“Can hanging straighten your spine?”
I am a 22 year old female. I want to know if hanging can straighten your spine?
12 Answers
Unfortunately, hanging upside down will not be effective at straightening your spine. Your muscles will contract tightly to insure that you are held together. It is well agreed in the medical community that inversion should be at a maximum of 60 degrees and only done by those that have been screened properly to be free of any vascular complication.
It can help lengthen your ligaments and tendons.
I am going to hope you are referring to hanging from your hands gripping a very secure bar. This can help decompress the spine. Please make sure you have someone in the room with you at all times if you are hanging from your ankles on an inversion table.
I can provide the relief of decompressing the spine. If the hanging is active such as hanging from a pullup bar, you will get more benefit than an inversion table. The active way will allow your muscles to adapt and strengthen your spine in its natural position. Inactive hanging will just go back to letting gravity work against you.
I would most likely not recommend that for someone. I think there are other stretches and exercises that will be safer and get better results.
If you mean inversion, for some people, it helps with pain. Will it permanently straighten your spine...no.
Dr. Jonathan Donath, DC, MS
Dr. Jonathan Donath, DC, MS
Yes. It will straighten your spine for a short time. You will need to do core and strength training to make it permanent. Along with chiropractic adjustments.
Good question. Maybe. But don't hang upside down by your feet, that can damage your retina in your eye or cause spasms in your back.
By "Changing," I am assuming you are meaning using an inversion table. Inversion tables are great for spinal decompression, but will not straighten your spine on its own. To make sure your spine is free misalignments, it's best to get checked by a chiropractor, as we are best at putting the spine into its optimal alignment and correcting the interference to the nervous system.
Yes you can hang with arms on a bar or hang upside down. The gravity pulling you down helps stretch the spinal muscle and decompress the spine.
Hanging is a useful modality to correct compression and excessive curvature of the spine.
Hanging upside down is effective in stretching the muscles of the spine which may benefit the posture of the spine.
