Downstairs ergometer

[lucy smith]

Hi All,

I am looking for a machine for my laboratory that can allow participants to walk downstairs. I am sure I have seen one of these within the literature previously and wanted to know if these could be purchases (and if so, where from?). Alternatively, does anyone know whether normal stair ascent machines (such as the Stairmaster) can have their belts put in reverse?

Thank you in advance,

Brett

[Edmund Cramp]

I did a little searching but found nothing, I suspect the issue is that monitoring energy is relatively easy as we walk uphill but walking downhill is much more a case of being careful, it's more significant "how" you do it, not the effort involved. Maybe you could get some similar situation to walking down stairs by working on an Elliptical machine set "flat" - I just tried this out and it's a little bit like walking downstairs but with no foot location variations or movements.