♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet. ♪
- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet, Brad.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- That's always our opinion.
Today we're gonna talk about, Brad,
how to use an inversion table safely.
- Right. Inversion tables are typically used
for low back, mid back pain management
or to get rid of it.
There may be some - [Bob] of the spine
- [Brad] Right. Of the spine.
There may be some controversy on that.
I don't wanna talk about that.
What I do wanna talk about
if you have one or you wanna buy one
and you want to know how to use it safely?
And this actually is in my opinion
cuz I've had one for two years
- So you're a good person to comment on this.
- Right. And I watched the video
and read how they instructed to use it.
And, in general, I think I disagree.
Not totally, but I want to go through it in general here.
- Again, this is our opinion.
- Right.
- And first off we probably should talk
about the people that absolutely probably
shouldn't use it at all. Right, Brad?
- Right. Exactly.
- That's first someone who has retinal detachments
or glaucoma, cuz you're gonna have increased pressure
on your eyes when you're being inverted.
- Exactly, exactly.
Pressure on the inner ear.
- Yeah. If you have an inner ear problems,
that would not be
a good thing to do. - Don't do it.
Blood pressure conditions.
- If you have increased blood pressure
or have a heart condition I'd be reluctant, too,
cuz your blood pressure's gonna increase
when you're in that position.
- Right.
- So you could pull a muscle when you're in that position.
And it does sometimes cause headaches.
- Right. And actually, when I first used mine initially,
I tested it in the store cuz they had one set up.
And this is what I would do if you're gonna buy one.
Go in the store have one that's set up and use it and invert
and see if you have some results as far as decreased pain.
- Yeah. Feel better,
or does it make things worse in some way.
- Exactly. So when you invert,
you should feel some immediate relief and that's my opinion.
If you do not,
I don't think it's for you. - It's not for you.
- Now the big question, I want to jump back a little bit
is if you look at inversion table,
obviously we don't have one here
but I think this will get the idea across.
- So you're flat right there.
- Here's the mainframe
I've got three scenarios where you start,
and then a partial inversion, and then a full inversion.
So you have to adjust it properly
so that when you lay down on the table,
you should be able to balance it easily.
And it's really neat; they're built well.
The one I had,
there's a lot of different manufacturers
but you get in a horizontal position so you balance well,
and then to invert, on the one I had,
you'd just lift your arms up
and you would slowly go back.
- [Bob] Whoa.
- [Brad] Yeah, it worked really nice.
And you could go to a full inversion.
Now I'm looking at this.
I'm thinking, what if the device for the ankle
holding you upside down fails
and you fall down on your head
- [Bob] Don't say that, Brad.
- [Brad] and you break your neck?
I'm thinking this is not healthy.
So I didn't even go there.
And I still think that this is not necessary at all.
What I did with mine is there was this adjustment on mine.
I went to 60 to 70 degrees.
There was a strap that could stop you there
and you would not go any farther.
And I found I had
- [Bob] So you could set it for that.
- [Brad] Yep. And I found I had plenty of traction
because that's all this does to your back.
It's a form of traction.
It pulls your back apart, can help the disc
and the muscles relax.
- [Bob] using your body weight to...
- [Brad] Exactly. And so that's how I would set mine.
I'd recommend not going more than 60 to 70 degrees.
You will feel the effects.
Now the next big warning I'm gonna have to say
is when you get on one of these and you invert,
start out at 15 to 30 seconds,
and then go back to the horizontal position
and see how your body reacts.
- [Bob] So you may be surprised if you go longer?
- [Brad] Right. - [Bob] What may happen.
- [Brad] You might feel nauseous.
You might feel like you had a headache.
I inverted, and I stayed there
for about three minutes cuz I time myself.
You know, (grunts) it felt good.
my back immediately felt better.
I thought this is good,
I'm gonna hang there for a while
and really fixed my back quick.
Well I got up from there, my back still felt better,
but I had a headache and it lasted all that night into bed.
- [Bob] Oh wow.
- [Brad] So I went too much, too fast.
So start out at 15 to 30 seconds,
Come up, if you feel normal, you can go back down.
But I would not go more than that.
Three or four times in a row the first time you use it.
- So were you able to build up to longer times, then?
- Oh yeah, eventually I would go no more than two minutes
because my head would feel like
there's too much pressure in it.
- But you were able to go
up to two minutes eventually.
- Yeah. And it felt fine.
And I know people that go longer than that
cuz I've talked to a number of patients
that use these and they do go longer.
I just had a patient, she said she totally inverts.
I still don't think that's necessary or really,
it may be in certain circumstances but I'm gonna get that...
- It's the risk reward. - Yeah.
- The risk is too high for reward.
- I'm thinking you don't need to get
I can get the same results with this as with
Maybe not, but that's my opinion, of course.
So anyways, and I would do that
I'd hang for two to three minutes.
My back would feel better.
I would get off of it
and my back continued to feel better
when I went upright and weight bearing.
And you want to go all the way through that process.
You could go, maybe it feels better when you're inverted,
but when you get up and stand up,
what if it starts feeling bad
and you get a bad reaction to it?
Obviously you're not gonna buy one then.
That's why I think testing it in the store
is a good idea. - Absolutely. Good idea.
- I used mine for two years
and eventually the effects weren't,
it wasn't helping anymore, so I sold it.
So I really feel...
- These are good tips, Brad,
from someone who actually used it.
- Yeah. And I hope that if you want to buy one, go ahead.
They're usually around 100 to $200.
You get what you pay for.
Mine was over $200,
but it was built well and I really liked it.
And you know how I feel about that, Bob?
- Yeah. (Brad laughs)
- I hear again and again about it.
All right, thanks for watching.