A chicken, a fox, and a rattlesnake (mountain) equals an adventure, and one I didn’t think I would get to do this year.

(If you are new to the idea of an ‘exoskeleton’ or you know me and haven’t read my prior post about it, read this post first for context on exoskeletons, my experience with it so far – and more details on why I have been using one for the last few months.)

In August, I bought a Hypershell X Pro exoskeleton, for many reasons. For me, and my individual situation, it has been a huge instrument of freedom, allowing me to get back to some semblance of ‘normal’ volumes and duration of activity (at least for hiking) than I was able to do earlier this year. I put ~250 miles on it within the first 3 months of using it.

Because I’ve been using it, I joined one of the Hypershell groups on Facebook and saw them post about a contest, where they were seeking 10 people who would create user-generated content (aka, take pictures and videos of themselves using it) of their next version, called the Hypershell Ultra. It was centered around doing a ‘challenge’ hike or experience. I applied, thinking I wouldn’t get selected, because 1) I have a condition which is why I’m using it; 2) and/or I already have the Pro so they’d maybe pick people who are all brand new to exoskeletons and 3) I post a lot of trail/adventure pictures but it’s more of nature, not myself, and I don’t have a ton of followers on public platforms – I’m not really an “influencer”. But you don’t get a ‘yes’ unless you apply and try, so I applied anyway. And somehow, I was selected! That means they sent me a Hypershell X Ultra, for free. If I meet all the terms and conditions of the challenge, I get to keep it, if not they’ll want it back. But I was given it to use for free, so factor that in below accordingly (although you might be surprised when you read to the very end of this post).

Why I wanted to do the challenge and try the Hypershell X Ultra

There are a few specific reasons why I really wanted to try the Ultra and was excited about getting access to one. For context, they came out this fall and were marketed at $1,999. That’s…a lot of money. I spent $1,199 on a Pro model which was a lot (but I’m definitely getting my money’s worth from it and am glad I got it). However, as someone who just bought a Pro, I was not interested in buying an Ultra at the $2,000 price point. But I definitely wanted to try it, because the Ultra has some differences from the Pro. Namely, 1) it supposedly has reengineered motors that are more efficient, so they claimed you would get more mileage out of each battery; 2) it has Apple watch support so you don’t have to pull your phone out and unlock it and open the app in order to do certain things while active.

Those, for my use case, would be a nice improvement. In most of my hikes, I have had Scott (my husband) carry the spare battery and we swap it out mid-hike so that I can use as much power as I need. With two batteries, I can do 8-10 mile round trip hikes (and even those with ~3000+ feet of elevation gain) without fully running down the second battery. For me, and the type of adventures I’m doing, one battery isn’t enough (it handles about 4-5 miles of moderate-high intensity flat and maybe 3-4 miles of uphill adventures). So more mileage out of the same two batteries sounded great. That’s also where the watch view comes into play. I found, with the Pro model, that I didn’t like leaving adaptive mode on and instead, having it on Walking mode worked better for me (it still adapts to downhill etc automatically). (More on why about the modes in my other post). But, there are times where I would want to change the mode or would need to check the battery because I’m prone to getting in the zone and charging uphill on my hike and running the battery all the way down to 0, where it dies without warning. There’s no audio or visual cue on the device if you’re actively moving to indicate that you’re about to run the battery down – you just get to the point where it suddenly stops providing assistance and you notice it. Then you stop and change the battery. Which is not a major big deal, but the Hypershell mobile app on iOS has a long-running bug where if you don’t open your app during the hike and you manage to run the battery down to zero…it tracks none of the steps or the mileage. It’s not the only way I’m tracking mileage, but it usually means I lose 4+ miles off the lifetime mileage which I think (because I’ve now done this half a dozen times already!) is going to add up over time and influence my ability to see where I am relative to the expected lifetime of the device. (This is an app issue they should be able to fix with software, they just haven’t yet). TL;DR for that part – the Ultra has a watch app where you can change settings AND see the battery, so I’d have more of a clue without having to pull my phone out to know when I’m getting close to the end of the battery and better plan for it so it doesn’t die halfway up a hilly stretch or that I remember to open the app before that happens.

I also wanted to do it as a motivation to get back out there and do a patented, Dana-and-Scott-special, which is what we jokingly call a chicken and fox adventure day (named after the river-crossing puzzle).

A chicken-and-fox adventure is something we started doing years ago, when I got into ultrarunning. Scott runs, but he doesn’t have the patience for long, flat runs like I do. He’d rather do long distance biking (which I have less patience for), or hike. So on long ultra training days, we’d drive out to the mountains somewhere and I’d pick a running route where Scott could drop me off and then go bike somewhere long and/or interesting, and we’d meet up at the end. Often, that turned into him dropping me off then parking the car at the end of the route, then he’d bike elsewhere, and I’d run my 20-30 miles to the car, grab the car, and drive to wherever his adventure ended and pick him up. Or vice versa with dropping him off at the start and then going for my run. We have had many awesome adventures like this, where “together” we are going out for really cool adventures even though we do them slightly differently, and we have great experiences to share with each other.

In the past year and a half or so…we haven’t had those adventures, because I haven’t been running, and I can’t ride my bike in the same way, and I didn’t feel confident hiking alone for very long. But, since August, my confidence began to grow after a lot of hiking (I’ve put 40,000 feet of elevation gain into my hikes between August and now, all with the Hypershell X Pro exoskeleton).

Thinking about the Hypershell X Ultra “Challenge” made me realize that I could – and wanted – to challenge myself to get back out and do a chicken-and-fox adventure.

The challenge I chose was a chicken and fox adventure on Rattlesnake Mountain (the one in western Washington state in the US)

The adventure I had in mind was a route I have always wanted to do, which is the full end to end Rattlesnake mountain hike. I’ve done parts of it – many people have, especially from Rattlesnake Lake to the Rattlesnake Ledges, which is a famous hike near Seattle that a lot of people do. Rattlesnake Ledges is one of our favorite places to take visitors, so we’ve actually done that twice this year. The other side of the mountain is also a good hike, although more about the wander through the forest. It starts at a mountain biking shared trailhead and meanders up to a few turnaround views (e.g. Grand Prospect) that also makes for a good out and back hike. If you want to hike the entire mountain, you need two cars…or you need someone who will do part of the hike, turn around and hike back down, drive around and meet you at the other side while you hike up and over the rest by yourself.

