It’s available still on Amazon for three times the price. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009FEQACY/?tag=buyitbutton-20
Worked wonders while I was using it. (Trying to remember why I quit. Trying to remember where I put it… Probably time I locate it and use it some more.) I recommended it to several friends, but could never get them to try it. They are still having back issues, so…
I still would recommend it.
People who reviewed it and said it didn’t work, probably weren’t using it correctly, IMO. The key is the proper FORM, as in the video and instructions that came with it. The body alignment while using it is KEY, especially the arms, and keeping the point of the device down.
Hint: It won’t cure anyone overnight! It works by stretching muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and strengthening them, helping the back align itself. This has to be done over time. But put the effort in, and you should get the benefit. If twenty days of proper use with it doesn’t help, send it back to Amazon
The process is similar to isometrics, if you’ve ever done that, but kinda in reverse. During my high school days, we didn’t use free weights but rather isometrics for strength conditioning for football and track. It worked.
In watching the two videos, don’t be fooled by the lack of much movement. It’s not the movement, but the pressure. (I’m not sure why the model in the first video looks like she is rowing with the device.) Watch the big guy in the first video; he apparently is doing it correctly.
@phendrick@show_the_maw I have occasional issues with the muscles and vertebrae in my lower back. After using one at the chiropractor, I bought an inversion table for home use. 30 minutes of making like a bat provides relief when my back gives me trouble.
@macromeh@show_the_maw I’ve also used an inversion table, but not in a long while. Maybe I should go back to using one and try to get taller again.
(That means I’ll have to get used to the weird feeling of falling over backward again. Also, I have no one else to spot me now – getting locked into an upside down position has happened more than once to me.
When I was younger, I could clamber out a little more gracefully than I could do now.)
@phendrick@show_the_maw Yikes!
My table is adjustable - you set it up to balance so that you can raise your arms above your head to invert and put them back to your sides to return to horizontal. Works pretty well.
The only tricky part for me is, with a sore lower back it can sometimes be difficult to bend forward to release my feet from the manacles after the stretching.
@macromeh@show_the_maw
Yes, my table is that way also.
BUT, it has a “feature” that if you go completely vertical, it will hold in that position. Move your arms all you want, but you stay that way. That was the “lock” I referred to.
It was designed that way, so intentional, but I have no idea why. If it didn’t lock, you could stay vertical with little effort if you wanted to, or not if you didn’t.
IIRC, it was simple to unlock, but not while actually in that position, so I’d have to bail out. I soon learned that almost vertical was a lot better than actual vertical.
I guess I now need to dig out my table and investigate.
@macromeh@show_the_maw Just tracked down my Amazon order on it. It was this one on special https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JIPKO4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for just under $110 total, 15 yrs ago.
No longer available. I tried looking it up several years ago, and then also it was no longer available. Gee, wonder why. Other than what I described, I had no issues with it and would order again if I needed another, if available and price right.
Rereading the description, I noted the “tether belts”. These could be used to limit the degree of the inversion. Seems like I started using them to keep a few degrees away from going a full 180.
@brennyn@Salanth it was only from watching sports channels that I learned that a ´sprain’ was actually quite serious and one of the worse things that can happen to joints/ligaments. Of course in ‘olden’ days there were not easy ways to study what was going on, but I do remember the ´it’s not serious; it’s just a sprain’ story which is not reality.
@pmarin@Salanth It’s indeed strange. I ran run like nothing ever happened, without pain. But I need a cane around the house. Some ligament just went back on wrong.
@brennyn@pmarin@Salanth Soft tissue damage is tough, especially someplace that gets used all the time, like your foot or ankle. A racehorse reared up and one hoof came down on my mom’s foot about 30 years ago, and her foot has never been the same.
@lisagd@tweezak Actually, I’m getting to the age where it’s harder to laugh at any misbehaving body parts.
