Sit and Decompress Back Stretcher 3 Minutes A Day Lumbar Traction Spinal Decompression - Inversion Table Alternative (Medium Harness No Bar)

I took a while to decide purchasing Sit and Decompress given some of the mixed reviews. However, the idea behind it made perfect sense to me so I bought it anyway. Inversion was not an option since I have high blood pressure and other options look less attractive (either because of price or because they seemed to induce less traction). I have been using it for a week and it has eliminated the constant back pain in my lower back (I have three herniated disks and lately the pain had become chronic). It actually made a huge difference in the second or third day (even though from the beginning I started feeling the stretch in my back and a difference using it twice a day for about 8 to 10 minutes). To be clear, I still have some back pain when sitting for too long at work. However, that is nowhere close to what I had (after sitting for a while, it was embarrassing to walk around since it was evident I was under pain). I am also running again and planning to return to my soccer team (I am a 53 year old still playing in a league but I had missed my last two games because of this). Like many others indicated, the brace is a bit uncomfortable since you are essentially putting most of your own weight on the rib cage. However, in my case, I did not have much problem (for my body the lower strap adjusts about an inch tighter than the upper strap so I guess I have somewhat of a V shape but not too much, at least not in the mirror). I take this over the back pain anytime. I just used a cotton shirt. I have not tried towels because I did not have much problem to withstand it for 10 minutes. Durability may be an issue as the straps are adjusted with plastic rings. However, so far they have worked great. I have the same concern with the sawing of the straps. I do not know how long they will last. However, for those with chronic back pain like I was having, I consider it a good investment even if you have to buy another one in a few months (consider that you do not have to take anti inflammatory medication, what those pills may do to your stomach, that you are a lot more efficient at work and able to enjoy other activities when you are not in constant pain, and that you may end up not going to visit the doctor because of this). I was having more recurrent episodes where you almost cannot move for a simple bad movement. Although a week is too early to tell, it does feel like this would reduce those episodes dramatically. Finally, I got a chin bar from amazon. It is pretty good and I feel extremely safe using it (I had never used one before and I was uneasy about how safe it was to hang yourself from it. The only thing is that the foam can leave some marks on your door trim (I saw other reviews for the same chin bar indicating this). To avoid that, I just used the white foam from the packaging of the chin bar wrapped around the two handles that touch the door (if fits perfectly). In summary, if you are on the fence, I would give it a try. At least for me, it has made things much better in just a week. I take the opportunity to congratulate Dr. Dorsey for an excellent idea! Update: two weeks and still working great. I really do not understand the complaints about setting it up. After the initial setup, it takes me less than a minute to put it on the door and then another minute to strap it to my body.

The first thing that presents a challenge is to hangup a shooting bar that is strong enough to bear your weight. That is what cheating bars do but most people probably do not set about to find a place and they’re home that is strong enough to anchor into wooden stud walls and have it be strong enough. You really need a concrete or block wall to do that correctly. The biggest downer on this product for me though was how incredibly uncomfortable it is to use. You can wrap it around your middle or up around near your armpits. Either way, it slides up very violently into your armpits and really hurts. I did not get around quick enough to return this and get a refund. The refund window had closed by the time I got around to it. Too bad because I knew the very first day that it probably was not going to work for me. In hindsight, I would rig up ratchet straps or a robot cat just long enough to be fastened to the joists or rafter boards of a garage or outbuilding. Then I would have taken some old blankets and wrapped them very quickly around the rope or straps and settled that blanket enclosed rope around my back and under my armpits. It would have been much cheaper and have been much more comfortable to use. I do not know how many this guy has sold but if he has sold very many at all he has made a pretty good fortune at $47 each. I think you can get them now for $35 each but for me two dollars would be too much because I find it useless. I hate to trash this guys business but neither do I want customers like myself out there to throw away $35-$47 of good cash. My recommendation to the inventor is that you go back to the drawing board and come up with something with massively more padding for the under arms, which means you will probably need to go with a padding wrapped rope design instead of a Velcro waist strap. I do understand that this would drastically simplify the design though and probably show potential customers that they can rig something up themselves for free with a rope or ratchet strap and a few old blankets.

