How GlideTrak Helps After Stroke
Regain Your Mobility and Fitness

Speed your recovery with GlideTrak
The all in one gait, strength and fitness trainer for stroke recovery.

Body Weight Support Training (BWST) is the leading, clinically proven method [1-4] for post stroke gait training and aerobic exercise.  

GlideTrak is the only Body Weight Support system designed for home use and Professional Clinic use, making frequent, ongoing Gait  Training and Walking Practice safe, effective and convenient.

More than 6.4 million people are living with the aftermath of a stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA), which brings sudden neurological deficits when arteries leading to the brain are blocked or burst. During a stroke, brain cells die because the brain is not getting enough oxygen and physical and cognitive impairments result. The good news is that the brain is an amazing organ and can be “rewired” for optimal function thanks to its plasticity, or its ability to change and adapt.

The most common impairments from a stroke are loss of sensory function, motor function, cognitive abilities, perceptual capabilities and language function. The motor deficits are usually classified as hemiplegia (paralysis) or hemiparesis (weakness). The loss of functional abilities oftentimes results in other medical conditions and complications, including: diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, pneumonia, seizures and even injuries from falling. Plus, about 795,000 stroke survivors will suffer a new or recurrent stroke.

Since stroke recurrence is a real possibility, risk factors must be managed and neurorehabilitation and ongoing physical activity are important elements of ongoing care.

The part of the brain that was injured by a stroke does not truly heal in the musculoskeletal sense. Instead, neurorehabilitation focuses on reorganizing and re-educating the brain to send signals to the muscles that need to regain function. Think of it as a “rewiring” of the brain to help the body relearn how to move and ultimately “heal.”

Body Weight Supported Treadmill Training enables active repetition, task specificity and proprioceptive training/stretching with aerobic exercise. This combination is important in order to improve function and impact other medical conditions. In one randomized controlled study, the results of treadmill exercise versus stretching (control group) concluded that task-repetitive treadmill training could improve gait and fitness for stroke patients. The study’s investigators were able to show through functional MRI that cerebellum-midbrain circuits were recruited during the treadmill work, suggesting neural network plasticity.

Another study compared 50 stroke survivors who received locomotor training with body weight support (BWS) to 50 who received the training without BWS. The study showed that retraining gait with a percentage of body weight supported results in better walking and postural abilities than the control group. The study also concluded that older stroke patients with greater gait impairments benefitted the most from BWS training.

The ability to tap into the plasticity of the brain and encourage motor learning is clearly a powerful tool in any neurological rehabilitation program. The GlideTrak’s unique unweighting technology takes Body Weight Supported Treadmill Training to new levels. Enabling neurological patients to work longer and more comfortably, both in the clinic and at HOME.   The result of neurological rehabilitation with GlideTrak BWS  is greater progress when practicing skills needed for standing and walking.  The key is training without weight to move rapidly and as correctly as possible without the burdens of gravity.  After gait practice while unweighted in the pelvic support system, walking practice without the support system and with the balance or safety harness will embed new functional gains through practice.  It is best to train as long as possible at least once in the morning and once at night.