Inversion tables any good?

[Overload]

Curious to know if anyone has one and what your thoughts are on it. Specifically for back pain.

Muchas gracias

[kmatt42]

The word from my chiropractor is NO.
You are not suppost to streach the spin like that.
also, LOTS of ackle issues associated with them from streaching that joint.

That is what I was told.

[VIDGUY]

If I hadn't discovered my inversion table, I would probably be in a wheelchair by now. I fell a few years ago, and doctors have not been able to discover what I damaged (I've even been to Mayo Clinic with my problem), but if I sit in a chair without lumbar support or move in certain ways, I lose the ability to walk normally ( I look like I've had a stroke). After spending over $15,000 on doctors, chiropractors, acupuncture treatments, and various other "cures", the one thing I found which brings my legs back to normal is my inversion table. My table was the best investment I ever made.

[~*IronBelle*~]

Stretching the joints is the best thing you an do to keep them supple.

[TDE]

Originally Posted by kmatt42

The word from my chiropractor is NO.
You are not suppost to streach the spin like that.
also, LOTS of ackle issues associated with them from streaching that joint.

That is what I was told.

are u sure the chiropractor isnt just lying?

I mean, inversion table cuts into HIS profits right? cause people might not need 2 visit him if they use the table...

[NTLtP]

I recently had a chat with my chiropractor about inversion tables and he approves of their usage. I'll probably buy one in the next few months


d

[Chipman]

This guy is a troll with his own site. He's just fishing for suckers..

[Hibiscus09]

I beg to differ! This guy is a hottie with a great body -- looks nothing like a troll.

Hey sweetie -- I thought this was a math question thread. You can come take yoga with me!

Have any of you noticed he asked this question in 2004?

[Overload]

Originally Posted by Chipman

This guy is a troll with his own site. He's just fishing for suckers..

I certainly hope you're not referring to me (I'm just assuming based on the website comment) being that you know nothing about me and obviously didn't take the time to see the number of post and rep I have here.

Besides, I'm much taller and apparently sexier (thanks Hibby) than a troll

Had forgotten about this thread.

[joed]

I'm confused. At first I saw ironbelle's post and wondered when she came back, not bothering to look at the dates of the posts. So...Who is this 26 yr old TDE guy who breathed life back into this old thing, and why does he have all those red lights under his name?

[Baldsnake]

Search in here....Gravity Boots. Worked wonders with me. There was a Chiopractor who would spot me in the corner on the chin bar upside down and he would come over and give me a push and pop. Wonderful.

As a younger Snake who could rep 405 squats I would hang afterwards with great relief.

[30-A rider]

Ok; take my words as my opinion not as fact as I have no research to back this up, nor do I beleive there is any researched published with regards to inversion tables.

One would think that haning upside down would create a force enough to separate and traction the spine enough to open up your IVF's (intervertebral foramen's) which are located between each vertebra on each side of your spine..it is a tunnel essentially where exiting it are 2 spinal verve roots, a pair of arteries and a pair of veins. Tractioning the spine opens these up giving plenty of room to prevent compromise of the structures exiting the IVF's . Anatomically it make 100% sense.

But take note..Your Discs are a very tough fibrous material and connect to the vertebra above and below. On top of that you have interspinous ligaments ( their job it to attached bone to bone; specifically verebra to vertebra) then you have tendons and muscualture that is thick and heavily dense with lots of fibrous tendon junctions attaching to the spine.

Considering the toughness of the discs, the ligaments, the tendons and musculature around your spine, although I beleive you are getting some traction, it is very minimal..... I would expect inversion traction and its benefits to be few among people. It just wont traction your spine enough to do much of anything, and will traction your knees and hips more than anything, as I will explain later.

To the person who said a inversion table cuts in a chiro's profits. WRONG! If you are subluxated no inversion table will re align you #1....#2 the supposed benefits of inversion is traction;it is the same as the decompression therapies you hear of like VAX D on the radio(which is incredible stuff with better sucess percentages than any spinal surgery by far short and long term for disc bulges and herniations! Great stuff and is mainly used to treat severe disc herniations without the invasiveness of surgery.)

