Yoga - Stretching - Inversion Table * Spiritual Health

Commercials in which spry 70 yr old men hang themselves up side down on an inversion table, madly doing sit ups, swinging back up right in gleeful insanity, then springing on to their feet posture perfect was not for me. I was a skeptic. I saw these odd contraptions at floor shows and thought  "yeah sure, as I am hanging upside down it will break and I'll crunch onto the floor upside down on my neck...that's the ticket." But the more I see pictures of  Nelson Mandela's picture perfect posture in his 90's, I wonder if he too was not an Inversion Table warrior.



MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH AN INVERSION TABLE

My excuse for purchasing an Inversion Table was for my husband whose favorite second home was the basement weight lifting room.  Here he worked out three hours, every other night, using the washer and dryer cycles for his timer.  This meant supplying him with enough dirty clothes for his work out sets, and you never saw cleaner dog beds and cat cushions as ours.

Years later all this weight lifting has led to his new second home, the Chiropractor.  {Please do NOT tell him I just said this} He is in complete denial. So for his birthday I purchased an Inversion Table. And secretly, I was wondering if it would help me prevent "old lady shrink." Like the Mid-evil torture table, I will stretch my spine longer! Yes!"  Each year I wonder if I'm a little shorter from my phone job and psychic counseling.  And yes, I walk around with the phone.....do a half hour of Yoga EVERY morning before my day starts.  But the curse of all comfortable sit down jobs is shrinking and deteriorating posture.

I was a Denise Austin Yoga fanatic for two years until I switched to Classical Stretch with Miranda Esmonde-White.  Not once did either of them say, "Now to complete this session, stretch out on an Inversion Table!"   They were my queens so they would have told me if this was a productive thing to do.  Instead they promoted Stretch Bands, Yoga Balls and Sitting Blocks.


I COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW TALL AND STRAIGHT I FELT...Denise, Miranda, why didn't you tell me about this?

Once we set our inversion table up in the basement, immediately we went into a competition of which one of us could stay upside down longest.  As my husband set the table to my height, clamped my feet into the stirrups, I stretched my arms even with my head and flew upside down.  I screamed in confusion and fear. My husband assured me all was well, I counted to 19, and by putting my arms beside me on the Inversion Table, it flipped slowly back up.  When I got off the table I felt 3 inches taller and as if I had the posture of a 19 year old.  No kidding.  This has now led to a Half Hour of Yoga in the morning, then immediately afterwards to the Inversion Table where I stretch for 60 second intervals upside down. All I can say is if I miss EVEN ONE DAY....I notice a difference in my lower back tightness and alignment.  And since I am an Intuitive Reader and Life Coach I know its important to walk my talk, with a clear mind, before counseling anyone on THEIR life.

THE COMPLIMENT I GOT
I hadn't seen a couple of friends in almost seven years, when the 20 year old daughter said "you look as young as you did as when I last saw you."  I think that I have gained weight but the Inversion Table has Stretched and lengthened my muscles.
 
It is my egotistical need to walk like a Goddess.  I can not recommend enough to anyone who believes Stretching and Yoga are important, how adding an Inversion Table completes the mix.  And though my husband still goes frequently to the Chiropractor, it isn't the pain and agony weekend anymore after a punishing work out session until the office opens up.  Now he can stretch completely out on the table.  And that's all I have to say about it.  Amen  http://thecallingoflight.com

I can not recommend enough to anyone who believes Stretching and Yoga are important, how adding an Inversion Table completes the mix.