Age is a funny thing. You skip through your days quite happily and, as long as your health isn’t disastrous, I don’t think you give the mechanics of your body a second thought, do you?
Then one day you notice you’ve started to “ooh!” when you sit down suddenly. You gather yourself before standing up from a low seat. You think twice about carbs in the evening (and Gaviscon mysteriously appears in your medicine cabinet). Climbing the stiles on the dog walk isn’t hard, but it’s suddenly a bit… noticeable.
For me, it was the stiff creaking first thing in the morning. After carrying four babies on the inside (and then through toddlers, and the occasional hefty 5-year-old who still needed a Mum-carry), my lower back is not the sprightly powerhouse it once was. And after a bout of bad back that my lovely chiropractor sorted, I was left with a lingering ache that greeted me every morning. It wears off about 40 minutes after getting up – but that first hobble to the loo? Painful. And picking yesterday’s jeans off the floor requires a proud toe-grab-and-flick manoeuvre, because there’s no way I’m easing myself down to the floor that early.
Chiropractic treatment helps… but only temporarily. It always returns. Oddly, it’s better if I’ve spent the evening working – apparently sitting in my office chair is better for my spine than slumping sideways on our saggy old sofa. Who knew?
Enter: the Teeter EP-560 Inversion Table
So when Teeter got in touch, I was intrigued. Inversion tables – they’re definitely a thing, right? I’d seen them on late-night TV, wedged between the astonishingly tasteful rubber shoes and giant gemstone rings. But amongst the madness, some of the products actually work (our staple gun and Aston wrenches are still going strong, thank you).
In case you’ve never had the pure joy of watching Roger Teeter himself, I’ll just say: the man is inspirational. Who wouldn’t want to be that active at 77?
Roger Teeter from Wade F. Jackson | Manor House on Vimeo.
Completely Inspirational, right?
Who doesn’t want to be THAT active at 77? If the Teeter EP-560 can help give me that, then I’m in.
I started reading more about the Teeter EP-560 – and everything I read sounded solid. It’s not a miracle cure. But it does support your body’s own natural ability to repair and decompress. You don’t need to hang upside down like a bat – just tilting back at 20° to 90° allows the spine and joints to decompress gently.
The EP-560 model features a padded ankle clamp system that lets you really relax and stretch. Because it uses your own bodyweight, the stretch is naturally personalised to your frame.
Unboxing the EP-560
The big day arrived. A heavy (and large!) box was delivered to the door. You do need to assemble the table yourself – but the instructions were clear and I managed it solo. The EP-560 is substantial – and I mean that as a good thing. When you’re hanging upside down, suspended by your ankles, you want something that feels secure and solid, not flimsy and wobbly.
Does it really work?
Well…
We’ve only been using for a week, and as the benefits grow with time it’s still early days.
I volunteered Mr LittleStuff for Test Dummy #1, adjusted the table for his height (dead easy) helped him strap his feet securely in place (just as easy) and made sure the security strap was set to the lowest 20º inversion (in the picture Mr LittleStuff is enjoying 30º’s). He raised his arms and squawked a little as he rotated backwards… and then he went quiet. A minute or so later he exclaimed that he’d felt a distinct gentle ‘pop’ up near the top of his spine. After just a few minutes he rotated back and stood up – and he couldn’t stop the grin as he walked a weirdly loose floaty walk around the room – exclaiming that the niggly pain in the top of his back that had bothered him for weeks was gone.
Having watched him and noted that he suffered no dangerous injury from collapsing tables or detaching body parts, I adjusted the table for my height, secured my own feet in place, rested back, took a breath and raised my arms to tip slowly backwards.
And it feels… frankly weird.
The first time you rotate, you think you’re going to just fall.
And then you lie tensely, nervous that it’s all a bit odd.
And then you… relax.
And it starts to feel pretty nice, actually.
I hung there for a few minutes, enjoying the sensation, and once I relaxed I was aware that there was definite stretchy-type sensations all along my back.
Upon getting back to my own feet, I was also unable to stop the grin as I walked that same weirdly loose floaty walk around the room. You just feel… taller. Looser. Free-er. Nothing dramatic, just a weird and unique feeling.
The Real Test
A few days later, after a long evening slumped on the sofa, I woke up stiff and sore. I figured I’d try the Teeter EP-560 – it was already set up. I strapped in, inverted for just two minutes… and when I stood up, my backache was completely gone.
I’m not kidding.
GONE.
I know my particular pain is caused by the build-up of fluids overnight – and clearly a quick two minute inversion is all it takes to clear it and straighten me out instantly for the day. No more slow staggering for an hour as it slowly dissipates, no more wincing as I try and pick up laundry or sort the chickens water bowl in the mornings.
Honestly? I was really keen to disprove the hype, and say ‘yeah, those inversion tables are okay but they’re nothing special”.
But I’m glad to say I was proved totally wrong.
Would I Recommend the Teeter EP-560?
They’re quite big, and though it folds up it’s still not a tiny piece of kit – you need to make sure you have house room for it. But the pay off in terms of small-niggle-body-fix, and the emotional space you create for a 2 or 3 minute slot of peace is astonishing.
It’s still early days – we’ll report back in a couple of months and let you know what prolonged use does for us. But for now – we can’t recommend a teeter inversion Table highly enough.
We’re using the Teeter EP-560 Inversion Table – available online for just under £380. If back pain or stiffness is getting in the way of your day, this could be the easiest win you’ve had in a long while.
With over 2 million users, Teeter Hang Ups leads the inversion market as the definitive inversion products brand. Founded in 1981 by Roger and Jennifer Teeter, Teeter is the longest continuous manufacturer of inversion products in the world. Teeter Hang Ups are rated by Dynamark Engineering as the “best inversion table” for endurance, strength, function and ease of assembly, and only Teeter tables are quality-assurance tested to UL’s inversion table safety standard.