I had mentioned this hike / idea of an up and over several times, but the idea of hiking by myself made me nervous, especially with my physical abilities changing, because I sometimes need a hand getting up or down really steep, rocky terrain and I’m less sure-footed than most people. However, after ~250 miles of experience hiking with the Hypershell X Pro, my perspective was changing, and I was less nervous hiking in general *and* with the idea of hiking ~6-7 miles by myself up and over the mountain. So I pitched it to Scott and got him to agree to be the chicken* in our chicken-and-fox adventure day, with the plan of starting our hike on the Rattlesnake Ledges side, hiking up to the Ledges, then having him turn around and hike down and drive around to meet me on the other side…while I hiked from Rattlesnake Ledges up and over the remaining segments of the mountain trail by myself!

And that’s what we did (*although Scott claims he was the raft, as the car driver, rather than the chicken or the fox).

PS – if you’re in the area and doing the Rattlesnake Ledges hike, the “Ledges” you come to are actually the “first” ledges – there are two more ledge areas that you can hit! Yes, it’s more climbing, but only a few hundred feet between the ledges and the second ledges, and then up to the third ledges. There are really cool views at each set of ledges where you can see the other ledges, so it’s worth doing on some of your Ledges hikes.

What using the Ultra was like

Like I do for all my hikes, I got out of the car at the parking lot and put it on, which entails clipping the belt around my waist, clipping on each leg strap, and turning it on by pressing the button on the device. It auto-connects to the app and your phone without you having to open your phone each time (which is why, see above, I sometimes manage to run down an entire battery without having the app open so it doesn’t record the mileage in that scenario).

(Also like on most of my hikes, I made it 20 steps from the car before someone I walked by commented on the exoskeleton. It’s always really fun to be able to share with people, because often it’s people who have previous injuries or knee problems or other challenges who have heard about them, watched a video online, but never seen one in person before!)

Based on my experience using the Pro version, I know I like to do most of my flat or slightly uphill efforts on “eco” (green) mode at about 50% power. When I get to hillier sections, I’ll put it into “hyper” (red) mode and toggle the power up as needed for a bigger boost of power on lifting my legs as I climb, but for this hike with smooth terrain with more gradual climbs, I start on my personal defaults (eco, 50%). However, with the Ultra, the ‘re-engineered’ motors mean that the settings I use from my Pro don’t feel strong enough to assist me at the same level. I found myself bumping up to “eco” 75% to feel closer to what I experience with “eco” 50% on the Pro. (I thought maybe this was a one-off, but that does seem to hold true across a couple weeks of using it.)

Like using the Pro, having the Hypershell X Ultra makes it so I could do this full hike. It’s not a short hike: the full Rattlesnake Mountain hike is marked as 10.2 miles but from parking lot to parking lot it is closer to 10.9 miles and I tracked over 3,000 feet of elevation gain. I could do “just” the Rattlesnake Ledges hike (4.3 miles round trip, ~1100 feet of elevation gain), I could do the other side, but my muscles would be too fatigued to safely do a 10+ mile hike, so we wouldn’t even try it without an exoskeleton. And, there’s no way I would have considered doing it alone. Which…I did!

Scott hiked up with me to the main Rattlesnake Ledges (the ‘first’ ledges), and we took some pictures, then decided he would hike up with me to the next ledges as well. (In part because I estimated the hiking speed and he would be killing a lot of time waiting on me at the other side, and so he’d have more enjoyable views going up to the extra ledges than hiking through the forest without a view on the other side). We went up to the next ledges, and then he handed over my poles and headed back down the mountain, while I took off up the rest of the mountain…by myself!

(Earlier this year, I found that I needed to use hiking poles on uphill climbs to help me compensate for the very specific leg muscle function I was impaired by. But with the exoskeleton helping target lifting my leg, I have found that I rarely need poles going uphill anymore. Instead, we usually carry them folded up and bust them out of the backpack and use them for stability/confidence on downhill terrain. When Scott turned around, I still had another few thousand feet of elevation gain to go, so I didn’t need the poles, but I took them with me just in case and also so that I had them for the downhill side, which I would do solo.)

We swapped batteries before Scott left, so that I had a fully charged battery for my solo segment. I think at the time I had used only ~40% of the first battery. In retrospect, I should’ve kept the other battery with me, but I didn’t (we put it in his backpack).

I hiked up all the way to East Peak, which is the farthest I had ever been up this side of the trail. I eventually crested onto a ridge where there was a logging area and really clear views on both sides – and the weather had cleared so I had several miles of visibility south to see areas that I had never seen before! I saw one trail runner pass me between this section and Grand Prospect, but otherwise I had over 4 miles solo with no one else in sight…and no concerns about my ability to cover the distance, alone, up in the mountains. Which was so, so, cool. (My only hesitation came with the occasional blowdowns of trees across the trails, one of which was a little challenging to climb over. Otherwise, it was smooth sailing along the trails by myself.)

I made it over to Grand Prospect and took a picture to document being there, because this marked the section of the trail I was familiar with. At this point, I still had 4 miles to go to the trailhead! Right after this, the trail began trailing downhill into the forest and this was where I was glad I had my poles, because although this trail is very smooth (as far as trails go), it had rained pretty heavily the previous two days and was muddy and slippery in a few places. Eventually, as I meandered down and was about 1.7 or so miles from the trailhead, I suddenly noticed my legs felt heavy. I looked down and…no lights. I had run down the full battery on the exoskeleton. Oops (see note above about my partially charged battery being with Scott). Luckily we had planned for Scott to hike up and meet me (rather than sitting around at the car), so I had less than 10 minutes before he reached me and we swapped the batteries back. Ahhhh, that felt so much better. (Although you don’t lift your legs as much on downhill terrain, you still lift your leg and that’s specifically where I have muscle impairment that is really aided by the exoskeleton, so it is night and day even on flat or downhill terrain for me when I use the exoskeleton versus walking without it. So I was glad to have my powered assist back on!)

We finished out the hike at the mountain biking shared trailhead, on the other side of Rattlesnake Mountain. I did it! I was so jazzed. I had been confident about the mileage and elevation, because since August I have done some other hikes in this ballpark of elevation gain and mileage, but it was really rewarding to feel confident enough to do that many miles up on a mountain ridge all by myself and feeling confident enough to deal with whatever situations would arise while hiking solo. And I would not, at this point in my situation, have done this without an exoskeleton.