To the individaul who has great sucess with inversion table..GREAT..Im happy you found a sucessful treatment for yourself! If you ever have anyone determine an exact diagnisis of your problem please forward as I would be very interested to hear. I would suggest that if you do get relief and positive results from the minimal long axis traction that an inversion table provides, I would think your result would be that much more, looking into a decompression therapy traction. Several Hospitals, orthopedic groups and chiropractors have them, and will be advertised in thier yellow pages add. Reason I say this is with an inversion table all you are creating is minumal traction in the spine..... and with decompresion therapy it has the ability to put hundreds of pounds of force of traction into your spine that is very specific to your spine only and not other joints of your skeletal structure; much more specific than inversin table traction. Please do look into it; and if you do so please let me know if you had any benefit!

Biomechanically, I think inversion would/could actually be harmful. You are much more heavily muscled, with much more ligaments and fibrous material around your spine as compared to your knees, ankles and hips. Not that traction in lower extremities isnt good for you to some degree. But in your knee you have the medial and lateral collateral ligaments, and the ACL and PCL doing most of the stabilization of the knee. Thats not a lot compared to spine and its total encapulation of several muscles and ligaments that run the entire length of it on the anertior surface (Anterior longitudinal ligament) the posterior vertebral surface (posterior longitudiunal ligament) and along the entire spinous process surface (ligamentum flava). I would think that the knees take a lot more traction than the spine ever would come close to when on an inversion table or hanging with gravity boots; and, if done too long may not be very good for you, especially with any loose ligaments in the knee to begin with.

Again just thinking and staing out loud,,,no research to back this up. Hope maybe this gave someone some ides or got thier gear turninging in the old noggin (is that how thats spelled?)

[Mark1T]

Originally Posted by Hibiscus09

I beg to differ! This guy is a hottie with a great body -- looks nothing like a troll.

Hey sweetie -- I thought this was a math question thread. You can come take yoga with me!

Have any of you noticed he asked this question in 2004?

I think Overload is sexy, too. Really, a good guy

[dbx]

Originally Posted by Mark1T

I think Overload is sexy, too.

[Overload]

Originally Posted by Mark1T

I think Overload is sexy, too. Really, a good guy

Hugs big guy

[chief1450]

Overload, I've owned one for about 3 years. Mine has helped me. I have had back trouble for most of my adult life. When my back is giving me trouble I'll get out the inversion table and start hangging. Sometimes I can actually feel and hear the spine going back in line.

If you decide to get one make sure you buy a good one. Mine is a Teeter Hang Ups and I bought it at HSN.com. It is well made and is rated for people up to 300lb. and 6'6" tall. I think I gave around $300 for it.

[VIDGUY]

Overload:
I'm still thankful I bought mine. Over the years, I have let several people try it out. One liked it so well he went out and bought one and uses it frequently. Others said they liked it, but not well enough to spend $300 on one. One person said it actually made him feel worse. My advice to you is to try and find someone who has one and try it out. If you can't find one to try, start with gravity boots (that's how I started, and I still take them with me when I travel). You can find a good pair for less than $100.

[kmax]

After reading this resurrected thread the other day it had reminded me to give an Inversion table a try. Then after some thought I decided to give my decline AB bench a try first. I was tight in my lower back at the time and layed on the ab bench for about 5 minutes. I got up and felt alot better, it definitely loosened me up.

I've been using this daily and have found that the angle, about 40 degrees, to be ok. It is also better to rest your feet on a chair for example, rather than drop your lower legs over the the end of the bench. By keeping your feet (on the chair) at the same height as your knees you can keep the small
of your back flat on the bench. There's not much stress on the knees and ankles either.

I suspect that the people who would benefit most from the use of an Inversion table are those who have little or no backpain after a nights sleep but develop discomfort during the day after sitting, standing, lifting, etc.

[1MikeD]

I bought an inversion table yesterday for my back pain. I used it twice yesterday and twice today and felt batter after the first use. Though I do notice a little knee pain this evening.

