subject: Inversion Therapy: Relieve Your Back Pain [print this page] Inversion Therapy: Relieve Your Back Pain
Inversion Therapy allows gravity to work for you. By reversing your body position, now the downward force of gravity actually helps stretch the spine instead of compressing it. Not only can inversion therapy help to temporarily relieve back pain, but it also can be used as a method to relieve other negative effects that gravity has on your body. Inversion Therapy can also be used as a proactive approach to help maintain overall back health. Hanging upside down can help to stretch and relax muscles, reduce stress, and provide healthy movement for ligaments.
* Inversion temporarily stretches the spine, which increasing the space between the vertebrae. This relieves the pressure on your discs, ligaments and nerve roots. Less pressure on your spine means less back pain.
* If you lie down in bed or on a flat surface, you only release 75% of your normal standing body weight on the spinal discs. There are hundreds of ligaments and muscles that surround and stabilize the spine. These act like rubber bands holding the spine in compression, which equates to approximately 25% of standing body weight. By inverting your body to about 60 degrees, you can reduce the disc pressure to at or near zero.
* Made of jellylike material, the inner core of your discs help provide "cushioning" between the vertebra. You can lose up to .5" in height daily during your waking hours from the effects of gravity. While daily height loss reverses overnight, it will not restore the height lose by 100%. This results in permanent height loss, loss of flexibility and shock absorption. While inverted, you are able to temporarily reverse the downward pressure on your discs, which helps the discs recover and regain lost moisture and lost height, with improved flexibility.
* By inverting yourself to as little as 20-25 degrees for even a few minutes, you can relax tense muscles and speed the flow of lymphatic fluids which flush out of the body's wastes and carry them to the blood stream.
* The lymphatic system has no pump, unlike the cardiovascular system. Only by alternately contracting and relaxing the muscles can the lymphatic fluid be pumped "uphill" through capillaries and one-way valves to the upper chest for cleansing. By inverting the body so that gravity works with not against these one-way valves, you stimulate the flow of lymph system, helping to clear toxins from the body.
* Your heart must work against gravity to pump blood up to your brain, which is the body's largest consumer of oxygen. Inversion is a simple way to improve circulation to the upper body.
* When inverting, you are helping your heart to clear the blood from your feet, legs, and lower body. This allows the blood in your limbs to circulate more easily, which may help to drain blood from varicose veins.
The constant downward force of gravity has a cumulative negative effect on the joints and spinal discs. Used on a regular basis, inversion therapy is extremely beneficial and no more dangerous than many other fitness activities. Often there are unexpected physical and mental benefits from inversion therapy.
The experience of thousands of people who use inversion therapy on a regular basis is that it gives them the relief from back pain they've been looking for. Just as important, they gain the rejuvenating effects of inversion on the entire body, providing health benefits above and beyond the relief of back pain.