I previously wrote about some of the benefits of using an exoskeleton, especially for hiking, but two months since writing that post, some of the specific aspects of using it that I wanted to highlight include:

1. I can step up and over things more easily. This could be stepping up onto a rock step, or up and over a branch on the trail. These things used to require poles more often; see above where now I very rarely need poles for the uphill even when stepping up and hiking up a long series of rock steps!
2. I also less often ‘need’ poles for downhill smooth terrain, like most of the Rattlesnake Ledges hike. I still like having them for trying to move quickly, or for wet/slippery terrain, or bigger step downs, but for rolling smooth terrain I often will go without for the downhill. I didn’t feel like that was even a choice before!
3. Because I can get my legs moving back at a reasonable pace for both flat walking and for hiking, I found that I can actually get a good cardiovascular workout again. Meaning, I used to be limited by my legs rather than my cardiovascular system, and my heart rate rarely was elevated and I couldn’t push myself because I was leg-limited. Now, I can actually walk briskly and raise my heart rate intentionally; same for hiking. This is huge for my overall health.
4. At the end of hikes and walks, because the rest of my muscles are less fatigued for compensating for the missing muscle action, I am rarely scuffing my feet at the end of walks and hikes the way I was pre-exoskeleton. I also have less fatigue in my muscles, even though I am going farther and longer and working my legs and my cardiovascular system harder! Pre-exoskeleton, I realized that I was limiting us to 8 mile hikes and then more commonly 4-6 mile hikes. Now, I’m back up to regularly wanting to choose 8-10 mile hikes on a regular basis. (And same for elevation: I had limited us down to ~2000 feet of elevation gain hikes for a while, because of fatigue concerns for the end of hikes, and now have no problem choosing >3,000 feet of elevation hikes again!)

All of this was in play during my challenge hike. I actually chose to do this long hike, alone, because I felt like I could do it. I got more physically out of the hike, because I was able to actually locomote and activate my cardiovascular system more, because I wasn’t wasting all my energy just moving my legs. I didn’t need my poles for going uphill. And I didn’t scuff my feet or trip on the entire hike, even though I was out there moving nonstop for 4 hours and 15 minutes!

What using the Ultra is like, compared to the Pro

Remember that my review/experience is skewed by having a lot of experience with the Hypershell X Pro. If you want to read my gushing about how exoskeletons are an instrument of freedom and the best thing since sliced bread for me lately – read my previous post about it. Otherwise, keep in mind this is mainly a comparison between the Pro and the Ultra, rather than never having used an exoskeleton then trying the Ultra.

You should take away from my first blog post (really, read it first if you haven’t!) and this one so far that exoskeletons are awesome and for people like me, they are a huge instrument of freedom. I never want to be without one, especially as long as I’m in whatever situation I’m in where my muscles work differently than they used to. That being said, I do see a lot of people asking online about the Ultra, the Ultra versus other models, etc, and I want to explain – from my perspective – what the differences are. And this needs a major caveat: my experience is 1) that of a person with some kind of condition that affects my leg muscles and 2) that of a person who personally bought and heavily used the Pro model before being given free access to the Ultra. Then read the below two sections because I’m going to give specific answers to what you should consider getting (or not) if you already have an exoskeleton versus what you should consider if you don’t already have one.

The difference between no exoskeleton and the Pro is probably 5x stronger than the difference between the Pro and the Ultra. The Ultra does have re-engineered motors supposedly causing it to be more efficient…but in my use case (which is likely different than the average person – remember my default ‘walking’ mode is eco 50% which is a lot higher than most people’s) I found that I had to bump the power up so much higher on the Ultra – to default eco 75% for just flat walking, and often 75% hyper mode for hills, too, then also often going up to 100% hyper for bigger hills. I rarely did that on the Pro. It is possible that I’m getting more mileage per battery, but I still don’t feel confident that it is because it’s more efficient or if they changed the power settings relative to each of those modes so I’m not using as much power as I was before. And while most people maybe wouldn’t notice that, I actually do. Because of how my leg muscles are specifically impaired, I can absolutely tell the difference between these. So I was less excited after using it, because of those factors for my unique situation.

The watch mode IS a game changer, though, for people like me who are busy hiking and not looking at our phones. It gives you a way to quickly turn adaptive mode on and off or switch between eco and hyper if you’re not familiar with the on-device button way of doing it (although it’s easy to learn: it’s a two second long press to switch you back and forth). But for me, the biggest benefit is having the watch app to show me the battery level! That helps me better see as I’m getting to the end of one battery as I often do, so I can remember to open my app (until they fix that bug) and also to look at where I am on the hike and decide if I want to go ahead and swap it out if I’m in the middle of a big steep section and don’t want to have to stop mid-climb when it suddenly dies. I did see a post somewhere that the watch app will eventually come to the other models (I hope so!), in which case this will also be a selling point for the other models rather than a differentiator for the Ultra. Update: as of early December 2025, the watch app now supports all models! So this is no longer a key differentiator.

The Ultra does look different: instead of orange and silver reflector material on the leg straps and waist belt, it is primarily black. The bars that extend down your legs are also black, because they’re the lighter carbon fiber material. I think aesthetically, the Ultra is a little more ‘subtle’ because of those color changes, especially when you’re wearing it against pants. In summer, when it’s against bare legs with shorts, I think it’ll be noticeable the same amount, but because I got access to the Ultra when I started wearing longer pants for hikes and walks this fall, it does feel like it’s less visually noticeable. Weight-wise, though, I don’t notice a difference from the carbon fiber material and the Ultra being slightly lighter overall weight than the Pro. This is something I actually considered about whether to buy the Pro versus the “Carbon” version originally..but I actually am not bothered by the Pro weight at all. The weight difference is maybe there, but because the Pro weight doesn’t phase me at all, it doesn’t feel like a big differentiator to me. However, I do see some people online who perceive the weight of the Pro to be a factor for them, so I’m guessing they’d benefit more from the lighter weight than I do.

Takeaways for those considering an exoskeleton if you don’t already have one

If you’re on the fence about getting an exoskeleton – yes, you should get one. Especially for those of us who have conditions that have changed our activity levels and patterns – it really is a game changer. The question shouldn’t be “should I get one” but “which one should I get”.

And based on my experience, I look at the math on battery, power output, and my experiences with both (see the chart on my previous post if you want to breakdown all the variables for the 3 main models outside of Ultra), and say…I still think the Pro is the best deal, for most people with the current pricing models. 

