With regular use, inversion tables claim to maintain your height, improve your circulation, relieve stress, heighten your metal awareness, increase your flexibility and your range of motion, improve your posture and realign your spine after high-impact workouts. Exercising from an inverted position uses gravity, and the weight of your body to increase the intensity of the exercises. Check with your family physician or orthopedic doctor before beginning inversion therapy or exercise.
Getting Started
Begin your inversion exercise slowly. Rushing head-long into inversion therapy and exercise can leave you light-headed, nauseous, dizzy and uncomfortable. Start slowly moving to a 15-to 20-degree inversion and remain inverted for only a few seconds or as long as you feel comfortable. Slowly return to an upright position, stopping at the horizontal position before fully returning to vertical. Increase your time and degree of inversion gradually over a period of two to three weeks until you reach full inversion, and can remain at full inversion for 20 to 25 minutes.
Beginning Exercises/Stretches
Slowly rotate to a fully inverted position and lock the inversion table into position, so it does not move once you begin exercising. Stretch your arms over your head, reaching for the floor and fully extending your body. Stretch your back arching it slightly. Do side stretches tilting your body from side to side as if you were doing side stretches while standing with your feet on the floor. You can complete many simple stretches from the inverted position as if you were standing.
Increase Decompression and Inverted Rotation
From the fully inverted position, grab the inversion table legs and pull your body down toward the floor. This exercise lets your increase the amount of spine decompression by controlling the force in which you pull your body toward the ground. Rotate your body fully from the inverted position by reaching across your body and grabbing the inversion table legs, pulling your body into a full rotation. Switch arms and table legs to rotate your body in the opposite direction.
Inverted Squats
Attempt the inverted squat from a fully inverted position by bending your knees as you pull your upper body toward your feet. The inverted squat is much like the squat in the upright position but requires more strength in the glutes and hamstrings. Once you move to the inverted squat, hold the position for two or three seconds before slowly returning to the starting position.
Inverted Crunch
Inverted crunches and sit-ups are not much different that those done while lying on the floor. For the crunch, cross your arms over your chest and use your abdominal muscles to pull your upper body toward your knees. To do a sit-up from the inverted position, stretch your arms out in front of you and try to touch your toes with your fingers. As with other inverted exercises, hold each position for two or three seconds before slowly returning to your starting position.
