Yesterday I was part of a research study my advisor is doing that compares muscle activation of a Curve (self-powered) treadmill and a normal treadmill. The Curve claims there is greater Glute Max and calf activation than a regular treadmill.

I haven't seen the compiled data yet, but I can tell you that self powering a treadmill is HARD. Because of how my ankles move (or don't move really) I had to run on my toes the whole time to hit the belt high enough to run as fast as they needed me too. So I was on a good uphill the whole time.

I can't tell you how much more my muscles were activated, but it took the same amount of effort, measured both by heart rate and my own perception of how hard I was working, to run 5.5mph on the Curve as it did to run 7.2mph for ten minutes on a normal treadmill.

I had 5 transmitters the size of tick-tak boxes put on 5 different muscles (under the blue tape): Glute Max, Quad, Hamstring, Calf, and Anterior Tib. Then there were 8 reflective markers on each leg: toes, both sides of the ankle, shin, knee, leg, pelvis in front, and pelvis in back. And athletic tape totally covering my shoes because they have reflective bits on them. Stylish, I know.

I mentioned I was interested in helping with research and not just being a guinea pig so I talked with the guys running the experiment for a while after. They showed me the results, which was awesome. In the lab we were in, there were about 12 cameras picking up the motion of those markers. Which they turned into a 3D stick image of my legs running on the computer. It was like how they show movies being made when people stand in for mythical creatures and such, but it was MY LEGS RUNNING! Awesome.

Even better than having my own skeleton on the computer, was that my advisor mentioned that he would look into seeing if they needed any more help with the study once they got all the data. It would just be analysis and plugging numbers into Excel, but at least it would get my foot in the door as far as research positions go.

Which would be freaking sweet to see all the research my professors are doing on body mechanics and stuff.