this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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151
Name of exercise machine (?) with three concentric rings and a person strapped into the middle spinning in all directions? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
48 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Following on from https://alex.lemmy.ca/lemmy.ca/comment/16014727

In almost every scifi-action movie of the 90s, there appears an exercise machine (?) with three concentric rings, and you strap into the middle and spin around in all directions. IIRC the outside ring is immobile and upright, while the inner two move on different axes, so the user can spin any which way.

Universal Soldier, Fortress, Drive and a bunch more had it, but I don't have screenshots.

So I've posted my terrible attempt at drawing what I mean. (Either that or the logo for my new political movement.)

Anyone know what it's called?

And whatever happened to it? It's the future now, why aren't we all spinning around in every direction, in between sessions on our hoverboards and flying cars?

EDIT:

Thanks, everyone. Turns out it's called an aerotrim.

So far, seen in the following 90s scifi movies:

  • Contact
  • Drive
  • Fortress
  • Gattaca
  • The Lawnmower Man
  • Universal Soldier
top 48 comments
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[–] [email protected] 93 points 6 days ago (3 children)

This sounds like what you're after :)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerotrim

[–] [email protected] 39 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Yes! Thanks!

Wikipedia even mentions yet another 90s scifi movie I saw it in recently that I forgot had one (e.g. Lawnmower Man).

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago

They used one in Star Trek Enterprise as well.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Great movie.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Okay, after reading about it. I actually kind of want one.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

I went to Space Camp for a week when I was like 13. We all got to go in one for a bit. It makes you very dizzy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Lol these things are so goofy

[–] [email protected] 34 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Because it makes most disoriented and, at worst, sick. I’ve been in one, I don’t have problems with boat sickness or motion sickness and this made me completely lose any sense of my place in reality while spinning. Just awful.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

Yeah, I assumed it could awfully disorienting.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

this made me completely lose any sense of my place in reality

This is precisely why they used to (and still are sometimes, although not as often) be used for pilot and astronaut training. All the astronauts who went through the early Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions trained on one.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Its called the insane-o-flex...

At least in aqua teen hungar force colon movie for theaters thats what its called.

I never saw any other movies with one but your drawing got me to realize aqua teen was obviosly doing a parody of them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Best part of the entire movie had me dying of laughter before it even started…

https://youtu.be/loqYlYqtsmY

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

This needs to be in front of every movie.

“If I see you videotaping this movie, Satan will rain down your throat with hot acid and dissolve your testicles and turn your guts into snakes”

[–] ThanksObama 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I like your booty, and I'm not gay.

I'm going to have that damn song stuck in my head all night.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Jiggle jam, puddin cups.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I think they used one in Gattaca, which makes sense since they were training to be astronauts.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Of course!

Wikipedia says they were used for training astronauts but:

  • they weren't invented for that, actually developed for people with spinal injuries
  • they depend on gravity, so can be used in training on earth, but not in space itself

I've added Gattaca to the list of films now in my OP.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Looks like it's called an Aerotrim. I've actually been in one of those, it's pretty cool. Just for fun though, not as training. So I didn't control any of the movements.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thanks. How was it?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Pretty fun! It's been a bit so I can't really go into detail (my memory is pretty shit lol), but I'd definitely recommend it. Not nearly as nauseating as you'd think it'd be, in my opinion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thanks. Several lemmings have given their opinion, and it seems the experience depends on the person.

As someone who gets car sick just looking at a map, I would only try this with a predetermined safe word! :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I do get car sickness too, but from what I know that's related to a mismatch between what your eyes see and your ears' balancing organ (forgot the name sorry, not a native speaker) feels.

So in the car, you see your environment staying still around you, even though the vehicle is accelerating or decelerating. In this gyro, you could in theory see more of it, so this effect wouldn't be as bad.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Right, I remember seeing something about motion sickness being related to the mismatch.

Re the organ, Wikipedia says it's the vestibular system in the inner ear.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

What car is that logo for

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

MerMANcedes Benz

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Mancedes Benz is even better, you overcomplicated.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Ugh… it is better too. 😔

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Mermancedes is for their line of aquatic automobiles

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

A man powered vehicle? Slippery slope

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago (2 children)

doesn't look like exercise to me

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Saw a couple of these at an event I went to years ago. The people who tried it were saying that it's an exhausting arm, leg, and core workout after just a few minutes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Yup, I did this at some fair. you shift your weight to move into different directions. Mostly a core workout, or at least a requirement that you can push your hips into different directions. Not sure it's an exercise thing or just requires you to have some core strength to manipulate it correctly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

I always remember these at the carnival, and the point was to get strapped in until you hurl.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

A similar machine also plays a role in the 1997 movie Contact.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

And underrated genre classic Lawnmower Man

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

So far, the 90s scifi movies with an aerotrim we've got so far:

  • Contact
  • Drive
  • Fortress
  • Gattaca
  • Lawnmower Man
  • Universal Soldier
[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Do you mean a gyroscope?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That looks right. Seems the original name is Aerotrim, but maybe that's trademarked so I guess other companies use names like gyroscope.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerotrim

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Man those things used to be everywhere at events

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

An aerotrim?

Iirc they were supposed to be used to measure G-forces on a pilot. But, I mean, that came from Hollywood movies so I don't even know if NASA even actually used these things. They were fun to ride at the local fair, tho.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Invented as a way to alleviate back/spine pain, apparently, according to its Wikipedia page. Pretty cool.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Fr?

I need to get me an aerotrim... 🤔

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Pretty sure I saw one on that Temu one time 🙃 how unsafe could it be?!??...?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

There's a bunch over on Alibaba. they run about $3-$5K... They're calling them human gyroscopes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

I think the inversion tables are a better go. You can pick one up for under $150.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

That's it, thanks!

Wikipedia says not NASA but the German Space Agency and European astronauts who went up to Mir did use them for exercise.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

Pretty sure that was first implemented as a training thing for either fighter pilots or astronauts to learn to deal with disorienting movements.

It has since become a form or entertainment at carnivals and the like.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

I love a night on the rack