,Mike

[magnumfreak]

wonder if I would hit my head on the floor with one of those. LOL!! Being a freak makes life interesting.

[Tyciol]

Originally Posted by kmatt42

The word from my chiropractor is NO. You are not suppost to streach the spin like that. also, LOTS of ackle issues associated with them from streaching that joint. That is what I was told.

One shouldn't necessarily trust the word of chiropractors, especially since their opinions aren't always consistant. A lot of chiropractors and massage therapists use traction as part of treatment, this is one means of applying it. It really doesn't stretch the spine to any extreme degree without any added weight. You're stretching it just as much if not more by doing weighted chins or dips. It's part of therapy, it can adapt.

Originally Posted by TDE

are u sure the chiropractor isnt just lying? I mean, inversion table cuts into HIS profits right? cause people might not need 2 visit him if they use the table...

This is what I was thinking, that or he hasn't thought it out independantly and is just parroting the teachings of his superiors who did lie for that reason.

Originally Posted by magnumfreak

wonder if I would hit my head on the floor with one of those. LOL!! Being a freak makes life interesting.

You can measure beforehand to make sure this doesn't happen. While you should gain a couple inches, the table can be adjusted beforehand to make sure that it doesn't happen. For the door-mounted brackets, this is where a measuring tape comes in handy. I do admit though, I wish the tables did have more clearance. From what I've seen, your elbows don't reach the ground, but your hands do so you need to make sure to raise them up to get full traction, although being able to put them down to lessen traction or make adjustments is useful.

One thing I really wanted to do was hang with arms 'overhead' (pointing straight towards floor) but nothing gives enough clearance for that. I also wanted to brush my hair while inverted, I don't think this is possible either.

Originally Posted by 30-A rider

Ok; take my words as my opinion not as fact as I have no research to back this up, nor do I beleive there is any researched published with regards to inversion tables.

One would think that haning upside down would create a force enough to separate and traction the spine enough to open up your IVF's (intervertebral foramen's) which are located between each vertebra on each side of your spine..it is a tunnel essentially where exiting it are 2 spinal verve roots, a pair of arteries and a pair of veins. Tractioning the spine opens these up giving plenty of room to prevent compromise of the structures exiting the IVF's . Anatomically it make 100% sense.

But take note..Your Discs are a very tough fibrous material and connect to the vertebra above and below. On top of that you have interspinous ligaments ( their job it to attached bone to bone; specifically verebra to vertebra) then you have tendons and muscualture that is thick and heavily dense with lots of fibrous tendon junctions attaching to the spine.

Considering the toughness of the discs, the ligaments, the tendons and musculature around your spine, although I beleive you are getting some traction, it is very minimal..... I would expect inversion traction and its benefits to be few among people. It just wont traction your spine enough to do much of anything, and will traction your knees and hips more than anything, as I will explain later.

To the person who said a inversion table cuts in a chiro's profits. WRONG! If you are subluxated no inversion table will re align you #1....#2 the supposed benefits of inversion is traction;it is the same as the decompression therapies you hear of like VAX D on the radio(which is incredible stuff with better sucess percentages than any spinal surgery by far short and long term for disc bulges and herniations! Great stuff and is mainly used to treat severe disc herniations without the invasiveness of surgery.)

To the individaul who has great sucess with inversion table..GREAT..Im happy you found a sucessful treatment for yourself! If you ever have anyone determine an exact diagnisis of your problem please forward as I would be very interested to hear. I would suggest that if you do get relief and positive results from the minimal long axis traction that an inversion table provides, I would think your result would be that much more, looking into a decompression therapy traction. Several Hospitals, orthopedic groups and chiropractors have them, and will be advertised in thier yellow pages add. Reason I say this is with an inversion table all you are creating is minumal traction in the spine..... and with decompresion therapy it has the ability to put hundreds of pounds of force of traction into your spine that is very specific to your spine only and not other joints of your skeletal structure; much more specific than inversin table traction. Please do look into it; and if you do so please let me know if you had any benefit!

