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Frequently asked questions about the GRAVITY SYSTEM®.

Club owners and trainers often have questions about the GRAVITY SYSTEM. If the following answers to questions about the nature of exercise seem technical, it is because efi Sports Medicine focuses on providing scientifically sound information. If you have further questions you would like ask directly, email info@efisportsmedicine.com or call 800-541-4900 to speak with a GRAVITYSpecialist™.

  1. How can club members experience results so quickly from 30-minute workouts with the GRAVITY SYSTEM?
  2. What is functional exercise?
  3. What are some advantages of functional exercise within the GRAVITY SYSTEM?
  4. What are some of the main features that make GTS different from other equipment?
  5. Does the GRAVITY SYSTEM work the core in virtually every exercise?
  6. How does the GRAVITY SYSTEM minimize the risk of injury during exercise?
  7. How can the GRAVITY SYSTEM be adaptable to personal training?
  8. How can the GRAVITY SYSTEM be adaptable to post-rehab?
  9. Why are calibrated levels of resistance important?
  10. What happens when the club member changes GTS resistance levels?
  11. How does the GRAVITY SYSTEM fit in with the idea of “train the way you want to gain”?
  12. Why is the GRAVITY SYSTEM unlike other methods and systems?
  13. What is Incline Resistance Training?

 

Q. How can club members experience results so quickly from 30-minute workouts with the GRAVITY SYSTEM?
A. There are several reasons. Each exercise on GTS® offers both stretch and flexion in combination to create a comprehensive effect for defining and strengthening in a short time span. The dynamic pulley system, an incline that’s adjustable so the club member can pull a specific percentage of body weight and the rolling glideboard encourage the body to move naturally and synergistically—challenging multiple muscle groups at the same time, for an effective, quick full body workout. Club members find it easy to fit a 30-minute into a busy schedule. The quick, noticeable results promote customer satisfaction.
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Q. What is functional exercise?
A. Functional exercise is the best way to train for improved functional performance and strength. It recreates, within the context of the exercise, real life movements in real life positions, preparing your patients and clients for the day-to-day activities of daily living (ADL). On Total Gym it allows functional, partial-weight bearing exercise early in the rehab process. In athletic training, it lays a foundation for sport specific training and improved overall performance, proprioception and agility. Functional exercise emphasizes natural movement patterns so patients can move objects, including their own body, through space easily and quickly. Total Gym®, Total Gym PowerTower® and GTS® are each designed to provide functional exercise.
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Q. What are some advantages of functional exercise within the GRAVITY SYSTEM?
A. In the GRAVITY SYSTEM, muscles are worked as they are used in life—both in terms of lever load and movement. Exercise on GTS accommodates full joint range of motion in all three functional planes

Functional exercise on GTS is based on natural movement patterns and proper biomechanics. When the human body becomes the weight—on a rolling incline surface—it is free to move in any plane of motion. Functional, multi-plane exercises permit the targeting of specific fitness objectives.

Also, unrestricted body positioning invites exercise variations while GTS adjustable pulleys and squat stand features encourage proper force angles and movement patterns.

The muscle adaptation facilitated during exercise on GTS replicates that occurring in natural movement. This in turn improves functional performance. What this means to club members is that their fitness level and sports performance improve.
Cardinal Planes of Motion

