re: Gravity Boots/ Inversion therapy

Two different machines were being discussed in this thread. The inversion table is just a hang and relax (although some people do add stretching twists or crunches, but trust me when I say hanging to decompress is enough by itself). In fact, you don't need to go all the way back at first -- start slowly and work your way up to fully hanging.

The second machine was the reverse hyper machine which offers dynamic decompression and strengthening.

That's why I said to take it easy. Start off with small inclines to see how your body reacts. I got good pops in down my spine with just inclining a little bit. I eventually went completely vertical, but it took me months to get there.

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So for real, you just went at a slightly negative angle for minutes at a time, and over a number of days you kept increasing the angle?

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Over several months. Most people feel like they're completely vertical when they're only at a 20 degree angle. It's difficult for humans to judge that. But yes, I think I was probably at about a 40 degree angle when I started -- enough to start feeling a pull along my spine and I got some pops. I was in chronic pain at the time and so it was probably really jacked up and ready to pop from being compressed so YMMV.

Some people are comfortable being upside down and some people aren't. I was the kid who could swing upside down on the monkey bars without issue. Having said that, I know plenty of people who cannot do it. They try a time or two and call it quits. I don't know if I ever had 'face pain'. My sinuses will get blocked when I'm upside down but will usually return to normal after getting upright. Sometimes if I go too fast my back won't have had time to stretch and I won't get the result I'm after so I have to either make sure I'm warmed up, do a little pre-stretching, and then invert.

Take everything about this slowly and with caution. If you're concerned, see your doc.