Is Inversion Good for Your Back?

Inversion therapy has been around since 400 B.C., when Hippocrates, renowned as the father of modern medicine, treated a patient’s back pain by hanging him upside down on a ladder with ropes and pulleys. Inversion therapy is often an effective treatment for back pain, but it is usually overlooked. Before doing something as drastic as taking pain medication or having surgery on your back, you should at least consider inversion therapy.

Healthier Spinal Discs

• Inversion therapy increases intervertebral separation in your back. This is beneficial because it allows for the disks between your vertebrae to expand, which reduces how much pain they cause by pinching nerves. When the disks are expanded, they also provide more shock absorption and flexibility in your spine. Oscillating up and down on an inversion machine can also help flush out the stagnant spinal fluid in the discs and get fresh fluid in by creating a pumping action. Fresh spinal fluid can help damaged discs to repair quicker.

Spinal Realignment

• Many one-sided movements such as golfing, tennis and baseball can throw the spine out of alignment. Inverting can help put the spine back in alignment, which restores your balance, posture and flexibility.

Muscle Soreness

• Inversion therapy helps to reduce soreness in the back muscles as well as the other muscles in the body by helping to flush out the lactic acid that causes muscle soreness. Unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system has no pump. Lymphatic fluid is only moved upward through capillaries and one-way valves by the force of muscles contracting and relaxing. When you invert your body, gravity works with the one-way valves to help push the lactic fluid up to the chest where it can be cleansed and flushed out.

Misuse

• Used properly, inversion therapy can do wonders for your back. However, some people injure themselves by overdoing it and flipping themselves completely upside down to start. If the ligaments in the back and body are not used to the stretching tension from inverting, then they may tear when suddenly being exposed to the maximum amount. Beginners should invert at low angles no further than 30 degrees and slowly work their way up if desired. At 60 degrees, the spine experiences full traction and won’t stretch out any more from a steeper angle. The only time a person should invert at 90 degrees is when they have developed strong ligaments and want to perform certain exercises that require a 90 degree decline.

Duration of Improvement

• As you go about your day, the force of gravity slowly compresses the disks in your back again. Inversion therapy may have near immediate results, but you will need to continue to regularly use the inversion machine in order to retain the spinal improvements. It is recommended that you use an inversion machine at a modest angle for 15 minutes in the morning and at night to maintain a healthy back.