How I Get Relief From Low Back Pain and Sore Neck Muscles

After closing down my personal training business I went to work for a store that sells home exercise equipment, selling and installing the equipment.

Well, one day I noticed a strange looking piece of equipment called an inversion table. I avoided it for quite a while because, frankly, it scared me. It looked like some modern-day piece of torture equipment.

Basically, an inversion table is an aluminum a-frame with a straight board that rotates around a pivot at the top of the frame.

You lie down on the board, secure your feet with foam rollers at the bottom, then using your arms as controls, you rotate your body upside down or partially upside down if you prefer.

How Inversion Therapy Helps Relieve Back Pain

Every day you subject your spine to unnatural forces and stress. Simple acts such as walking, sitting, standing, bending over the sink to brush your teeth - even teeing up a golf ball - cause the bones of the spine to compress. Over time, compressed discs can lead to...

• Muscle spasms
• Muscle weakness
• Numbness and/or pain in the arms and legs due to pinched or compressed nerves.
• Loss of bladder control
• Headaches

Inversion therapy decompresses the spine, taking pressure of the discs and nerves running between the discs from the spinal chord.

Hanging upside down allows the spine to return to its natural position, relieving pressure on the nerves and allowing the discs of the spine to return to their natural alignment.

Seeing Immediate Results

Going to the chiropractor it was rare for me to experience relief that lasted more than a few days. The only time I felt consistently "good" was when I saw my chiropractor three times a week. But at $35 a visit, I just couldn't keep up the routine. Besides, driving half an hour for a five minute adjustment seemed to be a major waste of my time.

After trying the inversion table just once for about ten minutes I noticed a real difference in my lower back. The dull ache that I had long accepted as normal disappeared. And for the rest of the day - not just the next few hours - I moved with much more range of motion in the hips. It felt as though my hips were actually swiveling when I walked.

I decided - almost immediately - that I wanted an inversion table of my own. But I still needed to convince my wife to part with the money to get one.

So I made her a deal.

For one month, I would discontinue my regular chiropractic visits and only hang on the inversion table in the store show room for 5-15 minutes at a time. If, at the end of the month, my neck and back felt as good or better than when going to the chiropractor, I would buy the inversion table.

As you can guess, the inversion table delivered as promised. My back felt great and headaches of any kind were almost nonexistent.

The store I worked at offered two brands of inversion tables. I opted for the slightly more expensive Teeter brand. After extensive research during my thirty day experiment, I found Teeter to be the leader in inversion tables. They're well-built and the model I purchased can be folded up for storage - although not easily. I'm 5'8" and lift weights and I still find moving the folded board awkward.

To say I was excited to bring home my inversion table would be an understatement. Like a little kid on Christmas morning, I tore open the box and began putting the table together. In about fifteen minutes, I had the table fully assembled.

Even though the free instructional DVD gives you a great variety of exercises you can do on your Teeter board, I mainly stick to basic inversion - both partial ( body is supported ) and full ( completely upside down with no board support ).

With the table at home, I would "invert" myself for 5-10 minutes in the morning and again in the evening for about the same amount of time.

During this time, the only negative thing I experienced was sore feet. The foam rollers and heel cups that secure your feet would make my feet sore and if I stayed on too long my feet would go tingly or even numb. Over time I found a position that allows me to stay inverted longer than in the beginning, but rarely do I feel the need to do so.

While my back felt great using the inversion table, two events turned me into a raving fan of inversion therapy.

In the past, when the warm weather arrived, I would pull out my mountain bike and go for a ride. Being in the riding position for even just half and hour would cause my neck and upper back muscles to seize right up, resulting in severe neck pain and headaches.

Well, this summer I decided that my first bike ride of the year would be a 24 mile trek to and from work. I know. Not the brightest thing to do. But to my amazement, I experienced not one headache after my long ride. Yes, my muscles were sore from holding my body in the riding position for so long. But to not have even one little headache was, for me, a really BIG deal.

But that's not even the best of it.

Recently, while training on a trampoline for my diving class, I landed on my head and neck attempting a "back drop". Instantly, my neck went into spasm. For three days, despite using my inversion table, I couldn't move my head side to side or even move my chin down. Reluctantly I called my chiropractor for help. After making a couple of gentle adjustments to help calm the neck spasms he took x-rays to see if there was any serious damage to my neck and spine.

When I went in for my next appointment, he showed me the x-ray and to my amazement my neck had actually improved about 50% from one year ago. When I first started with this chiropractor my neck had very little curve to it and the discs were badly deteriorated. Now my neck actually had some curve to it and there was some space between the discs like there should be.

Needless to say, I declined my chiro's suggestion that I return to seeing him on a regular basis.

Since I continue to dive, I doubt it will be the last time I see him, I'm convinced, more than ever, that my Teeter inversion table can help me improve the health of my neck and spine without the cost - both in time and money - of seeing a chiropractor.

If you're suffering from low back pain or sciatica pain, you may find one of these three free back pain relief guides helpful.