Originally Posted by
Homebrew01
I get a similar effect by just grabbing the top of a sturdy door (near the hinges), slowly take the weight of my feet (toes just touching the floor) and hanging, trying to relax everything for a minute. It's free and helps when I do it. ........... Think I'll go do it now .... aahhhhh
Yeah I've tried various ways of hanging from things, including grabbing onto stuff, hanging from an I-beam in my basement with straps under my armpits, using my elbows to hang off of a corner of the kitchen counter... couple of problems with that: 1) I could never find a way to do it for very long because it always hurts something (hands, elbows, armpits, etc)... (maybe for people well under 200 lb it doesn't hurt as much) and 2) it's very hard to relax your back muscles sufficiently to let your back expand if you're straining to hang onto something, and 3) hanging from hands only uses the weight of your legs for a lower back issue, vs. hanging from feet which uses the weight of the torso, head, and arms.
Anyway that's why I sprung for the inversion table... although I haven't used it enough yet to justify the cost of maybe $300 or so, I have zero regrets because I know there will be a next time.