1. The $200 difference is absolutely worth it for the higher output and second battery that you get with the Pro versus the lower “Go” model.
2. I chose the Pro originally because I didn’t think the main difference between the Pro and the Carbon, the weight difference, was worth $500. After using it for several months and after trying the carbon fiber (lighter weight) based Ultra, I still think that’s true.
3. I originally thought, before trying it, that maybe the extra mileage from the ‘re-engineered, more efficient motors’ on the Ultra would be worth it, so it would be a question between the $1200 Pro and the $2000 Ultra, with it being worth it IF you were someone like me who was really putting a lot of miles in and was regularly running down 1.5-2 full batteries per activity. But…after using it… in the current iteration, I don’t think that’s the case. (Again, my perspective might be skewed by ‘how high’ I run my default power levels, starting at eco 50% most of the time. So maybe that mileage boost is more for people who don’t by default use as much power as I do for all mileage. People who are fine with lower power output and are high mileage probably would like the Ultra.)
4. I still think most people are best suited by the “Pro” model. And if you’re like me and really putting the mileage in, it would be cheaper to get the Pro and later buy an extra battery or two than it would be to go for the Ultra. Unless you’re not like me and are a lower power need and also maybe someone who would notice the weight difference when wearing it.

TL;DR: you should absolutely get an exoskeleton. But, for most people, see above – go with the “Pro” unless you have specific reasons (e.g. lots of mileage and/or strongly preferring the slightly lighter weight of the device) to choose the Ultra.

Takeaways for those considering an Ultra if they already have another model

I think the same outline above applies here, which is that most people who have a Pro or a Carbon likely won’t benefit enough from the Ultra to justify an upgrade while theirs is still in good working order. I think the people who would benefit would be if you started on a “Go” model which only came with one battery and doesn’t put as much power out. Then, a switch to the Ultra is a reasonable shift for a second version exoskeleton, if you can afford it: otherwise going to the Pro gives you likely 90% of the benefit of the switch. However, a Pro to Ultra or a Carbon to Ultra doesn’t make as much sense until you wear down your existing exoskeleton and it reaches end of life, or you are someone with a Pro who really needs a lighter weight version and uses lower power output but still runs the battery down, in which case you might be the use case that is suited to the Ultra. But if you’re not in those situations, you may not have as much need to upgrade until your existing one reaches its end of life.

And who knows, maybe subsequent firmware and software upgrades will change the Ultra. If they manage to change the power levels back to something that better matches the Pro where I have more range to use the upper end of the power *and* get more mileage per battery? Then I will be a huge fan and encourage people to factor that into their decisions. But until then, see above.

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TL;DR: I love exoskeletons, they’re an instrument of freedom. I paid $1,200 in August 2025 for a Hypershell X Pro exoskeleton and love it (still love it). In late October/early November, I was given for free a Hypershell X Ultra exoskeleton after being selected for the Hypershell X Ultra Product Explorer program and have been using it and comparing it for the last several weeks. I love the opportunity and appreciate being chosen in the explorer challenge program so I could try it, and because it motivated me to head out on a big chicken-and-fox adventure up and over the full length of Rattlesnake Mountain, which I wouldn’t be able or willing to do without an exoskeleton to support my adventuring.

Instruments of freedom are devices, tools, hacks or things that help us do more than we could otherwise, and often do more with less pain or hassle or risk.

Instruments of freedom can be small everyday things, like noise cancelling headphones that help you focus or an effective rolling suitcase that’s easier to roll through the airport. They can be anything that reduces the energy cost of doing something, or increases your comfort or confidence, or expands your choices and flexibility and independence. Instruments of freedom are for everyone, but they can be especially meaningful for people with various health conditions, especially those of us impacted by physical limitations as a result of these health conditions.

I first considered the framework of instruments of freedom a few years ago. A few years ago, my mindset went from “I don’t need poles” for hiking to “I wonder if poles might be beneficial”. I tried them, and they were immensely helpful. I didn’t know if it was because my balance and proprioception has changed ever since I broke my ankle (and later a toe), or if I would have benefited from them all along. Nevertheless, they were highly impactful for helping me power up and more confidently come down hills. As my body changed for other reasons (a new autoimmune disease affecting my lungs and muscles), poles went from optional to the only way I would be able to hike at all. But as hiking has become even harder, I have kept my eyes open for additional instruments of freedom that might be helpful. Specifically, for over a year and a half I have been wanting to try a lower body exoskeleton, but could not find one that was commercially (and easily) available, light enough, and at a price point that I was willing to pay.

Until now.

I discovered one called “Hypershell”. There were 3 versions available (“Go”, “Pro”, and “Carbon”) at the time I was evaluating them, with different price points ($999, $1199, $1799) with different features and accessories.

Here’s what the features were at the time I was evaluating them:

	Hypershell Go X	Hypershell Pro X	Hypershell Carbon X
Peak “Horsepower” output	0.5 HP (400W peak)	1 HP (800W peak)	1 HP (800W peak)
Motion Postures Recognized	6	10	10
Weight of device	2 kg	2 kg	1.8 kg
Battery range	~15 km (9 miles)	~17.5 km (10.5 miles)	~17.5 km (10.5 miles)
Temperature rating of battery	IP54 & Anti-Cold Down to −10 °C	IP54 & Anti-Cold Down to −20 °C	IP54 & Anti-Cold Down to −20 °C
Number of batteries included	1	2	2

(As I’m writing this in August 2025, note that they’re announcing a new “Ultra” model in September 2025 but it’s not clear yet what additional features or capabilities it will have.)

I wasn’t sure, though, if I would be able to use and benefit from the Hypershell. It’s hard to explain what my physical limitation is, but it results in me feeling like I can’t press off my ankle effectively (I wear ankle braces on both side) and there’s weakness in my thigh and hip, especially on the right side, that makes it hard to step up and over when going up the stairs and hiking. I can do it, but it’s exhausting, and it results in a weird sick-muscle type feeling after I do it a lot. I joined a Hypershell user group on Facebook and also the “Hypershell disability users” Facebook group. The second disability-based group kept cautioning that you needed to be able to lift up your foot 3-4 inches and take a step in order for the device to kick in. I was nervous about getting it and it not being able to work for me. But, there is a 2 week (14 day) return period, so I was hopeful that if it didn’t work I would be able to return it and get a refund. (But there were also not-so-great reviews of their customer service communication and the refund process, so I was nervous about that.)

I decided to get one and try it. I also specifically decided to choose the “Pro” model (see table above).

