Interesting...
If that's the case, I'm surprised no one can come up with a method to do it upright since upside down is not fun when the blood starts rushing to your head. You don't have to be hanging from your arms(though that would be free) but you could easily just hang from your underarms with a harness or something... as long as your lower torso isn't being held up, it should still provide relief so long as it's hanging. :\
I don't get how it works. I understand gravity puts a lot of pressure on the spine so this reverses it. But what I don't get is that if you're standing, your upper body puts pressure on your spine, so wouldn't your lower body do the same thing when upside down. Ok so now you're thinking there is no pressure because you're hanging from your legs so that your upper body is pulling your spines apart thereby relieving backpain. So now I'm thinking, what's the difference between that and just hanging from your arms instead of your legs?
I tried one of these at one of those "Relax the Back" stores a year or so ago. At first I was all tense being upside down but then the guy that worked there said "take a deep breath in and out and try to relax". I did so and holy crap I dropped a good inch closer to the ground just from letting my back muscles relax. I had a nice non-painful popping down my lower back and was just instant relief of pressure from my lower back. I didn't turn 180 over but more like 150.
After I spun back around and stood up and walked for awhile longer after leaving the store I couldn't get over how good my back felt.
I've had a bulge in one of my disc ever since I was rear ended by a Ford F350 in 2005.
Man I want one of these so bad now.
1. i'm a healthy male adult so yea i'm good.
2. my core is probably stronger than 95% of the population as i've been working out 4x a week for the past 5+ years.
3. i've seen doctors and had MRI's and chiropractor was never recommended after seeing 3 doctors so i'm not going to bother that route. i was recommended exercises to do to help w/the pressure, and those did work. however my back is nowhere NEAR as bad as it was 5 or so years ago when I messed it up. it's gotten much better.
i mainly got this because i've noticed that certain days at the gym i will tweak it and it aches for a few days, and i was always curious about how it felt. there is a way i can lay on the hamstring curl machine at my gym that will give me relief because it pulls my legs apart from my lower back, so that got me curiuos as to an inversion table. so far i'm glad.
chiropractors are only sometimes recommended by medical doctors who are more knowledgeable. some of your older ones who are stuck in the "chiropractors are quacks" mindset don't make appropriate referrals.
unfortunately, however, there are many, many shitty chiropractors out there. maybe there aren't any good ones out near where you live, which is why you never got the referral.
it's harder. there's no comfortable way to do it without harnesses, like a vest you hang in while your legs dangle. there's a machine that actually kinds does that, except you're on a treadmill... it's called a newton. it helps rehabilitate lower extremity injuries without much weight bearing.
your upper body weighs MUCH more than your lower body. so you have much more of a pull when upside down.
also as i've stated a few times, i get the most relief from my lower back when i'm not fully upside down. it's when i'm angled downwards.
that is much harder to reproduce than simply hanging by your arms.
there is a way i can lay on the hamstring curl machine at my gym that will give me relief because it pulls my legs apart from my lower back, so that got me curiuos as to an inversion table. so far i'm glad.
there isn't much difference at all. it's actually a safer way to do it and add a weight belt... it's just that most people don't have the arm strength to do that and it takes less effort to hang by your feet, even though it's more dangerous.
That's what I'm talking about, some kind of vest harness that causes you to dangle. Or you could tie a rope under your arms... People hang themselves all the time.
I've tried hanging by my arms and then completely relaxing my spine to do this, but I always get horrific lower back spasms after I try to bend over for the first time after doing this. Any thoughts on why this happens? Am I doing something wrong? I'd love to be able to do the decompression because it feels amazing while I am doing it.
You mentioned there are safer ways of doing it?
That's what I'm talking about, some kind of vest harness that causes you to dangle. Or you could tie a rope under your arms... People hang themselves all the time.
You could always harness yourself from an angle as well on a table... and you could also add ankle weights or a weight belt to create more pull.
you have muscles that attach from your low back to your arms... and when you stretch a muscle, it's natural tendency is to contract harder to make sure you don't tear it. so, when you're hanging like that, you've got muscles that are working against you in your attempt to get a nice decompression.
i had a patient who had a couple failed low back surgeries... she was wheelchair bound and i got her walking again. decompression, dietary changes, and muscle strength is huge. if she can start exercising in the pool a lot more and build some muscle and then get in to see a physical therapist or a chiropractor with a decompression table or a distraction table, that'd be best. i'm assuming your wife is a senior and i wouldn't recommend an inversion table for a senior. in fact, i wouldn't recommend it for someone who sits around a lot of the day, either... it'd increase the risk of a clot migrating or a stroke.
so... these spasms are to be expected and i'm not risking permanent injury as a result of them?
I don't like the inversion tables. The blood rushes to my head and things go...dark.
A couple of local chiropractors have "invested" in the DRX9000 (or something like that) for disk decompression. I wouldn't mind trying it, but without insurance, the cost is prohibitive. (last time I checked, $175 per session)
I have thought about using something like this, my problem is not in my lower back though, it is at the base of my neck, between my shoulder blades. Not sure how to decompress the area. I feel like I should hang by my head to get relief, if that makes sense. Not going to try that though...
Any suggestions? I workout, have gone to the chiropractor for years, back when I had insurance. None of them gave me relief.
they were probably doing it wrong...
Lol, internet.
That says cervical, and realizing it didn't look like it had anything to do with the cervix, I googled and got the Youtube video result: "How to Photograph Your Cervix".
NOT CLICKING.
Possibly, I am no professional so I can't say for sure. It was a well known chiropractor in the area that also did chiropractic massage and a few other devices that I have no idea what they are called. Several family members got relief. I would get some relief initially, but it would never last to the next day.
I don't like the inversion tables. The blood rushes to my head and things go...dark.
A couple of local chiropractors have "invested" in the DRX9000 (or something like that) for disk decompression. I wouldn't mind trying it, but without insurance, the cost is prohibitive. (last time I checked, $175 per session)