Anti-gravity treadmill on your NDIS plan, Five Dock
Walk or run carrying as little as 20% of your body weight, so you can start moving again before full weight bearing is comfortable.
An anti-gravity treadmill supports part of your body weight while you walk or run, which lets you train the movement long before you could manage it on the ground. For NDIS participants that opens up gait work, conditioning and confidence at a stage when the alternative is usually waiting.
It is at our Five Dock clinic and is delivered inside a physiotherapy or exercise physiology appointment rather than as a standalone hire.
Where reduced weight bearing helps
The treadmill is a tool, not a treatment on its own. These are the presentations where our clinicians reach for it most.
Neurological conditions
Participants working on gait after stroke, with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis or an incomplete spinal cord injury. Reducing body weight lowers the effort of staying upright, so more attention is available for the pattern itself.
After surgery
Where a surgeon has set weight bearing limits, the treadmill lets us work within them precisely rather than approximately, because the support is set as a percentage.
Load sensitive bone and joint problems
Stress reactions, joint pain and arthritis, where the aim is to keep conditioning while the tissue tolerates less than usual.
Deconditioning
Participants who have not been upright and moving for a long period, where the first goal is simply time on feet.
How we use it
You step into a pair of shorts that zip into the chamber around the treadmill. The chamber inflates and takes a set proportion of your weight. The support is adjustable during the session, so the load can be changed as you warm up or as fatigue sets in.
- Support is set as a percentage of body weight, so it is repeatable week to week.
- It is used inside a physiotherapy or exercise physiology appointment, with a clinician present.
- Sessions are usually part of a wider programme rather than the whole of it.
- Five Dock only. Gladesville participants are welcome to attend Five Dock for these sessions.
Whether it suits you
Not everyone is a candidate. It depends on your condition, any weight bearing restrictions you have been given, and whether you can get in and out of the chamber comfortably. That is what the first assessment is for, and it is a reasonable question to ask on the free call before you book anything.
More detail
We run a separate site covering the anti-gravity treadmill in more depth, including the conditions we use it for and how it fits a return to running.
The anti-gravity treadmill at Five Dock
Filmed at our Five Dock clinic. These show the treadmill being used for running rehab; the same body-weight support is what makes it useful for gait work after a neurological injury or a period off your feet.
Questions we get asked
Can I claim the anti-gravity treadmill on my NDIS plan?
Is it available at Gladesville?
How much weight can it take off?
Ask whether it suits your situation
A free 15 minute call with a Five Dock physiotherapist will tell you whether the treadmill is worth building into your programme.
Plan managed and self managed welcome · No referral needed · Five Dock & Gladesville