Your spinal column is possibly the most vital structure in your body, therefore it is important to look after it. Your backbone gets voluminous compression from day-to-day activities, gravity and general life. In addition, the supplementary compression you give it with strength training and you better start decompressing it.

Backbone health is really important, and I’m willing to bet that nearly everyone of you have back trouble presently. I myself hurt my lower back more or less a year ago, and this is one of the methods I utilized to regain it to 99% (yet occasionally gets tight or sore). I’ll do a comprehensive post on why you have back trouble and how to correct it soon. Meanwhile, read this without further ado.

What you want to do is follow a simple decompression method that helps to keep your spine healthy and mobile by helping it decompress to its original length.

Here’s the whole thing you need to …

How To Execute Spine Decompressions

You’ll need a pull-up bar to do your decompressions. After you have that piece of equipment, there’s two ways to go about this:

1. Get Gravity Boots: This is the method that I use. These are boots that you strap onto your ankles and have hooks on them so you can hang upside down from your pullup bar safely and allow your spine to decompress. I use Teeter Hang Ups Gravity Boots. An added bonus is that with these boots I can do inverted sit ups for my abs and other cool “upside down” exercises.

2. Hang With Your Hands: This is easy. Simply hang from your pull-up bar and relax all your muscles-hold it for as long as possible. The longer you hang the better shoot for at least 5 minutes and build up from there. You probably can’t hang that long, so here’s

How To Hang Longer Using Your Hands

The longer you hang the better, yet your grip will almost certainly give out. Even though I would never advise using lifting straps for your typical lifting, I recommend them for decompressions for it will allow you to hold longer. Go for nylon-type lifting straps or lifting hook straps as they’re more durable.

How To Ease Your Muscles So Your Backbone Decompresses

Your muscles need to be calm in order for your spinal column to decompress (staying tight won’t help). Here’s what to do whether you’re making use of the gravity boots method or the hanging from your hands method:

* Hang off the pull-up bar

* Take a deep breath and sustain it

* Tighten your entire body (target abs, glutes and make fists)

* Keep your whole body tight for 5 secs

* Let it all out, your breath and all the tension. Relax

When you do this you’ll feel your whole body relaxing and you’ll probably “drop” down a little bit. You’ll probably feel your back decompressing, especially the first few times.

How Often You Should Decompress

Every day is great. Though I have to admit that I don’t do it day by day always. But you certainly should aim to do it as much as possible. If you get tired hanging upside down you can read a book or something. It’s great to do these right after your strength training sessions, right after your settle down-think of it as a part of your cooldown.