Making the Grade: An Exploration of Incline Running on a Bodyweight-Supportive Treadmill.

ABSTRACT

CONTEXT Bodyweight-supporting treadmills are popular rehabilitation tools for athletes recovering from impact-related injuries because they reduce ground reaction forces during running. However, the overall metabolic demand of a given running speed is also reduced, meaning athletes who return to competition after using such a device in rehabilitation may not be as fit as they had been prior to their injury. OBJECTIVE: To explore the metabolic effects of adding incline during bodyweight-supported treadmill running. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Research laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Fourteen apparently healthy, recreational runners (6 females and 8 males; 21 [3] y, 1.71 [0.08] m, 63.11 [6.86] kg). INTERVENTIONS: The participants performed steady-state running trials on a bodyweight-supporting treadmill at 8.5 mph. The control condition was no incline and no bodyweight support. All experimental conditions were at 30% bodyweight support. The participants began the sequence of experimental conditions at 0% incline; this increased to 1%, and from there on, 2% incline increases were introduced until a 15% grade was reached. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to compare all bodyweight-support conditions against the control condition. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Oxygen consumption, heart rate, and rating of perceived exertion. RESULTS: Level running with 30% bodyweight support reduced oxygen consumption by 21.6% (P < .001) and heart rate by 12.0% (P < .001) compared with the control. Each 2% increase in incline with bodyweight support increased oxygen consumption by 6.4% and heart rate by 3.2% on average. A 7% incline elicited similar physiological measures as the unsupported, level condition. However, the perceived intensity of this incline with bodyweight support was greater than the unsupported condition (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Athletes can maintain training intensity while running on a bodyweight-supporting treadmill by introducing incline. Rehabilitation programs should rely on quantitative rather than qualitative data to drive exercise prescription in this modality.