How hanging like a bat once per day may help with pain and recovery.

An inversion table allows you to suspend your body upside down at various angles from your ankles. Why would I do that, you ask? The overall goal of inversion is to change the effects of gravity against your body’s joints, blood flow, and lymphatic system.

Joint pain and/or stiffness are common problems that inversion can help with.  Load bearing activities, impact forces, tension, and inactivity can all lead to to muscle atrophy or chronic restrictions that can have a negative impact on our joints.  It is also more common for our joints to be pushed together (compression), rather than pulled apart (distraction) during our daily activities. Using an inversion table can reverse this by providing an increase in joint distraction. Relieving the effects of compression on the spine, hips, knees, and ankles can assist in correcting imbalances, and can also provide relief from pain and impingements.

The overall goal of inversion is to change the effects of gravity against your body’s joints, blood flow, and lymphatic system.

In addition, inversion acts to reverse the normal circulation of lymphatic fluid and blood against gravity, which can diffuse swelling, improve circulation, and assist in recovery.  Much like lying with your legs propped up on pillows after a long bout of activity helps aching legs, flipping completely upside down takes this to a whole new level of superhero recovery!

For anyone looking to try a less conventional approach to pain management and recovery, inversion tables can provide great benefit in only minutes of ‘treatment’ per day.

* anyone working on a specific injury with a practitioner (sports doctor, chiropractor, osteopath, massage or physiotherapist) is encouraged to discuss using an inversion table with them prior to going head over (technically under!) heels for one.