Sunday, November 30, 2008

Why You Should Do Spinal Decompressions

By Caleb Lee

Your spinal column is possibly the most vital structure in your body, therefore it is important to look after it. Your backbone gets voluminous compression from day-to-day activities, gravity and general life. In addition, the supplementary compression you give it with strength training and you better start decompressing it.

Spine health is very important, and I'm willing to bet that the majority of you have backache at this time. I myself hurt my lower back roughly a year ago, and this is one of the methods I enjoyed to take it back to 99% (even at times becomes tight or aching). I'll do an extensive post on why you have backache and how to resolve it later on, however read this right now.

What you want to do is follow a simple decompression method that helps to keep your spine healthy and mobile by helping it decompress to its original length.

Here's the whole thing you need to ...

How To Do Spine Decompressions

You'll need a pull-up bar to execute your decompressions. Once you have that piece of equipment, there's two ways to get on with this:

1. Get Gravity Boots: This is the method that I use. These are boots that you strap onto your ankles and have hooks on them so you can hang upside down from your pullup bar safely and allow your spine to decompress. I use Teeter Hang Ups Gravity Boots. An added bonus is that with these boots I can do inverted sit ups for my abs and other cool "upside down" exercises.

2. Hang With Your Hands: This is trouble-free. Just hang from your pull-up bar and ease all muscles-hold it for as long as possible. The longer you hang the better shoot for 5 minutes at best and build up from there. You probably can't hang that long, so here's

How To Hang On Longer With Your Hands

The longer you hang the better, yet your grip will almost certainly give out. Even though I would never advise using lifting straps for your typical lifting, I recommend them for decompressions for it will allow you to hold longer. Go for nylon-type lifting straps or lifting hook straps as they're more durable.

How To Relax Your Muscles So Your Spine Decompresses

Your muscles need to be calm in order for your spinal column to decompress (staying tight won't help). Here's what to do whether you're making use of the gravity boots method or the hanging from your hands method:

* Get down the pull-up bar

* Take a deep breath and sustain it

* Tighten up your whole body (focus on abs, glutes and make fists)

* Keep your whole body tight for 5 secs

* Give it all off, your breath and the whole stiffness. Take it easy

When you do this you'll feel your whole body relaxing and you'll probably "drop" down a little bit. You'll probably feel your back decompressing, especially the first few times.

How Often You Should Decompress

Every day is great. Though I have to admit that I don't do it day by day always. But you certainly should aim to do it as much as possible. If you get tired hanging upside down you can read a book or something. It's great to do these right after your strength training sessions, right after your settle down-think of it as a part of your cooldown. - 15683

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