In episode #59 of the podcast, Dr. Kate and Dr. Kacy interview Brad Miles, a former collegiate distance runner, current ultramarathoner, and co-founder of LEVER, a company manufacturing body-weight support system for treadmills that allows individuals to train at reduced body weight percentages. During the interview, Dr. Kate and Brad bond over their love of business ideas and multiple business startups surrounding running. Brad initially came into running as a high school athlete where he ran track and cross country and describes how he knew that running would be a lifestyle for him. After high school, Brad continued his running career by competing in cross country and track for Baylor University while concurrently pursuing his business interest in the marketing and entrepreneurship program there.

Brad tells the story of how he and his business partner started their business of LEVER movement after college when they met while in Boulder, Colorado. He talks about part of the inspiration for LEVER being his use of an Alter-G Treadmill (reduced body weight treadmill system) while training at Baylor and being surprised at the limited access to this technology for the endurance community in Boulder. He discusses the unique design of the LEVER system and how he and his engineer business partner have created a design that allows for effectiveness and also a lightweight portability that makes it practical for use and travel. He describes the specifics of the system including a quick set up time (think less than 5 minutes!) and great ability to reduce loading overall and create a rich opportunity for training aerobic energy systems without building up as much joint and tissue loading. He mentions that the LEVER system is designed to be able to offload up to 45 pounds of body weight during treadmill training!

During the interview, Dr. Kate, Dr. Kacy and Brad talk about some of the training implications for using body weight reduced running technology like LEVER. They talk about Brad’s own success when he used LEVER leading up to his win in the Silver Rush 50 miler after suffering a bout of patellar tendinitis after a 20-mile training run. They talk about some of the potential benefits for healthy endurance athletes as well as potential applications for rehabilitation within a physical therapy setting. You won’t want to miss this informative conversation about the LEVER product and the future of reduced body weight training! Give it a listen!