Look Out Sarah Conner

Pushing Boundaries has a machine which moves your legs as they would if you were walking. For me this machine can do some important things in terms of stretching contracted from long disuse and even longer sitting. It can also train the muscles in some of the movements they will need to use as I attempt to relearn some form of walking.
I have seen this machine used with people with cervical injuries who are struggling to recover use of their arms and have no hope of effective use of their legs and wonder why it is being used. Even for me, I wonder about the motions of my knee and foot. I currently have almost no ability to move my  knee on my own.
You start by putting on a harness which attaches around your chest and under the groin. You will hang in the harness while the straps are attached to the thighs, calves and feet. It took about 20 minutes to find the propper adjustments of a large collection of straps and braces. Presumably the next time I use the device all of these measurements will simply be dialed in.

Once all the straps are in place, the machine begins to move your legs, slowly at first and then in larger motions. Once the motion is going and well tolerated you are lowered onto the treadmill. You are now walking or more properly the machine is walking for you. I remember a comment from one of the spinal cord injury forums not about this device but about an exoskeleton which would allow you to walk independently using their motors. One person commented "I don't want to walk around looking like I am stalking Sarah Connor".

After 15 minutes of "walking" they tested the strength of my legs. With the right I was able to generate about 20 NM and about a third of that with the left flexor. Extension ( moving the leg down) was much weaker. When I asked what these numbers meant, Erin hemmed and hawed and eventually said that the company says you need about 40 NM to walk. I could say on the right that the glass is either half full or half empty.