People from soldiers to personal trainers and their clients use inversion exercises for core training, stretching and improving blood circulation, posture and mental alertness. You do these exercises by wearing boots that hook to a horizontal bar that you can hang from. Before exercising hanging upside down, speak with your doctor first because conditions such as certain hernias, glaucoma, a history of congestive heart failure and extreme obesity contraindicate this type of training.
Three Points Hang
The three points hang exercise is a way to adjust to being upside down without hanging at a full 90 degrees. The three points hang has you maintain three points of contact with the bar you hang from at all times. This is your two feet that wear gravity boots with hooks that attach to the bar and one hand at a time. Begin with the four points hang where the boots are in place and you hold the bar with each hand. Then, let go with one hand and lean backward as you reach toward the ground with the free hand. Switch sides.
Inversion
Inversion requires hanging straight upside down with your body perpendicular to the ground. Besides improving posture, flexibility, range of motion, mental alertness and circulation, inversion reduces stress, realigns the spine after workouts and helps you maintain your full height. Physical activities such as running, golf and baseball compress the spine from impact and often pull the spine out of alignment by putting more pressure on one side of your body. Inversion allows gravity to pull the spine back into alignment and temporarily relieves back pain.
Inverted Sit-up
The inverted sit-up and stretch exercises strengthens the abdominals and the lower back. Inverted sit-ups allow you to move through a greater range of motion than sit-ups on the floor against resistance. To begin, hang upside down. Sit-up through a full 180 degrees to bring your chest to your thighs. With a floor crunch you only do sit-ups through 90 degrees. Reach to touch your toes. This stretches the lower back just like sitting and reaching for your toes.
Inverted Squats
Regular squats work your quads and glutes, but doing inverted squats from an upside down position works the hamstrings and glutes. To perform the inverted squat, hang upside down and then bend your knee to raise your body toward the bar. You should feel this in the back of your legs. Your body resembles an upside squat at this point.
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