The Tilt Table / Inversion Table

The Tilt Table, or the inversion table as it is also known, is a large piece of equipment and can be quite space consuming. However, when you're in pain, I'm sure you'll sacrifice that space!

As with any large piece of gym kit, though, they can become obstacles to walk around and ignore.  Or worse, become an expensive clothes horse! So I strongly suggest you try before you buy. See if a physio can advise you of one you could rent or maybe try and buy one second hand...

Not much to write here as I’ve gone on long enough on my Vlog! I have split the vlog so if you don’t need a guided tour of the machine, skip straight to “The Tilt Table Part 2” where you can see my sexy upside down face, where I look spookily similar to ‘The Joker’ in “The Dark Night”!! 

What do you think?

The Tilt Table Part 1

The Tilt Table Part 2

Some of the main Pros

• It feels as though the gravity takes the pressure off any squished discs almost immediately.

• You can graduate the tilt so that you build up to being completely upside down. (I don’t quite go to the full 180 tip; I have noticed that people with tight hip flexors result in arching their lumbar region too much when upside down. Check out some of the pictures on Google images to see what I mean. That looks just as bad to compress your facet joints that way instead).

• The machine has height adjustment on it so that your ballast can still tip you.

• The curved handle bars rotate with you. They act as both support and an aid to assist in the tipping back action, and of course, upon returning to upright!

 Some of the main Cons

• The ankle holders on this particular model are hard plastic and can actually decrease your time spent on the table because it soon becomes painful. Mainly because my ankles/base of calves don’t quite fit within the c-curves which means they sit on top. Therefore, I spend my weight upon the top of my feet, having to act like hooks. So the tops of the feet hurt (as well as the knees) after a short while.

• The bolts were so cheap, my partner very kindly replaced with decent steel ones; this is not the time to have dodgy machinery when you’re headfirst towards the ground!