hey everybody, it's doctor jo and today
i'm going to show you how to use an
inversion table to relieve back pain. so
let's get started.
so the folks at teeter sent me their fitspine
lx9 inversion table, but i'm going to
talk about it a little bit more later.
let's just talk about inversion tables
in general. a lot of you all
ask me all the time: are inversion tables
good? are they bad?
are they worth it? and there is a lot of
research that shows that
inversion tables really do help relieve
back pain. and the reason the inversion
inversion tables help is because they're
relieving the pressure in the spine.
and so a lot of times when you have back
issues like a pinched nerve,
herniated disc, maybe even stenosis in
your back, or
degeneration in your back, when it opens
up the spine,
those vertebrae, those spaces in the
spine, it will help relieve the pain.
there are a couple things with inversion
tables precautions that you should know
about.
there are things like if you have high
blood pressure, if you have maybe
something like glaucoma,
a fracture, maybe even a spinal surgery in the past.
you want to make sure there are
definitely some precautions because
you're inverting,
if you have circulation issues, you know
all that blood is
kind of flowing to your head. so you
really want to make sure that you don't
have any
of the precautions, you're cleared by
your doctor or your physical therapist
to make sure that they're okay to use.
so what's really neat about inversion
tables is one, they're a pretty
affordable way to get
that traction. so traction in general is
what you're getting, the
the inversion tables, that benefit of the traction. there's other ways that you can
do it. you often see in a clinic they might have
machines
um that are actually automated with
pulling and giving you that traction.
that's helpful but those are really
really expensive. so this is a way to be
able to do it at home.
with inversion tables, there's a couple
of things that you want to make sure
that
you know about before which is number
one, making sure that they're safe,
two the comfort level of them, and then
making sure that it's something again
that's just right for you because inversion tables aren't right for
everybody. so
the fit spine is super smooth.
when you're when you're on it, it's not
jerky. it's not um you know
jostling you around. it's a nice smooth movement. it also has an easy angle
tether and this allows you to easily
preset your inversion angle to 20
which is the green mark, 40 which is the
orange mark, or 60 which is the red mark, and then you can unlock it to go
completely to 90. you always want to
start off with a little bit.
if you if you really familiar with the
inversion table and you've been doing it
for a while, and your body has adjusted,
you could go to the 90, but don't start
off with that. start off with that green
and in general usually just starting off
with one to two minutes. again talk to
your doctor,
talk to your therapist about what's
going to work for you, but this is just
like
any exercise program. you don't want to
go all
out because then you might end up sore,
and then you don't want to do it anymore.
it's also like any exercise program or
home exercise program your therapist
gives you
where you have to be consistent using it.
this traction,
a lot of people who don't like traction
machines or are against it per se,
will say well it's just temporary relief.
it's opening up those spaces for a short
period of time.
but if you do it consistently, then
that's what's going to help. you wouldn't just do stretches
one time and expect to be better. you
have to do the stretches
you know continuously. make it a
maintenance program if you have a
specific injury. so it's the same thing
with this. it's not going to be,
you do it one time and you feel 100
better. you might,
but that's not always going to be the
case. just like with a stretch sometimes you feel immediately better the first
time, but a lot of times you have to do it
consistently for a period of several
weeks over,
you know, months to really get it
consistently feeling better.
so i'm going to hop on this and show you
a little bit more about the specific
teeter benefits of this particular
inversion table.
so one of the first ones is with the
ankle lock system down there.
it has a long lever arm, so if you are
trying to
get your ankles locked in securely, you
don't have to bend all the way down
towards your ankles. it's right here
and so it's really nice and comfortable
and solid. you hear it kind of click and
lock
in. so it's good that you know it's in
there. it doesn't have to be super tight
where you're not getting circulation to
the area,
but you want it to be comfortable, but
firm in there.
so that's really nice. again the handles
here
are nice because when you're going into
the inversion, if you want
that little bit of extra stretch you can
do that as well, but you usually have
your hands up above you and i'll show
you that.
the the the backrest part is it's
firm, but it's nice because it gives you
that nice stretch.
i've got my little head pillow there,
this makes it a little bit more squishy
for comfort there,
and then there's also for advanced users
some pieces
um that you can use in the back rest
there as well that i'll show you in a
second.
so i'm going to go into the inversion.
and just kind of show you.
you really want to go kind of slow. you
don't want to just
zoom back. and basically you're just
going to lie back and you're going to
use your
arms to help you go. so i'm going to i'm
going to kind of show you and then i'll
talk about it.
so you can see once i'm back here i'm
already getting a little bit of a
stretch. but as i move my arms you can
see that it moves a little bit so you want
to be comfortable. some people like to give that all the way stretch
going back. for me
after a little bit, sometimes with my
tight shoulders i can feel it some,
so i might just rest it on the headrest
back here. but i'm still getting that
nice traction.
i'm on the green i'm just at about 20
degrees. again
i would start off with this and really
go for a couple weeks before you go any
further. make sure that your body's
comfortable ,but make sure it's nice and
elongated.
make sure that you know you're going
slow so your body gets used to it.
now after your one to two minutes when
you when you come back
up, um they do recommend that you just
kind of come a little bit past neutral
just to get your body
used to coming back up. so you can see as
i start to bring my hands up,
i'll just come up a little bit. and so
not zooming back
up really quickly, but then you can go. if
your arms
aren't getting you to come up, you can
also
bend your knees a little bit and that will help pull you down.
so like i mentioned earlier for advanced users they do have some extra
accessories. this is a lumbar bridge to give you
a little bit of extension into your back
when you're doing it.
and you can put it in there and then
there's also acupressure nodes.
and they have different heights so it
goes you know shorter
medium and longer just to give you some
of those acupressure points while you're
doing the traction. but again these are for a little more advanced users,
so you might not want to start off with
these and then you can look more on
their website
how to use them. so if you're interested in purchasing this or any other teeter
products, make sure and click on the link
up there.
and remember be safe, have fun,
and i hope you feel better soon.