Review: For the past year or so my back has been KILLING me. The junction where the T12/ L1 meet has become hyper mobile to compensate for my upper back being extremely tight. This caused a pinched nerve which I'd feel all day long as dull pain and then wake me up in the middle of the night from severe & sharp nerve pain. Anyone that has had nerve pain knows this is no joke (advil, aleve, percoset, etc won't touch the pain, nothing helps you just suck it up - so I'd be getting out of bed at 4 am almost every day because I couldn't deal with the pain any longer). I'm sure this is due to inactivity, sitting behind a PC for 8 hours a day and bad posture. I've spent hundreds of $ going to to PT for months, acupuncture treatments and a cortisone shot which all did absolutely nothing for me. The next step was to go back to the doctor and get an MRI/ back surgery - no thanks. I figured my spine was compressed so started with hanging on a pull up bar for a minute or so at a time as that's all I could do but it wasn't enough. I then found this product and figured I'd give it a shot but wasn't hopeful as nothing else seemed to work - my trouble spot is right at the very edge of where this product is no longer effective because the waist strap starts to cover it. I started using it twice a day and 3 minutes per stance and I can honestly say within a week, the pain decreased so much that I was able to sleep through the night without waking up due to pain. First time within about 6 months. I just could not believe it. And it seems to have semi lasting results; I haven't used it in about a week and still able to sleep through the night. I now use it as needed and when my back starts talking to me. No it's not a cure all & Yes there's still some dull pain noticeable throughout the day but at least it's manageable and almost never sharp like it was before. I will say that I made some other changes along with this. As my bad posture behind a PC perpetuated this, I needed to also correct it so purchased Upright GO | Posture Trainer which vibrates every time you slouch - otherwise doing the Sit and Decompress really would just be a bandaid for the bigger issue.. I also am working on increasing core strength via exercise. I used to get sciatic flare ups all the time and noticed doing a bunch of lunges help prevent these. This 3 pronged approach is what works for me. Suggestions: While it indeed is extremely effective for lower back issues, you really need to follow instructions to get a good fit and prevent slippage into the armpits. For those complaining of slippage, you need to ensure the TOP of waist strap is tight and UNDER your chest muscles/ breasts - NOT on top of them. If it starts to slip, then it's not tight enough. As it needs to be really tight, you can at times feel like you can't get a good breath. Maybe proper & padded support under the armpits as well could alleviate this a bit so you don't need it so tight? The youtube vids really helped with this. I couldn't figure out the reason for the double D hooks on the over shoulder straps at first but found they were to rest your arms if needed. Maybe better pictures of each feature in detail could be provided in the instructions as well as a link to Dr Josh's YT channel. Only other suggestion I can think of is I'd love to be able to also decompress my thoracic spine. There's nothing on the market that will do this unless you want blood rushing to your head on an inverted traction table - which I do not. But how can this be done as the waist strap is taking all of the weight and covering the thoracic spine in the process? Maybe instead of the current waist strap, use a rigid inverted V type strap supported at the top and padded arm rests leaving your entire spine exposed and able to decompress. I'd buy this in a heart beat

This back stretcher is effective at relieving disc pain and providing a noticeable sense of spinal decompression. Unfortunately, the design has one significant weakness. There’s too much pressure on the chest area because your body weight is partially suspended there. That section needs considerably more padding and support to make the product genuinely comfortable for longer use. The decompression function works well, but the discomfort around the chest takes away from the overall experience. A good product, but an incomplete one. With better padding in the chest area, this could be a much more comfortable and effective back-stretching device.

