Exerpeutic Alternative Inversion Traction Table - Provides Lower Back Pain Relief Without Going Upside Down - Portable Spine Stretcher Bed for Home - 350 Lb. Capacity - Blue/Black

I am 5'8" 130 lbs. and due to the nature of my sport and all the jumping it requires (volleyball), the lowest disc in my spine near my tailbone has little to no "gas" which caused me immense pain just existing. The pain was exacerbated by periods, sickness, and continuing to play volleyball. With an injury like this, I was in pain ALL the time and there was nothing that seemed to help... until this table.Pros: This targets the exact disc that I needed (the lowest one). There is immediate relief as soon as I lay down on it. Personally I like to use the padding vertically on the table and sometimes I place a heating pack on it before I lay down (feels like heaven). Also, because it is not an upside down table, you don't have to deal with the blood rushing to your head and getting on it is just so easy. The biggest pro for me is that my pain has subsided. I have a pretty busy life and I've had to live with the pain for so long.Even so, the it was so bad that I always noticed it, which is worse than just "getting used to it". Butsitting here writing this now, I am not in excruciating pain and that would never have been the case even two weeks ago. So just for a rough timeline, I've been using this semi consistently for about a month and have seen significant progress. There are many more factors for my situation specifically that may have made my pain get worse before it got better, but I genuinely don't think that will be the case for most people.Middle: This is a much more intense relaxation or pull than you would get from a professional decompression table you would see at physical therapy. I use one at my pt place that goes around your hips like a harness and while it is also great, it is much gentler. Since this table is more intense, when you get off you will have to do so slowly and I would compare the feeling to when you get off the table from a deep massage. I wouldn't say it is painful to get off, it's just that your body has to reacclimate after an intense relaxation period whether that be 2 min or 20min on the table. (reacclimating isn't long at all. Maybe 10 sec to feel good)So basically what I'm saying is this aspect is completely personal preference. Personally, I love that I can 100% feel this product at work every time I use it.Setup was straightforward and the manual was helpful.Cons: This table will be great for people with similar issues as me that are also a similar weight from what I can tell. It will not be good for people who are on the heavier side because they feel it pulling more at the ankles and hips rather than spine. Overall, it hasn't been a pleasant experience for people who fall into this group and I'm just speculating that it's due to it being a horizontal table and not a tilt one. If the top half of your body is too heavy, gravity will keep your back from moving at all since the mechanism relies on the legs to stretch your back.

This back stretcher is good. Well built but is to close to the floor. I built a bench for it to sit on. I use it every other day. Easy to over stretch when first starting to use it.

Not sure why this was an often returned item. I love it.Easy to assembleEasy to useWay nicer than hanging upside down. Gives a good lower back lumbar stretch.Takes up some floor space, but less than an inversion table

CONS: this device is heavy, cumbersome to move, difficult to use and, because of its design, doesn't provide much focused traction on the lower back. The design has two fixed points, the ankles and the armpits. The traction movement pulls on the ankles, not directly on the spine. The armpit fixed point is a problem because the user must turn a small wheel that activates a gear mechanism to stretch out the legs. Because of the angles when laying on the table, I found it almost impossible to activate the mechanism while the feet and armpits were locked in place. As a result, I got very little traction effect. In addition, on a thin carpet, body weight made it almost impossible to turn the wheel that activates the outward stretching movement.PROS: for the price it appeared to be reasonably well made. I did not find it difficult to assemble.The review title sums it up for me. Well built. Poorly designed.

I'm not sure if it's just my back and sciatica or not with this. Every time I use this product, I struggle with being able to sit back up because I start having spasms in my leg and lower back. I've used it twice now and feel like I've thrown out my back entirely. The first time I tried using it, it hurt so I felt like decompression was really needed. The second time I used it, my leg was spasming and it really hurt to try to lay down flat, or with the lumbar pillow placed. My back has been hurting for about a week and a half, right after the first attempt at using the product.This might be just my experience though so I'd take this review with a grain of salt, my husband doesn't have the same issue I'm having with it. So maybe if you have sciatica, don't use this?