The upper body ergometer is a specialized instrument. The machine is like a bicycle for your arms. This type of exercise is isokinetic, meaning the resistance is variable to the degree of the force placed against the handles and the speed is constant. This allows for rehabilitation to your spinal musculature without pressure or movement to sensitive or injured structures.

The movement of your upper extremity evokes 1a afferents and mechanoreceptors of the upper body mainly from T6 and up. You have more representation of the mechanoreceptor afferents and 1a afferrants from muscle spindles from T6 superior than you do in the legs, therefore upper body ergometer exercise will more powerfully fire the reflex mechanism which in turn fires the vestibular spinal pathway from the floor of the 4th ventricle stimulating the shunt stabilizers of the entire spinal column.