In my feet, I have what my PCP calls “slight neuropathy”. Gracious enough to give me a diagnosis, but not a remedy. Used to be infrequent, but notsomuch now. Feels like some mix of tingling, needles, walking on a Texas sidewalk barefoot in August. Strangely, tends to be worst when I waken from a horizontal nap.
But more and more, I have something to take my mind off that: aching knees, hips, and shoulders. Excuse me for trying to do my work.
I’ve got a lawn to mow, if I can endure through today’s heat advisory. Cold beer and a recliner await, but only as a reward for finishing.
@lisagd@phendrick@tweezak I had a weird neuropathy that literally happened overnight, could not use top muscles in one foot, and numb but just at the top of foot and shin. After all sorts of tests that confirmed nothing else really wrong (no stroke, bone or ligament issue, etc) did get a neurologist that explained there is a nerve that runs over your kneecap (bad engineering?) that’s susceptible to damage. And it only does a few things, which were the things that stopped working. The answer was that we don’t know what happened to it, and it will probably come back, and not much else to do to “fix” it. It did in fact come back but it took a few months. So happy for the magical human body that sometimes actually resolves issues itself, but yeah neuropathy is disturbing.
We think the answer was as you get older, don’t sit over your knees, which I had been doing a lot that year, folding my knee under me and sitting on my foot. Eventually the strain on the nerve which is stretched in that position was too much and it disconnected which sounds pretty bad, and the amazing part was that it did reconnect over a few months.
Oh yeah and a riding lawnmower with a cupholder means you can at least start that beer while mowing. (but kids, don’t try this at home, they say excessive alcohol use can cause a general peripheral neuropathy effect) So partying till you’re numb might have been fun in college but yeah, damn aging catches up with us.
EDIT: the only good thing about aging is that it beats the alternative.
@lisagd@phendrick@pmarin@tweezak I fell off a roof and busted up my left foot (30 years ago this September). Required surgery and installation of a metal plate and 5 screws to hold things together (which are still in there - I didn’t see the point in more surgery to have them removed after healing). Apparently some nerves were disturbed during the surgery, so I have several numb spots on my foot. I hardly notice them any more - all things considered, being able to walk without external support was worth it.
@lisagd @macromeh@pmarin@tweezak What’s the average length of time it takes you to explain this to TSA after your foot trips their metal detectors? Or do you just carry around your foot xray with you?
I don’t like telling of my aches and pains. It makes me feel like I am complaining, and complaining gives me a headache. And I have headaches all too often.
@hchavers when I was a kid my parents would have dinner with friends and they would talk about medical problems or maybe who died. And now I am at the age when my friends are talking about medical problems or who died.
Neck, shoulders, knees, occasionally jaw. I’ve somehow been spared the curse of back pain, but my knees almost make up for that. I think they’re about 25 years older than I am.
@ahacksaw Why did I read this??? My shoulders, arms and knees hurt, but I never thought about my jaw (except after dental work). As soon as I read it my jaw started hurting. Not much, but I feel it.
I can’t take any pain relief for the next week because I’m having shoulder surgery. Today I realized just how many of my joints ache: both shoulders, both elbows, thumb that’s bone on bone, knee that’s bone on bone, other knee in a different spot, and my knuckles. Sheesh!
@Kyeh Thanks. I’m starting to get a little nervous, but I’ll have pretty much the whole summer off, so I can relax then. By the time I go back to work, I’ll be practically ambidextrous.
Besides the every day chronic pain that I’m lucky enough to get a healthy dose of pain meds for, (IF that even makes any sense ) it’s these darn kidney stones that are whipping my butt. The pain meds have got to be taking the edge off, I can’t imagine how people without heavy duty narcotics deal with them! Agony, pure agony! 🫦
@Kyeh Yes, we’ve been back home for about 5 months and I’m enjoying the condo more than ever! The hummingbirds are still here and feeding like crazy, today I had 2 tiny goldfinches hanging out on the deck. Hopefully I’ll make it to the pool this week, depends on how I’m feeling. Are you enjoying your summer?