Why I chose a Hypershell Pro model instead of the Hypershell Go or Hypershell Carbon

The reasons I chose the “Pro”:

1. $200 difference from the base model (Go), but with the 10 motion patterns. Given that I’m hopeful that I can do more types of activities like I used to, I wanted to be able to have as much capability as possible.
2. More power output – the Go only has half as much peak power as the Pro/Carbon.
3. More range (mileage, albeit slightly)
4. Two batteries, including the better cold-resistant ones, on the Pro/Carbon instead of only 1 on the Go.
5. …but I didn’t care about the .2kg weight difference, and that was really the only difference between the Pro and Carbon. That wasn’t worth $500 between the Pro and the Carbon.

Unboxing the Hypershell exoskeleton and getting set up

Before the Hypershell arrived, I went ahead and downloaded the app. It required an email address and a password, and it also asked about height and weight. It had a decent onboarding experience in the app with videos embedded to show you how to open and get started and how to size it. The height and weight was used to give you a starting setting for the waist. But then I couldn’t do anything else in the app until I had connected the device.

When it arrived, I had low expectations for being able to use it right away, because people online talked about how long it took to charge/having a hard time charging it at first. Because of that, I expected to need to wait an hour or two of charge time before I used it and also was ready with a higher power wall plug to charge it. For some reason, the Hypershell batteries came (both) at 6% charge, but it was enough to turn on and get started for setting up the device. I was able to turn it on and get it connected in the app, do the onboarding (walking you through the first mode changes etc and taking test walks around the house in the different modes) even with it in 6% low battery status.

But then I took it off and put it on the charger to charge it up. I used the same wall plug I use for my laptop, and that was sufficient for its 65W charge rate. It takes a little over an hour to charge the 72 Wh battery up to full, and the lights on the device itself will show you (4 lights) when it’s fully charged, or you can see it in the app. It’s handy to have it lit up on the device because my husband, without access to the app, can see and change batteries to charge the next one himself.

In terms of getting set up and putting it on, it’s very straight forward. It gave me a starting suggestion to use for the waist size. I used that (and have never changed it), tightened up the waist strap and leg straps, and it was good to go from there. Once I got the waist strap tightened, I haven’t had to re-tighten or change that. I have had to tweak the leg straps a little bit here and there, partially because of how it slides around on my leg (see below re: sweating, chafing, and wearing in the summer as opposed to wearing it over a layer of clothing), but it’s quick and easy to tighten the leg strap or loosen it when needed and not a big deal adjustment wise. I did read a few people saying it slips down their hips and they got suspenders to help, but I haven’t had that experience (I’m female, so I have plenty of hip bone for it to rest against, and maybe that’s in part what makes the difference?). The first time I put it on, because I was adjusting straps, I put it on while sitting at the edge of a chair and getting everything set up and tightened, then stood up and tweaked the straps, then turned it on and began using it. Now, I can grab it and put on the waist belt while standing, then slightly lean over and attach each leg strap (so I don’t have to sit down to put it on). Because it carries the battery in the back and the design also has the support bar around the back, it’s not really comfortable to sit with for long if you want to lean back against the back of the chair, but it’s fine if you’re sitting down briefly on something (a chair, a bench, etc) if you’re not trying to lean back or sit up against the back of anything.

My first time using the Hypershell Pro X

I was conservative with my first time using the Hypershell, in part because of users in various groups warning about taking it easy and not overdoing it. (If you have no disease/physical limitation as your reason for wanting to use this, you can probably ignore this.) After it charged fully, I put it on and went for a short mile and a half walk to see how it felt.

I knew from the onboarding experience (where it has you testing different modes) that I didn’t need “hyper” mode turned on to walk. “Eco” mode is the base mode, and you can adjust the power setting either on device (pressing a button twice increases it by 25%, triple pressing it drops it by 25%) or in the app with a slider that allows you to adjust it 5% increments.

I tried 25% power for my first walk, which was enough to feel the lift pulling my thigh and knee up. It felt so good! It made walking feel smooth and easy, especially on the right side where my thigh/hip muscles are more impaired. It felt like it made my walk more balanced in terms of not slogging along on the right side compared to my gait without assistance. I noticed a sensation of a few muscles feeling activation that normally aren’t getting activated (this is probably unique to my situation), but had no soreness or issues right after or the next day as a result of this test walk.

The next day, I did my normal length walk (of about 4 miles) with the Hypershell.

The third day? I took it hiking. And…(more about this below)

Small hiccups with adaptive mode recognition (that may be unique to my gait)

I had my app set to ‘adaptive motion recognition’, which is where it detects what you are doing (e.g. walking, going downhill or down stairs, idling, etc) and adjusts the assist based on the motion. It takes a step to kick in any assist and it takes about 2-3 steps into a new pattern (e.g., starting to go down the stairs) to swap modes. This means if I was walking toward the stairs and starting to go down the stairs, it would be the second or third step down where I would feel it change into downhill mode where I could feel it providing resistance against my thighs, as opposed to lifting my thighs as I stepped down. It was also very noticeable when I got to the landing and would take the 2-3 steps to turn the corner and continue down the flight of stairs. It would feel stiff-legged like I needed to tip toe to walk and then just as it switched to walk mode, I was going down the next flight of stairs and again it took 2-3 stairs before it was back on down hill mode. Not a big deal, but it did make me aware of it. I went down the stairs (carefully) while looking at the app which shows which motion pattern it is detecting, so I was able to see (and not just feel) that it was switching those modes and that’s why it suddenly felt different.

The other hiccup was when I was out walking on the sidewalk, which is flat. It was in walking mode and I was indeed walking, when suddenly it threw a stiff legged resistance at me. Huh?! I looked at the app and it showed “downhill” when I was walking on a flat surface. Weird. It reverted back to walk mode after 2-3 steps. It happened again later on my same walk. I must have something weird about my balance or gait that leans backward (?) or otherwise causes it to sense downhill, so it shifts to downhill mode. It didn’t trip me but it did make me go “woah” and I didn’t love it because I wanted to just be able to forget and walk without thinking about wearing it.

So as a result, I decided to turn off adaptive motion recognition and use it in ‘manual’ mode, rather than having it auto-detect. I’ve used it in “walking” mode ever since as my default mode, and it works great. It also still auto-detects and shows you what motion it detects in the app, but even with over a dozen miles of flat walking, it’s not thrown the downhill resistance in unexpectedly again. And, even in walking mode it still provides enough support and resistance for actually going down the stairs/downhill, regardless! So I get the same benefits without the risk of the sudden incorrect downhill resistance.

