I bought my inversion table a little over two years ago. It was definitely helping but not to the degree that I had hoped until a more recent discovery.
I’ve had lower back and hip pain for many years. The lower back pain for most of my life. I have done all sorts of things to help it. Lots of yoga, stretching and exercise – that helps but more to keep it somewhat comfortable but not so great for improvement or taking the overall pain away. Years ago I would go to Chiropractors but until I met one more recently none really helped at all. A Chiropractor that my brother went to told him about ‘the table’ so I thought I would try it.
First I did a bunch of research on tables and purchased. I found lots of good testimonials on its use but not much on how to use to get the best results. So, it was a bit of trial and error. I started using it about 3-4 times a week for about 20 minutes or so each time. I had the angle at about 35-45 degrees. I could feel it pulling and I did see some improvement for a while but after a bit, not so much. I could not do an extreme angle for that amount of time as it would start to hurt my sinuses. A few months ago, I started doing it for about forty minutes each time to see if that would help. Not too much difference. So after almost two and a half years I was getting relief but no solid improvement.
More recently, one of the lifeguards at the pool where I swim mentioned to me that one of the other patrons used to sell inversion tables for a living and was quite knowledgeable about them. About three weeks ago he was a the pool at the same time as me so I asked him if I could ‘pick his brain’ about the tables. He was quite willing and told me some very good data. He told me a brand that he like but the key was how to use. He said that I should place the bed at an angle of at least 60 degrees. At that angle the weight of the body takes 100% of the pressure off the base of the spine. Allowing it to heal. The advice, though, was to only hang for five minutes or so three times a day. This was great news for me as I could do that length of time without having a problem with my sinuses.
I have now been using the inversion table this way for about three weeks. With a few days here and there missed from being out of town. At first I thought that some of the changes could just be in my head. Kind of willing things to get better. But I noticed this weekend, standing a lot working that a weakness in my leg that had been starting to develop was no longer happening. And it does not hurt ‘all’ the time now.
One other benefit of the “five minutes’ is that it is very easy to fit in through the day. It does not add a lot of time anywhere. I can do this for 5 minutes right after I get up or just before I’m going to go out to run some errands or when I get back. It all adds up to about the same amount of time but just doesn’t interfere the same way with my schedule.
There were some other comparative tests that this fellow told me about where people using the inversion tables for a certain period of time had 78% fewer back operations than the control group, etc. When and if I find this I will try and add it to this article.