@Lynnerizer Goldfinches! Lucky you! We’ve had an unusually wet cool spring, but this week just in time for summer the rain stopped and we’re into the 80-90s, which doesn’t thrill me. Lots of weeding and mowing to do, but at least things look beautifully green. I hope you do get to the pool!
Oh, man! I’m usually aching in my shoulders and lower back since I spend a ton of time hunched over my laptop. It’s pretty much a daily battle, but I’m doin’ my best to stay on top of it!
Home.
@yakkoTDI After filling the trunk?
@blaineg The trunk is filled at the pickup location.
I don’t remember the year I didn’t have back pain.
@show_the_maw Meh sold me this contraption for $20 several years ago. https://meh.com/forum/topics/asotv-lo-back-trax-portable-spinal-traction-device-1 Watch the two videos there.
It’s available still on Amazon for three times the price. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009FEQACY/?tag=buyitbutton-20
Worked wonders while I was using it. (Trying to remember why I quit. Trying to remember where I put it… Probably time I locate it and use it some more.) I recommended it to several friends, but could never get them to try it. They are still having back issues, so…
I still would recommend it.
People who reviewed it and said it didn’t work, probably weren’t using it correctly, IMO. The key is the proper FORM, as in the video and instructions that came with it. The body alignment while using it is KEY, especially the arms, and keeping the point of the device down.
Hint: It won’t cure anyone overnight! It works by stretching muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and strengthening them, helping the back align itself. This has to be done over time. But put the effort in, and you should get the benefit. If twenty days of proper use with it doesn’t help, send it back to Amazon
The process is similar to isometrics, if you’ve ever done that, but kinda in reverse. During my high school days, we didn’t use free weights but rather isometrics for strength conditioning for football and track. It worked.
In watching the two videos, don’t be fooled by the lack of much movement. It’s not the movement, but the pressure. (I’m not sure why the model in the first video looks like she is rowing with the device.) Watch the big guy in the first video; he apparently is doing it correctly.
@phendrick @show_the_maw I have occasional issues with the muscles and vertebrae in my lower back. After using one at the chiropractor, I bought an inversion table for home use. 30 minutes of making like a bat provides relief when my back gives me trouble.
@macromeh @show_the_maw I’ve also used an inversion table, but not in a long while. Maybe I should go back to using one and try to get taller again.
(That means I’ll have to get used to the weird feeling of falling over backward again. Also, I have no one else to spot me now – getting locked into an upside down position has happened more than once to me.
When I was younger, I could clamber out a little more gracefully than I could do now.)
@phendrick @show_the_maw Yikes!
My table is adjustable - you set it up to balance so that you can raise your arms above your head to invert and put them back to your sides to return to horizontal. Works pretty well.
The only tricky part for me is, with a sore lower back it can sometimes be difficult to bend forward to release my feet from the manacles after the stretching.
@macromeh @show_the_maw
Yes, my table is that way also.
BUT, it has a “feature” that if you go completely vertical, it will hold in that position. Move your arms all you want, but you stay that way. That was the “lock” I referred to.
It was designed that way, so intentional, but I have no idea why. If it didn’t lock, you could stay vertical with little effort if you wanted to, or not if you didn’t.
IIRC, it was simple to unlock, but not while actually in that position, so I’d have to bail out. I soon learned that almost vertical was a lot better than actual vertical.
I guess I now need to dig out my table and investigate.
@macromeh @show_the_maw Just tracked down my Amazon order on it. It was this one on special
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JIPKO4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for just under $110 total, 15 yrs ago.
No longer available. I tried looking it up several years ago, and then also it was no longer available. Gee, wonder why. Other than what I described, I had no issues with it and would order again if I needed another, if available and price right.
Rereading the description, I noted the “tether belts”. These could be used to limit the degree of the inversion. Seems like I started using them to keep a few degrees away from going a full 180.
@macromeh @show_the_maw Think this could be mounted over a toilet? I know a fraternity I’d like to donate one to. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QCL4JJ8/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1
I could also furnish contact info for EMT and lawyers.
