“In a galaxy far, far way...” OK, this is just a fitness article, not an episode of Star Wars, but who’s to say we cannot enjoy a little space saga of our own?
When referencing various fancy or complex items of equipment found inside the modern fitness centre, I sometimes like to use the term ‘space-age’, usually in jest.
Of course, when we think of something ‘space-age’, we might imagine big machines with lots of buttons and flashing lights, created by some very clever people, capable of doing some truly remarkable things.
Since equipment itself plays such an influential role in the fitness scene, we tend to discuss and review various new offerings on these pages fairly regularly. This week, however, our fitness corner is inspired by a new item of space-age equipment in the truest sense of the phrase. Is it fancy? Yes. Is it expensive? Mind-bogglingly. Is it more technologically advanced than anything we have ever seen before? Absolutely.
The world’s most advanced and expensive piece of fitness equipment has just been developed in the US and is earmarked for installation in a very special facility far, far away. Exactly 400km from the surface of the earth to be precise, and hurtling over our heads approximately 16 times a day at a speed of over 27,000kph.
Indeed, if you cast your eyes towards the heavens due north tonight, at precisely 3.07am, you will see it with your own eyes, a speck in the night sky, looping about 14 degrees from the horizon and visible for a total of just under a minute. Yes, we’re talking about the International Space Station.
The project itself has revealed some interesting science about how the body works, including adaptations of muscles and bones, and how our blood vessels work.
One of the problems scientists identified early on about astronauts living and working in zero-gravity were the undesired effects of muscle and bone density loss.
Such findings have reinforced the theoretical principles of training that form the basis of all our fitness programming efforts.
If you don’t use a functional component of the body, it tends to shrink or weaken; ‘use it or lose it’. In zero-gravity there is no walking, running, jumping or crouching, just floating. Muscles don’t have to maintain posture or even lift things since everything up there is essentially weightless.
We might not be cycling in spinning chambers any time soon, but as long as physical exercise remains a high priority, we can look forward to some truly exciting advances in a future that certainly isn’t far, far away
The daily routine of astronauts therefore includes regular bouts of physical exercise. Their training incorporates resistance bands and hydraulic pistons for targeting specific muscles and treadmill running using elastic bungees attachments. Commander Chris Hadfield, who spent over 100 days aboard the space station between 2012 and 2013, famously posted his workouts on social media and took his training in space so seriously that he actually gained muscle during his time there – a real thumbs-up to the effectiveness of well-designed exercise programmes for improving health, strength and warding off the effects of bone density loss in older people.
The new space-age machine engineers have now developed involves an exercise bike positioned inside a centrifuge. The centrifuge is basically a spinning chamber which, through the forces produced by its motion, simulates gravity and provides a distinctly earthly feel.
The entire device has been designed to fit inside a space station capsule and conform to its various size and power restrictions, the kind of challenge talented engineers must love to sink their teeth into.
Back in 2004, I happened to be lodging in the UK with an engineer who worked for a major car manufacturer. His job involved the testing of vehicles on a giant treadmill-type device.
We had once deliberated, in a bit of a creative frenzy of head-scratching, diagram-scribbling and animated discussion well into the early hours, the possibility of developing an exercise bike based on the same technology for a more realistic gym-based training experience for cyclists.
Unfortunately, we sat on the idea. I happened to catch up with him in December 2012, when he informed me that one of his colleagues had designed a similar system for the cyclists of Team GB in their build-up to the London Olympics that year, making a very tidy financial sum in the process – testament to the continuing happy marriage between technology and exercise. I’ve been kicking myself everyday for two-and-a-half years now.
But alas, how does all this science and engineering actually affect us with our feet planted firmly on the floors of our real-world gyms? Well, when leading engineers just like those at NASA turn their attention specifically to the development of more effective exercise equipment, we can rest assured that some of their discoveries will eventually make their way into our own training facilities and homes, ultimately helping us to reach our goals more comfortably and efficiently than ever.
If you have any doubts, just consider some of the seemingly common modern technology we sometimes take for granted in our daily lives. We have the same great space-faring scientists and engineers involved in space programmes through the years to thank for so many wonderful things like satellite communications and navigation, laptop computers and even smoke detectors.
So we might not be cycling in spinning chambers any time soon, but as long as physical exercise remains such a high priority for those on the frontier of human exploration of the universe, we can look forward to some truly exciting advances in a future that certainly isn’t far, far away.
matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt