Inversion Table Guide

Many people have asked what is the best way to use an inversion table.  Because of this, I’ve decided to write a short guide on what it was like for me during my first week of using my inversion table – what I learned then, how it was for me to adjust to the table, and the different experiences I had…all with the goal of making it easier for you to see what it is like beforehand.  In my first post about “Using An Inversion Table, Day 1, I talked about what it was like the very first time I started an inversion table therapy routine (if you haven’t read that one yet, I would suggest to before this post).  Now it’s time for me to write how it was during day 2.

Using and Inversion Table – Day 2

Day 2 was even better than day one.  I wasn’t nervous at all about how to use or how to adjust the inversion table.  I did make one slight adjustment so I could more easily invert 100%, as per the instructions which I left attached to the table (it’s always best practice to leave those attached to the table to make it easy for others to make these adjustments and just in case you have forgotten them, but you can also find inversion table instructions for most brands online in case something happened to yours).   Basically, I adjusted the roller hinge to the top or ‘A’ setting, which is the most responsive setting and is suggested for those who do want to fully invert.  I was tempted to only invert about 70 degrees again, but decided that since everything went so well on my first attempt that I would leave it open for me to try full inversion if I so felt like it.

Once again, I took it slow.  Not quite as slow as the first day, but it still took me about 1 minute to invert to 70 degrees.  At that point I decided to rest in that position until I felt fully comfortable, or about 3 minutes, and then decided to let go (metaphorically speaking of course) and fully invert!  That was  rush, literally, to my head.  Going from 70 degrees to a fully inverted position is a very big difference.  At this point I felt slightly nervous, since I was just hanging there, and even though I had a spotter I decided to check and make sure that I was able to get back up easily (which I was) before coming back down again fully.  I then hung for 2 more minutes (for a total of about 6 minutes), and then slowly came up again to give my body time to adjust as I did in day 1.

There were three main differences I found between full inversion and partial inversion:

1. The blood rush to the head was much greater.  However, after relaxing and taking a few deep breaths this wasn’t bad at all.  After the 2 minutes I was almost completely adjusted.
2. My feet felt slight discomfort.  Again, I decided to go without shoes since I preferred that way from day one, but I did adjust to the discomfort (I wouldn’t call it hurting my feet) rather quickly as well after about 1 minutes.  I did do an ‘inverted push-up’ very carefully to relieve the pressure once from my feet.
3. I really started to feel the benefits of inversion tables.  The stretch was amazing on my lower back, my legs, neck, and shoulders – and I felt even better than when I came up after day one.   I had been told that I wouldn’t be able to fully relax and stretch my body for a few days (which was true in hindsight), but I really enjoyed the full inversion almost immediately.

Summary

While it might not be as easy for everyone to adjust to inversion therapy, it really was much easier than I thought it would be.  Just continue to take things slowly and follow your doctors orders to make sure you don’t get hurt.  At this point I would still recommend against doing much more than just hanging straight down (no inverted sit-ups or crunches or swinging from side to side yet).