Kicking the tires of the Hypershell Pro X with hiking. A lot of hiking. Three days in a row!

Before using Hypershell, I could still hike. I used to hike three days in a row almost every week, but with this muscle disease, I found myself not being able to easily do it, so I would often hike Friday, rest and do something easier Saturday, then do another hike (maybe) on Sunday. This has been true for the last 6 months (or longer).

But my first hike with the Hypershell was on a Friday, and it went great. I played around with using the adaptive motion recognition and found that I couldn’t tell a big difference in the assist with ‘uphill’ mode versus ‘mountain climbing’ mode versus ‘walking’ mode. Downhill mode was good, but I also tested going downhill while in ‘walking’ mode and found it was good enough. Since all of these mode changes have to be done in the app, and the exoskeleton itself covers my pockets in a way that makes it hard to get my phone in and out of my pocket (plus I’m carrying poles), I decided I would try staying in ‘walking’ mode for everything from flat to uphill to downhill…and it did great. I felt so much more at ease stepping up and over steps and rocks and powering up hills the way I used to, and I also was thrilled that the little bit of resistance to my thighs for downhill made it easier to step and control my downsteps. All of this increased ease and control somehow resulted in me not generating the ‘sick muscle’ feeling I have been getting in my legs and glutes after hiking. In fact, I felt like I hadn’t been hiking at all! I was so thrilled that we decided we would hike again with it on Saturday, a second day in a row.

I did wake up with really tight calves on Saturday…but normal hiking tight calves, the way I used to get after the first few hikes of a new season when my calves are out of shape for climbing. I was thrilled because that meant that I was activating and using my legs MORE (despite the powered assistance of the exoskeleton!) on that first hike. Tightness and all, we decided we would hike again, and we actually chose a longer second-day hike with reasonable elevation now that I felt confident I could handle more of it with the exoskeleton. And I could: the second hike was also great, and I left it in ‘walking’ mode the entire time on the way up, but did find that I wanted to use higher power settings (still in eco) as a baseline and increase it further for hills. I think I used 30-40% as my base power, then would increase it more for bigger inclines. The nice thing is that for downhill, you are using less power, so even with ⅔ or so of the battery used up on my first and uphill half of the hike, I ended up at the bottom of the second hike with just above 10% battery left because the downhill uses so much less battery. (I had it in ‘downhill’ mode for the way down, where it provides resistance on the way down but when you’re on flats it’s not lifting your legs much as it would in walking mode.)

That went so well that…we headed out for a third day in a row. My first three-day weekend in a long time! Again, we chose a long hike with more elevation than we ever would have predicted would be possible for even a second day in a row, let alone a third day. This time, I was feeling more overall fatigue (hello, three days of hiking in a row!) and so I started with 50% power (eco mode) and cranked it up on hills. I finally remembered that I could adjust power with the button on the device, double clicking to add 25% as I went up a hill and triple clicking once I was on a flat (to decrease it back by 25%), without having to pull out my phone and open it and navigate to the app and slide the toggle. That made it easier, because I could still do that with poles in my hand.

Because I was cranking up the power more on this third day in a row, I did run out of battery on this hike. This was in part because there was a pretty steep climb on our return route about 2 miles from the end (of an 8.8 mile hike), and I wanted to crank the power all the way up to 100% (still on eco). I managed to get the battery down to 10% about halfway up that steep climb, and when it hits 10% it still goes but it definitely decreases the output. So we stopped and swapped to the second battery (that I had Scott carrying in his backpack). It’s quick and easy to pop off and swap (I let Scott do it). I powered it on and it instantly reconnected to the app, I put it back on 100%, and cranked my way up the rest of the hill with relative ease. Then I bopped the power back down to 50% for the rest of the hike. One of the reasons I ran down the first battery is because on the downhill/return portion, I kept it in “walking” mode for more assist rather than “downhill” mode. Again, three days in a row meant I was more tired overall and my legs were tired (but normal tired, not disease-tired), so I wanted the extra power to make sure I kept good form and didn’t cause injury by doing an atypical gait in my fatigue.

And I didn’t – I finished the hike, tired (normal tired) and with legs feeling in no way like we had hiked for three days, even though we did.

In three days in a row (which I can’t do without the Hypershell), we hiked 25 miles and over 6000 feet of elevation gain (which I wouldn’t be able to do without the Hypershell).

Instrument of freedom, indeed.

Did I keep the Hypershell Pro or did I return it? Is it worth it?

By the middle of the very first day of hiking, I knew I was keeping the Hypershell.

It works so well for me, and it really is an instrument of freedom for me. I love walking even on my flat paved trails with it, again because it makes my right hip and leg movement so much closer to what I used to experience (before my muscle disease).

Between my daily walks and the first two weekends of hiking, I have put around 60 miles on foot with the Hypershell Pro.

I’m definitely keeping it. It will be interesting to see if I run into any issues with my high-mileage use. The warranty is supposed to last for a year, and the website estimates ‘normal use’ service lifetime is 3000 km (1,900 miles). If I kept up my current pace of use (averaging 60 miles in two weeks) for a year, that would be around 1,560 miles, still under the expected lifetime use. I’d probably run into that life expectancy (which doesn’t mean it’ll stop working but might be when I expect it to run into issues) in about 14-15 months (or less if I increase my mileage).

But given how much it empowers me to move in the ways I want to move… it’s worth it. And I’m excited to see what other exoskeletons are coming to the market in the future, too. There may be more options for me to consider when this one eventually breaks or wears out.

Does it help with downhill or going down the stairs?

One of the things I really was hoping the Hypershell would help with is going downhill. I have trouble exerting power all the way through my foot, which is really noticeable when I am going downhill on looser dirt or rocks, where it feels like my foot is likely to slip sideways and cause me to jolt/lose my balance. As a result, my downhill hiking became as slow as the outbound uphill hikes (instead of faster, which is common for many people and the way it used to be for me) and made me really rely on my poles for balance. Plus it was super stressful and made hiking less fun, and I also skipped a lot of hikes that had a lot of rocky steps or rocky and loose rock downhill gravel terrain. But because of the Hypershell experience on my first hike, I actually chose a pretty rocky hike for the second hike because I was hopeful that it would help my sure-footedness. And it did! So much so that my second weekend of hiking, I chose a 9 mile hike with 3,100 feet of elevation gain that had a two mile stretch of loose rock and loose dirt with a good portion (1800 feet) of the downhill elevation. And I did great, with the Hypershell on.

