Inversion Therapy Details
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Inversion therapy, or the act of hanging upside down by your feet for medicinal purposes, is gaining increasing interest in recent years. Hanging upside down can be accomplished in several ways, but in order to achieve the medicinal value hanging upside down cannot be accomplished by standing on your hands, standing on your head or, hanging from your knees. Instead you must use an inversion table, inversion chair, or even gravity boots.
Over time, gravity and pounding from activities such as running cause our joints to compress which can cause pain. This is especially true of back pain. Our spine is made up of discs with a soft substance in between them to act as cushioning. When our spine compresses the interspersed substance is compressed as well. It can bulge out and hit surrounding nerves causing a great deal of pain. The goal of inversion therapy is to combat this. By hanging upside down your gravity pulls your joins in the exact opposite direction of normal – a standing position. This is said to allow the joints to return to a more natural position and help with chronic back pain.
Inversion therapy also reduces back pain by way of loosening muscles as well. The new position allows them to stretch in ways that were impossible in a standing position. This loosening of the muscles can also help reduce back pain – when it’s related to muscle tightness.
Relieving back pain is not that only benefit of inversion therapy. Increased flexibility, better circulation- both cardiovascular and lymphatic, and better posture are also toted as benefits by proponents of this unique therapy.
Some of these benefits have already been covered, namely back pain and flexibility (in some respect). Circulation is another exciting benefit however, that most people know very little about. Proponents of inversion therapy claim that hanging upside down encourages increased blood flow and oxygen to the brain resulting in clearer and sharper thinking. Lymphatic circulation has also been shown to increase. The lymphatic system is not equipped with a pump as the cardiovascular system is. The inverted position seems to allow the lymphatic system to work faster and expel waste more efficiently from the system – which makes for a faster recovery time from athletic pursuits.
The basis of the argument against inversion therapy is that it does nothing. At one time some opponents believed it could cause a stroke if the participant had a heart problem, but this was later disproved. As far as my research has shown there have been no major injuries as a result of inversion therapy, and inversion therapy in its present manifestation has been in existence a good 15 years. The only side effect being strained neck muscles from hanging upside down too long or too soon. However, if you have a chronic medical condition, or are pregnant it is a good idea to first consult a medical professional.
Jared is a fitness expert who writes about how to find a discount inversion table and cheap inversion chairs online and use them in your back and fitness routines.
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