Arms and shoulders.
@Kyeh
… knees and toes.
Messed up my ankle in dodgeball. School nurse said it was just a sprain. Mom said it was just a sprain. Doctor said it was just a sprain.
Thirty years later, it still hurts.
@brennyn Are you a lady? There is a pattern about not being believed about pain.
@Salanth I’m not a lady but I get called ma’am a lot. Must be the sprain still working. Should have taken more salt tablets.
@brennyn @Salanth it was only from watching sports channels that I learned that a ´sprain’ was actually quite serious and one of the worse things that can happen to joints/ligaments. Of course in ‘olden’ days there were not easy ways to study what was going on, but I do remember the ´it’s not serious; it’s just a sprain’ story which is not reality.
@pmarin @Salanth It’s indeed strange. I ran run like nothing ever happened, without pain. But I need a cane around the house. Some ligament just went back on wrong.
@brennyn @pmarin @Salanth Soft tissue damage is tough, especially someplace that gets used all the time, like your foot or ankle. A racehorse reared up and one hoof came down on my mom’s foot about 30 years ago, and her foot has never been the same.
@brennyn @pmarin @Salanth
I’ve always heard that a sprain can be worse than a break!
Go figure…
my Rump!
Elbows, shoulders and back.
@tweezak @tweezak
Head, shoulders, knees, and toes 
@lisagd @tweezak Neck and nose, baubles and bows.
@lisagd @tweezak Actually, I’m getting to the age where it’s harder to laugh at any misbehaving body parts.
In my feet, I have what my PCP calls “slight neuropathy”. Gracious enough to give me a diagnosis, but not a remedy. Used to be infrequent, but notsomuch now. Feels like some mix of tingling, needles, walking on a Texas sidewalk barefoot in August. Strangely, tends to be worst when I waken from a horizontal nap.
But more and more, I have something to take my mind off that: aching knees, hips, and shoulders. Excuse me for trying to do my work.
I’ve got a lawn to mow, if I can endure through today’s heat advisory. Cold beer and a recliner await, but only as a reward for finishing.
@lisagd @phendrick @tweezak I had a weird neuropathy that literally happened overnight, could not use top muscles in one foot, and numb but just at the top of foot and shin. After all sorts of tests that confirmed nothing else really wrong (no stroke, bone or ligament issue, etc) did get a neurologist that explained there is a nerve that runs over your kneecap (bad engineering?) that’s susceptible to damage. And it only does a few things, which were the things that stopped working. The answer was that we don’t know what happened to it, and it will probably come back, and not much else to do to “fix” it. It did in fact come back but it took a few months. So happy for the magical human body that sometimes actually resolves issues itself, but yeah neuropathy is disturbing.
We think the answer was as you get older, don’t sit over your knees, which I had been doing a lot that year, folding my knee under me and sitting on my foot. Eventually the strain on the nerve which is stretched in that position was too much and it disconnected which sounds pretty bad, and the amazing part was that it did reconnect over a few months.
Oh yeah and a riding lawnmower with a cupholder means you can at least start that beer while mowing. (but kids, don’t try this at home, they say excessive alcohol use can cause a general peripheral neuropathy effect) So partying till you’re numb might have been fun in college but yeah, damn aging catches up with us.
EDIT: the only good thing about aging is that it beats the alternative.
@lisagd @phendrick @pmarin @tweezak I fell off a roof and busted up my left foot (30 years ago this September). Required surgery and installation of a metal plate and 5 screws to hold things together (which are still in there - I didn’t see the point in more surgery to have them removed after healing). Apparently some nerves were disturbed during the surgery, so I have several numb spots on my foot. I hardly notice them any more - all things considered, being able to walk without external support was worth it.
@lisagd @macromeh @pmarin @tweezak What’s the average length of time it takes you to explain this to TSA after your foot trips their metal detectors? Or do you just carry around your foot xray with you?
Neck.
