Tips on Using an Inversion Table

How to benefit most from your fight against gravity

Your inversion table offers a number of increasing therapeutic angles. Use them! Particularly if you're carrying a little extra weight or you're less active, use the gentlest inversion angles to start out. A few minutes at 15 degrees or so can offer significant therapeutic benefits.

Relax your back and everything else

Inversion table users report their therapy has mood-boosting power. Inversion can relieve stress; Rosie O'Donnell uses her table to fight depression. Perform your therapy in a relaxing setting. Get away from the phone and kids. Use soft music, dim lights, or even simple meditation techniques to relax your mind and body so your muscles and joints can enjoy the gentle stretch and increased circulation when gravity starts working for you.

Get your feet back on the ground

You're not a bat. You don't spend half your life hanging upside-down, and you shouldn't. Remember that your inversion table is using your own body's weight to stretch the muscles, ligaments and spinal discs that gravity spends most of the day compressing. As little as 10 minutes a day, and certainly no more than 30, should be plenty to receive the benefits of your inversion table. Some inversion table makers recommend oscillation alternating between upright and inverted positions to gently "pump" toxins out of muscles and joints and allow healthy, healing circulation to return. Don't overdo it! Get yourself upright if you feel any discomfort.