hip replacement, this means that they can be on the move again within 48 hours. The recovery rate for a broken knee is also greatly reduced.
‘It means that people are able to return to work much more quickly,’ said Mr Stewart. ‘The machine has benefits for orthopaedic and neurological conditions, it can assist in getting the morbidly obese moving again, and there are obvious advantages for sports clubs.
‘We are helping the Island to bet back on its feet.’
- The Alter-G works like any normal treadmill with variant speed and incline settings.
- However, users have to don a pair of special wetsuit-like shorts which zip into an air-tight bubble that surrounds the machine.
- The user’s weight is then calibrated and the bubble inflates to a certain pressure to lift the user off the running platform giving the impression of decreased gravity.
- It can be used to rehabilitate patients who have suffered serious and debilitating lower limb injures as well as elite athletes.
- Long distance runner Mo Farah uses an Alter-G machine to allow him to train beyond his maximum threshold without causing injury to his muscles and joints. He can therefore still improve his cardiovascular fitness without the impact on his body.
ISLANDER Ali Anstey (now Flavell) was one of the original cast members when Euro Disney first opened, back in 1992.
She worked at the new park from March until September that year, during which time she was best known for playing the role of Mary Poppins. Then aged 19, during that period Ali featured in one of the park’s first television adverts, Magical Sidewalks, and even had the chance to meet and chat with the late Michael Jackson.
Recalling how she first got her dream job, she said: ‘Having heard from a friend who had seen in a newspaper that they were holding interviews to work at the new park, I jumped at the chance, as I loved Disney and wanted to have a career in acting and singing.
‘The interviews were held near Trafalgar Square in London and, soon after, I discovered that I had the job and I was thrilled.’
Ali continued: ‘When Disney first opened in Paris, I was able to get a direct flight there from Jersey, but unfortunately they don’t do this any more. I can remember us being put up in hotels around Paris and, as Disney was not actually built in the centre of Paris but just outside, we had to endure getting up quite early to take buses and trains to the actual site, which wasn’t quite finished yet.
‘I had to look for my own accommodation, but sometime soon after that they built flats, La Boissorie, for people working there.’
Having mentioned that she liked watersports, Ali was originally given a job in Festival Disney (now called Disney Village), hiring out the little boats at the Marina Del Ray. However, while doing that she heard rumours of character interviews taking place and went along.
‘I remember originally being chosen as Snow White but, because of my height, I was also chosen to play the parts of Mary Poppins and Tigger,’ she recalled.
During her time at Disney, Ali also had a unique encounter with one of the biggest stars in the world.
‘Before the park opened to the public Michael Jackson hired it out. He had his bodyguards and two young boys with him,’ she recalled.
‘When he arrived I was unable to meet him as everybody surrounded him, however – I swear to this day it was because I had given my attention to the two boys and that they must have mentioned me – when Michael emerged from the Park he specifically asked to see Mary Poppins.
‘I remember treating him as a ”normal” person and asking him ‘And who are you, young man?’ He liked the fact that I treated him normally and laughed, saying: ”I’m Michael!” ‘
Ali was then named ‘cast member of the year’, winning the chance to spend a week in Walt Disney World in Florida.
However, disaster then struck in September 1992, when she was forced to return home after suffering severe headaches. Soon after, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour and had to have seven operations to the brain, then 32 treatments of radiotherapy. She then caught meningitis and, following a lumber puncture, when her heart briefly stopped, she was left paralysed.
Ali then spent seven months at Harrowlands in Dorking, becoming the first person from the Channel Islands to go to a rehabilitation centre in the UK.
She was invited back to Disneyland Paris in 1994 as a special guest, when she performed in Good Morning Main Street, dressed up as Mary Poppins with Minnie and Mickey. She was also invited as a special guest to that year’s Les Nuits des Stars – the Cast Member of the Year awards – where she received a standing ovation and a huge bouquet of flowers.
Ali has since returned to Disneyland Paris on a number of occasions and took part in the 20th anniversary celebrations there in 2012.
‘In my mind, because I was ill I lost my opportunity of becoming something I wasn’t,’ she said. ‘However, I am lucky enough to have survived and I now have a husband and two beautiful boys.’
