- All right, there are claims
that you can get taller by using an inversion table.
- I did.
- Yeah. Bob was my height at one time.
- Oh, right.
- No, it's a joke.
But actually it is true.
You will change your height by using one of these
but we're gonna show you the reality
of these claims and what it really does and how it works.
You may be surprised
and you're gonna learn something for sure.
- Yup, shorty. (Brad chuckles)
- Be right back.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapist on the internet ♪
All right. Now, this is my personal thinking.
I think Bob concurs, there's two groups
of people who want to get taller.
Typically, people who are growing or
near the end of their growth spurt
as are younger and they wanna get taller.
And then on the other end of the spectrum
there's people who are older like Bob and I
and are literally shrinking
as a result of the aging process.
And they wanna stop shrinking or get taller.
- Right.
- So this is gonna answer a lot of information-
- Actually. - both of those groups.
Yes, okay.
(air whooshes)
Okay, let's look at how the inversion table
is going to improve that height of the spine.
So you'll have to imagine, here we got a person in here.
We're looking at just the spine.
Now, the way to the trunk, the arms,
and your head are the weight that gravity is pulling on.
And throughout, particularly the lower spine
you're getting a lot of decompression or traction
but it is happening throughout the thoracic spine as well.
So as things are pulling apart here
from that weight being pulled down by gravity
through the inversion table angle, we're gonna show you
what is happening at a detail in the disc.
(air whooshes)
Okay, so let's take a really close look at
between a vertebra.
Here we got the disc and a vertebra, and that is consistent
throughout the spine with the decompression or the traction
of the inversion table, things pull apart
and it takes pressure off of the disc.
Now, what's happening with that?
- And the joints?
- As what?
- Yeah. - Yeah, exactly though.
The facet joints.
- All right.
- It's stretching some of the soft tissue
like the ligaments-
- All right, yeah. - the muscles.
But let's look at the disc.
Now, we're talking strictly the disc.
The disc has a nice tough outer-
- Annulus.
- Annulus material tissue that's really tough.
And inside there's actually, it's kind of liquidy,
they call that nucleus pulposus.
So when we tip over, you can see the disc is like this,
and there's some given there when you tip
like this on the inversion table.
Let's look real closely at that disc.
What happens, it pulls apart.
And you can see the gap between the two cups
or the vertebra is bigger than when there's weight
through it.
And what actually happens is,
the fluid outside of the-
- Right.
- disc actually.
- Sucks in,
- Sucks in- - Right.
- through that nucleus, through that outer fiber.
- Right.
- And that's called imbibition.
It imbibes fluid and gets bigger because of it.
So that when you get up and you stand
to go weight-bearing again, there's more fluid in the disc
and it raises a separation between the discs or the bones,
and it does that throughout the whole spine.
So all adds up.
So you literally are taller after you invert,
if you invert long enough.
- And probably also improves your posture, right?
- Right, because you're laying on there,
you got the back flat against a nice surface,
improves your posture.
- You might go from this to this.
- Yup.
And that increases your height as well.
Again, looking at this, this happens to your body
without the inversion table too.
When you lie down at night-
- At night.
- your disc are actually compressed
and fluid is forced out of them because
of the weight-bearing, and the walking,
and whatever you're doing throughout the day.
And when you lay down at night, you got eight hours
or whatever of non-weight bearing and your disc actually
in vibe fluid throughout the night.
In the morning, if you measure yourself accurately
you're gonna notice you're about a centimeter taller
than at night before you go to bed.
And that happens every day.
- All right.
- The centimeter may vary depending on your body size
and composition or whatever, but that does happen.
And that actually is what keeps your disc healthy.
There's not much of a blood supply in a disc.
So that fluid that goes in and out through inhibition-
- Yup, it breaks nutrition.
- Yeah, nutrition goes through there.
And that keeps a healthy disc.
So you don't get a...
What do we call that? Herniated disc. (laughs)
- Or degenerate disc.
- Yup, degenerate disc.
The interesting thing is this, when you get older
like in your '60s and '70s, that fluid in the disc-
- It goes out, yeah.
- Well, actually becomes more like a thick fluid.
- All right.
- Like the consistency, they say of crab meat actually-
- Right. - when you get older.
So the chances of you having a herniated disc
when you're older is much less than
when you're in your '30s and '40s and '50s.
- You're just crabby.
- (chuckles) There you go. (laughs)
All right.
So I bet you there's some information you did not know.
- You want mentioned the book, Brad?
- Oh yes, absolutely Bob.
But hold on one second.
I gotta catch my brain now.
(Bob chuckles)
(air whooshes)
- Now, it just so happened,
Bob has just purchased a book not too long ago, right here.
It's called, "8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back."
- Free back
- And Esther, I don't know if I can pronounce surname.
- Gokhale.
- Gokhale, she wrote the book and she does a lot
of research and information on decompression of the spine.
- Of the spine, right?
- Does she go into-
- No.
- Okay, she has some other techniques
and she talks about getting taller as a result-
- Right, right.
- of decompression of the spine.
But you actually, I think Bob and I concur
you're not literally growing
unless you're younger, you're growing anyways,
but you are changing your posture.
- Right. - And we did a video on this
and I think you got two inches taller
from a slouched position to a good tall posture.
There's no doubt that you get taller with good posture.
- I was four feet tall- (Brad laughs)
when I started.
- And now, he's six and a half.
- Yeah.
- And as far as again,
the disc increase in height, it's there, but it's temporary.
Every day goes up-
- Yup. - it goes down.
- Yeah, right.
- So there you go.
That answers the big question, doesn't it, Bob?
- Right, it sure does.
- Once again, I think that we're getting better and better
and these people that are watching us are putting up
with this kind of babble or kind of-
- Or lies.
- Yeah. (laughs)
So we can fix just about anything
except for- - Except for
A poor heart.
- Yeah, there we go.
Yeah, but that's sideways, Bob.
(Bob imitates heart palpitating)
- Oh, I see.
You're making some palpitations there.
Take care.
(gentle music)