We're Anti-Gravity!

Our OccupyGlacier event was a dud....

Even though some of Glacier, Washington’s two hundred and eleven people might consider themselves radical, we ain't got no banks and we ain't got no billionaires. What we do have is some pretty wet and cold weather. So, nobody's into loitering for any length of time.

But watching TV, you see all these people sitting around painting cool signs like we used to do in kindergarten. Then, they walk around yelling a bunch like we never got to do in kindergarten!

These guys are really speaking out against things. We understand they're anti-rich, anti-establishment, anti-capitalism.

Well...  in our company we're not exactly against capitalism (cuz we practice it all the time, and one of these days we're gonna get it right....). We kind of like the establishment cause they buy our machines and use them to help our wounded warriors recover from their injuries. And, while nobody in our company claims to want to be a billionaire, nobody seems to be dead-set against getting rich either.

We still want to be in on the fun though. We want to take a stand against something....

The Case Against Gravity

Lately, we've been noticing all these cool products that have something against gravity. There's the awesome Alter-G treadmill. It's like running with half your body inside a balloon. And, just yesterday I saw this really funky anti-gravity body suit that was developed by cosmonauts. It's helping cerebral palsy patients make rapid improvements in their physical therapy.

The interesting thing about each of these products is they have a space background. Well, Shuttle Systems also has a background in space. Our 2000-1, MVP, and Recovery all had their genesis in the famed "space race" of the 1960's (a time also noted for its marching people and homemade signs).

Back in the Sixties, Gary Graham, the founder of Shuttle Systems, was a rocket scientist who developed a way for astronauts to maintain their heart and muscle strength during the weightlessness of space. That way, when the astronauts re-entered the earth's atmosphere, they came back looking like humans - not some helpless blob of... well... you can imagine....

It was years later that Gary resurrected his space prototype and that became our Shuttle machine. Our machines allow an injured person to lie down, taking away the effects of gravity, and rehab their injury with less-than-bodyweight. 

So, we've got a thing against gravity!

But Our Rebellion Doesn't End There

You can do all that anti-gravity stuff with our machines. You can rehab the injured. Your humongous athletes can do plyos while preserving their joints. But, just like the marching people with the signs, we've also got a beef with the status quo.

Yeah, we like it when an injured person recovers and gets back to normal... but who's ever content with normal? It's the next level that everyone's searching for!

So, our machines also use elasticord resistance. That enables you to take somebody from less-than-bodyweight, all the way up to multiple times bodyweight. Think of it as meta-gravity (sorry, just made that up). We think it makes for a very versatile machine.

Here, let me demonstrate the versatility in a true-to-life example.... 

Gators and the MVP

The University of Florida football team has three Shuttle MVP Elites in their Griffin-Oakley Strength & Conditioning complex. A few years back, we were visiting with Mickey Marotti, Director of Strength and Conditioning, and we asked him how he uses the Shuttle MVP. He said that while his players may emerge from a game uninjured, their bodies have taken quite a beating. So, what can a coach do to provide his players with a workout in between games. Is he gonna make them do squats?

No!

Marotti gets them on the MVP. That way they can get a workout without killing themselves. Again, it's that whole anti-gravity, less-than-bodyweight, easy-on-the-joints thing.

And, when we asked Marotti if he needed anything, he responded that he could use some heavier resistance cords. He told us that in the off-season their quarterback, Tim Tebow, was loading up all the bands on the MVP - and jumping. He was doing a plyometrics workout using 387 pounds of resistance.

That takes a freeking stud! Tim Tebow is a freeking stud!!

We sent Florida some bigger elasticords....

Photo by: Rubendn

True story! 

So. there you have it. We don't like gravity and we don't like the status quo... and we build our machines to overcome both!

Now, where's my magic marker and some cardboard....