Biomechanically, I think inversion would/could actually be harmful. You are much more heavily muscled, with much more ligaments and fibrous material around your spine as compared to your knees, ankles and hips. Not that traction in lower extremities isnt good for you to some degree. But in your knee you have the medial and lateral collateral ligaments, and the ACL and PCL doing most of the stabilization of the knee. Thats not a lot compared to spine and its total encapulation of several muscles and ligaments that run the entire length of it on the anertior surface (Anterior longitudinal ligament) the posterior vertebral surface (posterior longitudiunal ligament) and along the entire spinous process surface (ligamentum flava). I would think that the knees take a lot more traction than the spine ever would come close to when on an inversion table or hanging with gravity boots; and, if done too long may not be very good for you, especially with any loose ligaments in the knee to begin with.

Again just thinking and staing out loud,,,no research to back this up. Hope maybe this gave someone some ides or got thier gear turninging in the old noggin (is that how thats spelled?)

I used to work with a physiotherapist and she told me that it probably would not cause sufficient traction either. If this is the case, it is certainly contrary to the first fellow who said it was too much traction That said, ANY traction has to be beneficial in some regards to in some way balance out all that compression right? It's always more than sleeping.

Keep in mind that these tables come with the handles, where you can add traction, not to mention holding dumbbells which can add measurable amounts.

The main objection, that it is too much stress on the legs, is something worth looking at. Some tables though, like the dex ii, will not stress the ankles or knees. The hips would still seem to be at risk though.

Is the hip really that vulnerable to traction though? It bears so much more weight than the spine, since it resists it unilaterally with more weight on top of it, right? Is it something suited for compression and not traction? Are we oriented to pulling ourselves up?

How did the monkeys survive hanging upside down?

[JOHN GARGANI]

Just my personal opinion here about resurrecting this thread:

obviously, 1MIKED must have been doing a search about inversion tables and came up with this thing....

but then, after lying dormant for a month, TYCIOL again resurrected it to comment in depth about the inversion table.


HERE IS MY SPIN: MIKED: you should have started a totally new thread!

why?

because if you read the entire thread, it is easily seen that this thread became derailed when a poster accused a regular of our forum, OVERLORD, of being a troll.

at that point, friends of Jay, naturally ,stepped in and the thread really didn't have much to do with Inversion tables at that point.

Resurrrecting such a thread, rehashed negative feelings about that whole incident.


Much better, I strongly feel, to start anew without those distractions and without bringing up all the nonsense that took over this thread at that time.

[Tyciol]

Sorry for bumping something over a year old, I was reading old threads about this topic and found some entries here that generated some interest in replying. I generally just ignore other banter going on, I definately didn't bump to bring up bad feelings about it.

[dbx]

Originally Posted by Tyciol

Sorry for bumping something over a year old, I was reading old threads about this topic and found some entries here that generated some interest in replying. I generally just ignore other banter going on, I definately didn't bump to bring up bad feelings about it.

Well, we're just glad you bumped it again after it had died for another 5 days

[Brother Steel]

Originally Posted by dbx

Well, we're just glad you bumped it again after it had died for another 5 days

Dbx,

You are slipping dude..... You forgot to put a period at the end of your sentence.

[Dr Clay]

The opinion from this chiropractor is...

The inversion table can be a very valuable tool if implemented appropriately. It's not good all the time for all people. But for some the "stretching" effect can help to elongate tight erector spinae (low back) muscles and provide much needed relief to a lumbar spine that has a hyperlordosis.

However, as someone's chiro mentioned, it's not always good. Some conditions would be made worse by its' use.

But keep in mind that using the table can be done at different intensities. In other words, hanging straight up and down is obviously more intense than lying at a slightly inverted angle.

[Tyciol]

Dr. Clay's opinion is pretty much what I was thinking about it too, I don't think anyone's thinking it's a cureall or anything. That's the whole reason we want tables and not boots after all, so we can ease into it to adapt and not get hurt right?

What I imaging it'd be bad for is if you have injuries, the intensiy could make it worse.