And it’s not just because certain people are such a pain in the neck.
@xobzoo I know you’re not talking about anybody here.
@lisagd @xobzoo Those tend to be pains in a more southerly area. (Not excepting myself from this classification.)
@lisagd @werehatrack @xobzoo So you mean the nether regions of the body, or the country?
@lisagd @pmarin @xobzoo Embrace the concept of “both”, sometimes simultaneously.
@lisagd @pmarin @werehatrack @xobzoo
<in the sweetest voice he can muster> Bless your hearts <sotto voce> damned f’n yankees.
I don’t like telling of my aches and pains. It makes me feel like I am complaining, and complaining gives me a headache. And I have headaches all too often.
@hchavers when I was a kid my parents would have dinner with friends and they would talk about medical problems or maybe who died. And now I am at the age when my friends are talking about medical problems or who died.
@hchavers @pmarin I catch myself doing that when I talk to my brother and have to consciously stop.
@hchavers @lisagd @pmarin An elderly friend told me that his wife referred to those conversations as “organ recitals.”
Neck, shoulders, knees, occasionally jaw. I’ve somehow been spared the curse of back pain, but my knees almost make up for that. I think they’re about 25 years older than I am.
@ahacksaw Why did I read this??? My shoulders, arms and knees hurt, but I never thought about my jaw (except after dental work). As soon as I read it my jaw started hurting. Not much, but I feel it.
@smilingjack Um… misery loves company? And you have my sympathies.
I can’t take any pain relief for the next week because I’m having shoulder surgery. Today I realized just how many of my joints ache: both shoulders, both elbows, thumb that’s bone on bone, knee that’s bone on bone, other knee in a different spot, and my knuckles. Sheesh!
@lisagd
Yikes! Good luck with the surgery.
@Kyeh @lisagd I would say use vodka, but if the doctors advise against it, it means either do less or do more.
@Kyeh Thanks. I’m starting to get a little nervous, but I’ll have pretty much the whole summer off, so I can relax then. By the time I go back to work, I’ll be practically ambidextrous.
@Kyeh @pmarin I did buy some Mike’s Hard Lemonade yesterday…
The hairpin turn in my new colon.
You asked.
@capnjb Not sure I asked. TMI, but sympathies nonetheless… Hope you can get things straightened-out.
Besides the every day chronic pain that I’m lucky enough to get a healthy dose of pain meds for, (IF that even makes any sense
) it’s these darn kidney stones that are whipping my butt. The pain meds have got to be taking the edge off, I can’t imagine how people without heavy duty narcotics deal with them! Agony, pure agony! 🫦
@Lynnerizer Owwwww!
That sounds terrible! At least you’re all moved back into your condo now, aren’t you?
@Kyeh Yes, we’ve been back home for about 5 months and I’m enjoying the condo more than ever! The hummingbirds are still here and feeding like crazy, today I had 2 tiny goldfinches hanging out on the deck. Hopefully I’ll make it to the pool this week, depends on how I’m feeling. Are you enjoying your summer?
@Lynnerizer Goldfinches! Lucky you! We’ve had an unusually wet cool spring, but this week just in time for summer the rain stopped and we’re into the 80-90s, which doesn’t thrill me. Lots of weeding and mowing to do, but at least things look beautifully green. I hope you do get to the pool!
@blaineg
How about a dog’s bodywash for Tails and Butts?
They could sell it under the “LooseEnds” brand.
Also, wondering if the apéritif belongs to the dog or the groomer. Probably both would be due for a drink.
@blaineg @phendrick with the wine glass there, perhaps it’s a casemates lab-rat-dog.
My neck which radiates into my back and my arm
Pretty much wherever I am standing at the moment.
With the advent of online shopping, my wallet has been the most constant source of soreness, far surpassing all other pains.
KuoH
My heart
Oh, man! I’m usually aching in my shoulders and lower back since I spend a ton of time hunched over my laptop. It’s pretty much a daily battle, but I’m doin’ my best to stay on top of it!