But I didn’t know it would help when I got it. A lot of people talked about how it ‘didn’t help going down stairs’, so I had low expectations. When I went down stairs the first time, I didn’t notice a big difference, but when I hit the landing and took those 2-3 steps toward the next flight of stairs, I could feel that stiff legged feeling that definitely indicated it was providing resistance! So it was doing SOMETHING, but sometimes it was hard to tell what it was. Over time, with more experimentation on stairs and testing ‘downhill’ and ‘walking’ mode on different downhill terrains while hiking, I realized that I could feel the thigh-based resistance more strongly when in a higher power setting. The way it seems to work is it either provides some kind of down force against the leg as you are stepping down, or it provides resistance against your leg movement. I’m not quite sure which it is, but it results in a bit of pressure against your thigh, and probably some resistance on the sides (to limit lateral movement while stepping down), and it definitely helps me.

The other way I’ve figured out how to notice it is that with higher power modes while walking (and in walking mode), you can feel the lift ‘up’ from the thigh but depending on how quickly your leg is moving you can also feel the bar pushing back down into the down step. So the motor is able to move the bars (and thus your thighs) both up and down, and that’s likely also similar to what’s happening in downhill/stairs mode, but it’s less noticeable because you don’t lift your thigh as high (or at least, I don’t) when stepping down and it’s a much subtler force against your legs. But if you have stairs with landings, that’s a great place to put it in downhill mode and feel that type of sensation when you get to the landing and take a few steps before you do the next flight of stairs down.

There is also a setting you can adjust call “hill descent control” and once you toggle it on, you can adjust it between ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ (defaults to the middle of that range). I turned mine on but haven’t experimented with adjusting the slider to be stronger, but that may be another reason why I notice a benefit on downhills, whereas other people may not have turned that on.

Is it annoying to charge?

You have to charge the battery on the device itself (with a USB-C cord, and as I mentioned a beefy enough wall charger) or in a special hub that doesn’t come with it. The special hub can charge 4 batteries at once, off-device. Mine came with two batteries and since they charge up in an hour-ish, even if I run both batteries down and get home, it’s always going to be 12+ hours before I want to use it again and that’s plenty enough time to re-charge everything, even with swapping to the second battery to recharge.

I can see how if I went to having 3 batteries and using them regularly that I might want to also get the multi-battery charger, but for 1-2 batteries and my usage, it’s generally not a big deal.

Is there anything I don’t like about the Hypershell Pro X?

I have two (ok, three) issues with the Hypershell. All are minor.

For me, the adaptive motion recognition setting triggering ‘downhill’ when I am walking on a flat surface (albeit randomly and only occasionally) is annoying. Again, I don’t know if it is because of my gait or if there’s a bug in the pattern recognition. There is a workaround – putting it in ‘walking’ mode. I have found that it’s totally fine to keep it in ‘walking’ mode when going up or down stairs, up or down hills, on varying terrain, on flat surfaces. It still provides the lift to pull my thigh up just fine, and it also does the ‘resistance’ force for downhill and down stairs the same (or very similar) to the actual downhill setting. If I want to do more, I can easily turn the power up or down using the on-device button and get more force (for either lifting or resisting), and that is faster than trying to swap modes on my phone.

The second issue is chafing against bare skin. Ohhh, the chafing. You’ll notice that all of the pictures on their website and videos are of people wearing it over pants for winter-type activities. Some people hike in pants during the summer, but I got mine in July and I don’t wear long pants to walk or hike, so the straps around my thighs are against bare skin. I didn’t have any issues for the first few walks (which were all around an hour) but my first hike, which was 3 hours, caused some chafing. So on the second day, I covered those spots with bandaids. It wasn’t enough, I ended up with more chafing spots. So on the third day, I tried putting kinesio tape on my legs where I thought spots would chafe or were already chafed. That did help, but because I’m hiking so long (3-4 hours, multiple days in a row), just like ultrarunning in dealing with pack chafing, it’s hard to deal with once you have chafed spots.

The second week, I tried additional solutions. First I tried wrapping the pads themselves with “adhesive bandages” (think ‘vet wrap’, the stretch stuff that can stick to itself). I was trying to see if just covering the back of the front thigh pad would work, because there are seams underneath it. That helped some, but the force of the corner of the pad itself was chafing. I then bought a roll of 5 inch “tubular bandages”. I got 5” because I have more muscular thighs and I wanted to try putting a piece on my leg like a leg sleeve, and then having the pads against that, so it would rub against the bandage and not my skin. It helped some, but it was still digging in at the corners. So then I tried the leg bandage sleeve AND adding a layer of that material over the pad, double wrapping it at the corners. It helped some. But again, because I already had chafing, I don’t quite know what would work best to completely prevent or eliminate chafing. (I also have tried a 4 inch tubular bandage that was black, to better blend in with the leg strap, because the 5″ worked well but really popped in color and drew the eye to my legs, whereas the black better matches the leg bars and leg straps. In terms of functionality, I like the 5″ tan color better for using as a leg sleeve actually on my leg, so I’ll probably use that as a base layer if I’m not taping as described below when I’m not actively chafed, and then use the black on top of the leg pads and around the buckles directly.)

The next thing I have tried is hydrocolloid bandages (example, there are a lot of different brands and sizes and I’ve found no difference between name brand and off brand versions) on top of the biggest already-chafed spots, with the idea that it will provide cushion and also the pad corners will be more likely to slip on that versus digging in at the exact same spot. Because hydrocolloid (“blister” bandages) stick directly on the skin, I added a bit of neosporin on top of the chafing before applying, so that the bandages don’t stick to the slightly raw skin. The challenge with hydrocolloid bandages is that they take up any fluid, like blister fluid, but also sweat – so as you get sweaty, they’re more prone to peeling up or getting rubbed off via the edges. If you have a big enough bandage that’s less of an issue, but don’t expect to be able to cover a tiny area with a tiny hydrocolloid bandage and not have it peel up from the friction of the leg strap/pad itself or have it start to come off from sweat. I also tried applying larger strips of kinesio tape on top of the hydrocolloid bandages that are smaller, and the hydrocolloid seems to provide a nice cushion against the already chafed spots and the kinesio tape helps prevent it from rubbing the hydrocolloid bandage off.

It’ll be better in winter, when I’m wearing it on top of a layer of pants, and it’s not a reason to stop using it. In fact, most people probably won’t wear it long enough even in hot weather to experience it, but I wanted to document some of the solutions I tried in case anyone else does run into it.