I am 55, 185 lbs and in pretty good shape. I have had sciatica for about 3 years (from my right hip to my right foot), and I have been going to different chiropractors for help, as well as physical therapy. I had a cyst on the spine drained, and that did not help much, I've been doing Yoga and pyriformes stretches and IT band rolls religiously, and those have been short term relief at best. I can do most everything I want for exercise, but sitting seems to kill me. I believe my lower back pain is from compressed discs in the L5-S1, and from years of sitting, baseball, golf and weight lifting. I used this sit and decompress off and on for a couple months (like once or twice a week) for 3 to 5 minutes. I was also doing chiropractic care, which included vibration therapy, cryotherapy, and stim, and i I didn't notice much alleviation of my pain. I ramped up to 10 minutes a day with the sit and decompress to see if that would make a difference. It gets a little uncomfortable on the armpits around the 7 minute mark, but not terrible. the first time I did 10 minutes I noticed a reduction in my sciatica. The last few weeks I've noticed a MARKED difference in the amount of sciatic pain I have. It's been a huge difference for me, and I know everyone is different, I think I like doing it for 7 - 10 minutes at a time. For people that are overweight or maybe weak in the shoulders, I would think they would need to do less time, as it is an intense stretch. I have a wide back and i think that helps also with the comfort. My x-rays show more space between the discs now, which I believe is the result of this device and the chiropractic. In combination with other back stretches, and ab work, this has become an hugely important part of my daily routine. I've seen alot of posts that this thing is cheaply made, and doesn't work- but it does the job and it is incredibly inexpensive, and sturdy for what it does. I have no need to modify it in anyway, it's built well enough. You have to know how to / or figure out how to pull the straps through correctly and put it on so it fits snug. For people that are overweight or can't figure out how it put it on right, then they should contact customer support. This thing has worked great for me, and I'm sure it would help alot of people and it's the only reliable treatment I have found for my sciatica. Thank you Dr. D!

I've only had this system for less than a week, and I'm in a difficult position. I'm 72 years old, 208 lbs, and I admit to having somewhat of a paunch. Its whats left of a beer belly, although I haven't had a drink for a year and a half now. I have multi level spinal issues, and I do believe that over the few times I've used it, its helped me. I want it to work, and I want it to be a pleasure in so doing. I award it 2 stars for the idea, but regretfully I cant award any stars for the way the harness is meant to work - because for me it doesnt! The gentleman in the promotional pictures makes working with this thing look a piece of cake - its not, and the the picture of the girl appearing to use it with consumate ease just cant be real! No matter how much I inhale to wrap the velcro strap around me, or how tight I pull the two additional belts, I slowly but surely slip down until the harness is under my arms! And I've tried towels and other padding which I didnt realise I would have to use. I feel there is a design fault here, and the only way it could be rectified satisfactorily for everyone is to run two more straps down from the front of the harness which would pass between the legs and attach to the underside of the belt at the back. Then in theory it cant ride up. I'm probably going to modify the belt with velcro and extra straps myself, but I shouldn't have to do that having payed out $80.

I've been rehabbing a herniated disc in my back for the last month and a half with very slow progress. Due to the sciatic nerve pressure, I have had about 50% feeling in my left foot and maybe 20% of the strength in that calf/foot since I got injured with no real improvement, and while I've been doing various extension exercises (i.e. hanging off a pullup bar) to get minor intermittent relief, you can only do that for so long before you need to let go. Inversion tables take up way too much space, are more expensive, and hanging upside down can also be problematic so I wanted to give this harness thing a try, and I'm so glad I did. It was very easy to setup after watching a short youtube video, though they could stand to improve the written diagrams/instructions which are not detailed enough - just watch the video. Besides my wife screaming once as she came around a corner to me "perching" like a bat in the doorway of our room (you gotta put your arms through the harnesses for full bat effect), it's been exactly what I needed (okay actually scaring the wife was a bonus). After a recent session where I found a good leg position I could almost feel pinched nerves "releasing" or becoming unbound along my back and hip area after a few minutes. I could even feel the feeling coming back more in my foot as I slowly rocked in that stretch position. After I got out of the "bat harness" and was feeling better I went on a walk- woohoo! I instantly got more strength back in my foot! So now I'm continuing my recovery with optimism I'll get back to 100% eventually, as it seems to improve each time I do this- I'm so glad this device existed. I will say it's not particularly comfortable when it compresses on your upper body to hold you up (I have unpadded version), but it's a minor inconvenience compared to the relief it gives in back pain, so it's not a big deal for me personally. This is the first product I've actually bothered to write a review about after around 15 years of ordering things on Amazon, so that should count for something!

Absolutely useless. I’ve tried numerous times and every conceivable orientation of the straps and belt. Always just slides up into the armpits and there is too painful to support any weight at all. Customer service advise to cross the belt, feet on the ground, take it slow, etc was useless. I wish it worked. Maybe it does for some people.

love it

Does what it says on the packet, but I personally find it rather uncomfortable to use.

I received the product when expected and I loved it!!!!

I was disappointed to receive this item and realise that it didn't come with a chin up bar. I realise that you have put it in the product description further down the page, but it should be in the product description under the main photo - which reads as though the bar is in the box with the belt.

Ok