Parachute body-weight support system

An overhead support system takes part of the body weight and catches a fall, which allows walking practice at the edge of ability rather than well within it. The harness pulls upwards on the pelvis or trunk, so the legs carry less of the body's weight 2.

It also means the therapist does not have to hold the patient up and can use their hands to guide the movement instead, so the session is limited by the patient's capacity rather than by the therapist's strength 2.

Exercise that genuinely challenges balance is among the most successful ways of preventing falls 3. Without a harness, the most demanding balance practice, such as being deliberately pushed off balance, cannot be done safely 3.

The harness removes much of that constraint: if the person loses their balance and cannot recover, it catches them before they reach the floor 3.

No study of this particular system has been published. The evidence concerns body-weight support and harness-protected training as methods, and in most studies of body-weight support the harness was used over a treadmill 2.

A Cochrane review of 56 trials with 3,105 people after stroke found that treadmill training, with or without body-weight support, did not make people more likely to walk independently than other physiotherapy, although this evidence is of low quality 4. Walking speed and endurance may improve slightly in the short term, mainly in people who could already walk, but with body-weight support the review found no clear gain in either by the end of follow-up 4.

For people who could not walk in the first 12 weeks after a stroke, a review of 15 trials found high-certainty evidence that machine-assisted walking with body-weight support led to more independent walking than the same amount of usual walking practice 5. For people who already walk and are more than six months past a stroke, a clinical practice guideline recommends walking practice at moderate to high intensity and advises against body-weight-supported treadmill training as a way to improve walking speed or distance 1.

In traumatic spinal cord injury, a systematic review of randomised trials found that body-weight-supported treadmill training did not increase walking speed more than overground walking practice or other physiotherapy, and its effect on walking distance was unclear 6. For people with an incomplete spinal cord injury who already walk and are more than six months past the injury, the same clinical practice guideline advises against it as a way to improve walking speed or distance 1.

In mild to moderate Parkinson's disease, a 2026 systematic review found five small trials of body-weight-supported treadmill training, with the harness taking 20–40% of body weight 7. They reported moderate gains in step length, walking endurance and balance, but the reviewers judged the evidence limited 7.

In multiple sclerosis with severe walking difficulty, a systematic review found limited but promising evidence for exercise training, including adapted forms such as body-weight-supported treadmill training 8.

In older adults and people with balance problems, it appears to. In a systematic review of randomised trials, those who did reactive balance training, in which balance is deliberately disturbed so that the person practises recovering, were less likely to fall in daily life than control groups, although more adverse events were reported with the training 9.

The disturbance may be a sudden push, slip or trip, and the training is usually done in a safety harness that catches anyone who does not recover 3. Reported problems are mostly minor, such as muscle soreness or soreness where the harness presses, and people who cannot yet tolerate being pushed off balance, because of anxiety or pain, may need more basic balance training first 3.

There is no agreed rule. A 2024 systematic review of 33 studies found starting levels between 17% and 78% of body weight, typically around 30% after a stroke and higher in spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis, and many of the studies did not explain how the level was chosen 2.

In almost all of the studies, support was changed during training to match what the person could manage 2. More support means less muscle activity and seems to shorten steps, and the reviewers argue that the level should be set for each person rather than by diagnosis 2.