UPDATE: the best solution I found is:

1) as soon as I notice the chafing begin in any spot, I stop and put a strip of kinesio tape in that area. (I pre-cut kinesio tape strips and carry them in my pack).

2) if I miss preventing a chafing spot and something has rubbed, I do a combined strategy of first putting a piece of hydrocolloid tape (I bought a roll so I could cut strips rather than using bandaid-sized – it’s cheaper and easier to apply different shapes) AND then putting a piece of kinesio tape over it. Why? Because as noted above, the hydrocolloid will collect sweat and fluid under the skin and start to come up during an activity, unless it’s anchored – and it’s best to do that when you apply it. That double strategy (hydrocolloi+kinesio, applied when your skin is dry) lasts for several days or longer (I’ve had it last up to a full week, even with multiple showers per day and using the exoskeleton every day), and it both heals up the chafed raw spots and protects subsequent spots from building up. So that’s a great solution during multi-hour bare-legged hike/activity season.

We’ve now also gotten to fall and I can confirm that chafing is not an issue at all when wearing it over long pants.

The third minor issue is accessing my pockets. The motor is on the outside of my hips and although the bars curve around down the front of my thighs, the access to my side pockets on my shorts is blocked. This is where I typically store fast-acting carbs on one side (because I have type 1 diabetes) and my phone on the other side, but I basically have to stop walking and pause and really finagle my hand in under the motor and bar to access something in my pocket. It’s annoying, so I actually stopped carrying my phone in my pocket while wearing it. I decided to get a phone carrying case that mounts to a backpack strap – or in my case, a Hypershell waist strap! It lives on the strap and I’m able to slip my phone into the 4 corners whenever I want to. I also like that the webbed strap comes out of the case, so I can pull my phone off it and use it (while it’s still in the straps) and then quickly put it back on the belt mount. There’s a little more friction to the experience than without the Hypershell, but it’s 5x easier than finagling my phone out of my pocket under the Hypershell.

If you want a referral code for a Hypershell, here is a referral code.

Right after I bought my Hypershell, I automatically got an email for a referral program. If you use this code, and you buy a Hypershell, it gets you $30 off. It’s not a lot, but it’s better than nothing. Sometimes they run deals where you can get accessories for free or some dollars off particular accessories. The ones I’ve seen are usually for more than the value of the referral code – e.g. they might offer an additional battery which is a $99 value instead of the $30 off. Depending on your situation, you may like one or the other better. I mention it because it doesn’t seem like it’s compatible to use the $30 off referral code at the same time as the other deals (or it wasn’t at the time that I tried to use someone else’s referral code at the time of my purchase).

Referral code (click this to generate the $30 off code which you use at checkout on Hypershell’s site): https://hypershelltechglob.refr.cc/referral30/u/danalewis

Should you get a Hypershell? Why or why not?

My experiences above are as someone living with an autoimmune disease that is affecting my muscles. But now that I’ve gotten it and tried it, I think I would love it even without the need for assistance with my muscle disease. Why? It’s like an e-bike for the legs. Not in the sense that it can do all the work (it can’t, it can only provide up to 20-30% assistance: you’re still doing a lot of work), but because it is an equalizer.

My husband and I have had e-bikes for years. We loved them, because of the equalizing effect. I can bike longer with e-bikes than I would without an e-bike. In fact, before we got e-bikes, we didn’t have bikes and would only sporadically ride (rentals), because biking wasn’t my thing. When we got e-bikes, we biked for dozens of miles at a time, together. I could bike at whatever power assist level I needed or wanted for the day, and he could use less assist and get more of a workout, but it enabled us to bike together (and to WANT to bike together) in ways that we couldn’t or wouldn’t otherwise.

An exoskeleton is the same situation, roughly, as e-biking in this sense. I talk to several people who ask questions when I’m out walking or hiking with the Hypershell on. Sometimes people ask about it for bad knees (I don’t have knee problems but I can imagine it would help – if you have knee issues and Hypershell experience, please share in a comment below!), but a few people have asked about it for backpacking experiences. One couple immediately said “I wonder if this would help for backpacking” and I said probably, yes – because the company advertises it to be able to do more for longer, especially with gear (e.g. they show people hiking with photography gear or big backpacks). So even without medical conditions, I could see getting a lot of use out of it when you have a pair of people who have different capabilities or range who want to go adventuring together. Especially if you’re a set of people (or an individual) who like to put in a lot of miles throughout the year…just like I am. I’ve already done 5 hikes in two weeks (plus a bunch of paved walks) and just hiking alone, that takes the per-hike cost down to $240, and will drop further each time I use it – remember that I wouldn’t have done some of these hikes at all (either because I couldn’t do them in subsequent days or I couldn’t do particular terrain at all). That per-hike cost will continue to drop over the course of the year (or more) of use that I expect to get out of this Hypershell Pro X.

How much work are you really doing when you wear a Hypershell exoskeleton? Doesn’t it do all the work for you?

Each of the two Hypershell batteries I have are 72 Wh (5000 mAh). That’s…actually not that much. It’s the equivalent to ~62 kcal if you’re thinking about food calories as a comparison. If you could continuously run the motors at full power, it would d only last 5-6 minutes. (That’s why I ran it down fast on 100% power on a really steep hill at the end of my third hike). With less power output, it goes longer time/mileage (e.g. the around 10 miles range estimation on lower power setting in eco mode), but it’s still only 62 calories of total energy, whereas I might be burning the equivalent of 1000+ calories of active energy in the course of a 3-4 hour hike. Yes, it provides power, but it’s targeted power to your legs (and there’s also heat loss), and you do a LOT of other work controlling your trunk, hips, core, arms, balance, etc. so it maybe contributes to 10-20% of energy savings. But again, you’re likely to do more – remember the e-bike analogy – and burn a lot more than you would without the Hypershell by doing more, well above and beyond anything you saved by using the Hypershell. You still do 90% of the work, for longer time and longer mileage and more elevation, resulting in more effort overall. You will still do plenty of work, but it will be easier to go further, longer, etc.

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TLDR: I got a Hypershell Pro, I love it, and it’s enabling me to do more than I could before (in my unique situation with a muscle-related autoimmune disease). I do recommend it, for a variety of different situations, whether or not you have any physical limitations. It’s an instrument of freedom for anyone who wants it.

Feel free to ask any questions below. I can’t answer questions specifically about whether it would work for your specific setup or medical condition, but I can try my best to generalize from my experience & what I’ve read from others online.