No, not actually walking on the moon. Entrepreneur Sean Whalen developed a product that allows people to exercise at less than their actual body weight. He started the project when he was 23 years old at Stanford (with a little help from his dad working at NASA), but he is now said to be worth an estimated 10 million dollars. His product idea is called AlterG. This is the treadmill of the future if there ever was one. As supposed to a normal treadmill, the AlterG takes the normal pressure of earth’s gravity (the feeling of it anyway) off your feet. It does this by changing the air pressure around your feet. It is super comfortable and highly precise.
It is truly a technological accomplishment. One of the great benefits of the AlterG is its effectiveness for those in rehab. It enables the user to exert as much energy as they want, while greatly reducing the amount of pain running would normally cause on their body. Those recovering from an injury can effectively strengthen their legs which would otherwise be too painful to move. Overweight and elderly people can benefit too because it helps them incrementally build muscle back up.
If you are really really interested in seeing the technology in action I’ve included a clip below!
This is a very interesting product. I’ve seen big time D1 athletes and professional athletes use it in videos before and was always curious of how it worked. I wonder if Mr. Whalen will try to get these treadmills implemented in gyms for the average person to use.
I find it inspiring and enormously powerful how much innovation and entrepreneurship goes towards helping often-ignored minorities. While many would see an idea like this as benefiting too small a market, Sean was able to capitalize on the idea, making it a great success.
This idea so very cool! This is definitely one of those products that makes you think “Wow, what an interesting idea!”. The producer of this product made a simple machine, the treadmill, into something new and interesting that can benefit a whole new line of consumers.
That’s such a good idea! Figuring out a way to create a product like this shows great innovation. The connection of the technology and concept from his surroundings with the treadmill created a whole new set of possibilities.
Wow, this is a really cool invention that definitely has several great uses and benefits! Also, I liked that you included a video so people that wanted to know more about the product could get more information and visualize it. Whalen is certainly a successful entrepreneur because he was able to take a treadmill, which had not seen much recent innovation, and add a completely new aspect with technology, creating an awesome product.
I had never heard of this before reading this blog! This shows that there are some incredible inventions out there. I really like how this helps those who may have disabilities or have suffered from a serious injury. Sean Whalen saw a significant problem and solved it through this invention, revealing his skills as an entrepreneur.
It is so important that innovators continue to remember the needs of the disabled in their projects. So many needs seem like they would be impossible to meet, but that’s why we need our brightest minds working on them. I love seeing so much inventive effort going into rehab.