Sagittal—front to back
Frontal—side-to-side
Transverse—rotating

Very few human activities involve movement through a single cardinal plane. Most human activity involves movement through all three planes of motion simultaneously. Exercise on GTS allows you train in all three planes of motion simultaneously, which prepares the body for optimal human performance. Because of the importance of exercise specificity, any exercise program should include multi-plane exercise as a major component of the overall program.
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Q. What are some of the main features that make GTS different from other equipment?
A. GTS features a rolling glideboard that fully supports the spine, a dynamic unilateral-bilateral pulley system that encourages movement in all three planes, full joint range of motion and resistance from 5% to 59% of body weight. With the GTS pulley system, resistance remains constant through the full range of motion. The eight calibrated resistance levels make it easy for club members to find a workout suitable to their fitness level.
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Q. Does the GRAVITY SYSTEM work the core in virtually every exercise?
A. Yes. Exercise on GTS recruits the muscles of the core, thanks to the dynamic instability introduced by the rolling glideboard. In simplest terms, exercising on the rolling glideboard recruits the muscles of the core in order to stabilize the trunk during most of the upper body exercises. Club members gain overall core strength, even when their focus is on a specific muscle group.
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Q. How does the GRAVITY SYSTEM minimize the risk of injury during exercise?
A. With most single station machines and free weights, compressive forces occur to the spine and extremities. The GRAVITY SYSTEM is different. Utilization of the angled glideboard reduces compressive forces to the spine during resistance exercise. Use of the dynamic pulley system reduces compressive forces to the shoulders and arms during resistance exercise. The back is fully supported on the glideboard, creating a safe low impact environment for the spine, even during abdominal exercises and plyometrics.
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Q. How can the GRAVITY SYSTEM be adaptable to personal training?
A. Trainers can provide focused attention to two or three clients at a time, each on a GTS. This semi-private and small group instruction offers cost-savings to clients and increases efficiency and revenues for trainers and clubs.
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Q. How can the GRAVITY SYSTEM be adaptable to post-rehab?
A. Exercise on GTS provides partial weight bearing and progressive weight-bearing closed-chain exercise, which is especially applicable to GRAVITYPost-rehab® clientele.
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Q. Why are calibrated levels of resistance important?
A. Calibrated levels of resistance are necessary to gauge effort and to track progress.  Accurate calibration can be reproduced. Accurate means they are true to national and international standards of weights and measures. Athletes who are training for competition want and need to know for certain the amount of resistance in use during exercise. Calibrated resistance is repeatable, on the same machine from one use to the next use, and from one like machine to another. This lets you judge your progress with precision.  Resistance on each GTS model is calibrated equally from one unit to the next.
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Q. What happens when the club member changes GTS resistance levels?
A. He makes incremental, measurable increases or decreases in load. Load simply means the amount of weight he is moving. Increasing the load requires that he generate more muscle force to move that load. This leads to strength adaptations of the muscles. Decreasing the load reduces the force needed by the muscles, to allow the individual to train his muscles for effort. The load on a GTS includes the individual’s bodyweight plus the weight of the glideboard and any added plate weights. Incremental, measurable changes in load help make the workout both effective and safe, whether the individual is just beginning an exercise program or he is training for sports competition.
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Q. How does the GRAVITY SYSTEM fit in with the idea of “train the way you want to gain”?
A. The GRAVITY SYSTEM offers programming in a variety of disciplines. For your club members who want to be fast, they can train fast. If they want more agility, they can train for agility. If they want to achieve more explosive movement, they can do explosive training. A major benefit of GTS is that it allows for a multitude of training modes: fast, slow, limited range of motion, full range of motion, deliberate motions or explosive motions, etc. GTS can be used for a wide range of exercise specific programs.
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Q. Why is the GRAVITY SYSTEM unlike other methods and systems?
A. With the GRAVITY SYSTEM, one versatile piece of equipment, GTS, engages all five components of exercise: body composition, muscular endurance, cardio endurance, muscular strength and flexibility. Clients of any age and fitness level work every major muscle group in a functional manner. GTS provides calibrated resistance so members can easily chart their progress. The pull of gravity provides a constant resistance that doesn’t vary from beginning to middle to end range of motion. And the dynamic pulley system allows the user to create the most functional movement pattern imaginable.

Q. What is Incline Resistance Training?
A. Incline Resistance Training on Total Gym® or GTS® provides a workout and results that cannot be achieved on any other piece of equipment. Quite literally, participants use their body weight as resistance against the pull of gravity. The process of this activity, this controlled movement of the body through the gravitational force on a free rolling glideboard, encourages an unrestricted free flow of multi-plane movement that recruits multiple muscle groups synergistically while working the core stabilizers. Over 200 biomechanically correct exercises make it the most versatile piece of fitness equipment offering fresh and challenging training sessions.
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