Got Lower Back Pain? The ORTHOPOD is a Game Changer

The miraculous OrthoPod

We all have “woke” moments throughout our lives when we realize something we didn’t previously. When I was working for the Los Angeles Times while in my 30s there was a very talented writer I admired named Bob Sipchen. He would be assigned often complicated articles to write that required a lot of research. The subject matter often was originally unfamiliar to him, so in order to school the reader as to the subject matter he had to learn on short notice some intricate and sophisticated scientific or medical material. Thus he came across an a trusted expert, when in fact he was not at all —by his own admission. I often wondered why the Times didn’t just delegate such assignments to experts in the field, but there you go.

When we read articles we assume the writer has a high level of expertise, when in fact they might know little of that which they speak.

In reading this (CLICK) article in GQ magazine, “4 Simple Ways To Prevent Lower Back Pain…” I was troubled that the most obvious and natural technique to prevent and treat back pain, stretching, was not even mentioned. If the writer indeed had any history of back pain herself, she most certainly would’ve put this first on the list.

Hopefully you have a chinup bar securely installed in a doorway at home or work so you can hang by your hands to help undo the compression we all suffer as a result of the daily effects of gravity. But hanging upside down by our feet or knees is the ideal decompression move to stretch our spine and relax the muscles in our lower back. 

For many, hanging upside down is frightening.

Understandably, with the methods/apparatus available today, many people are hesitant to hang by their feet/ankles due to fear of falling.

For decades I have used a wonderful apparatus called an OrthoPod that I bought used from a classified ad. Unfortunately it has ceased to be manufactured. I have seen these occasionally in storefronts for hospital supply rentals, such as hospital beds, that exist in most large cities. An online search today turned up quite a few of these for sale secondhand around the country, but I doubt if many sellers would agree to ship it, since it is both heavy and unwieldy.

The Totalback System looks similar to the discontinued OrthoPod, but I have not personally used it. This is the same position your body will be in on the OrthoPod. VISIT.

However this OrthoPod gizmo has saved my ass, so to speak, and I highly recommend it. Allowing the user to hang unrestricted from the hips/quads provides multiple ways to comfortably position ones self. Daily use basically halted the degradation of my intervertebral discs. These discs act like pads or shock absorbers for your spine as it moves, and two of mine were getting perilously thin. It also stopped cold the incessant pain caused by sciatica. The sciatic nerve runs from your lower back down the back of your leg to the knee, and the dull torture you suffer during such inflammation of the nerve can be totally debilitating.

The OrthoPod allows one to stretch one’s spine while being held securely in place, and many times I don’t even have to hang completely upside down to get relief from my now-rare bouts with sciatica or lower back stiffness due to overextending myself at the gym. Opposed to boots designed for hanging upside down from an overhead bar, or a platform on which you lie that pivots to ease you into an upside-down position, the OrthoPod suspends the user from the hips rather than the ankles, you feel much safer and more secured in place. A much fuller range of movement is possible making it possible to “seek out” where the problem is by subtly twisting and torquing while in a suspended position. But in fact, simple remaining upright while secured with the pads which rest against your hamstrings.

If you have chronic back pain, especially sciatica, this machine could be a total game-changer. I know how tortuous sciatica is. My life was miserable when I suffered bouts of sciatica. On rare occasions when it flares up, it takes hanging for two minutes anywhere from once or twice to ten times over a 24 hour period to completely erase the pain.

An additional bonus is the ability to work abs to great benefit and result, in my case, performing crunches while in a suspended position.

This style of apparatus restricts the ability to torque from the midsection which helps loosen compressions.