Innova Advanced Heat and Massage Inversion Table

(About the photos. Theo nes of the wife are in the final position. Don't tell her I posted them. The ones with me were immediately following assembly.)Ok. The pain is not completely gone yet. And perhaps I am setting too many expectations for a $200 table. But after trying every other form of mediæval torture device include what feels more like a corset than a lumbar brace, I am willing to do anything to alleviate back pain even a tiny bit. Enter the Innova ITM5900.A little background information. I am not a doctor nor a chiropractor. I am very suspicious of snake oil. I am currently 240 pounds with another 70 to go. Hanging upside down makes my belly look flat. :) I suffer from herniated discs in the L3-L5 region along with the lovely genetic predisposition to degenerative disc disease. After three rounds of trying to get anything done with the VA, they have decided it is better to do nothing to my back. At this point, I am willing to pay for a catheter, wheel chair, and spinal block to paralyse me from L3 downwards. Who cares if it is permanent if it gets rid of the back pain? So the $200 investment in this device was like playing a slot machine at the casino and winning big on the first pull.Assembly:Yes, there are some grammatical issues in the instructions that are more pet peeves of mine than anything else. (I will still write the manufacture to have them correct their grammar.) The instructions are clear and easy to understand. When you first open the box, it looks very intimidating, but another 78 year old reviewer on here said it too him all of 30 minutes, and I was not about to be bested by someone with a quarter century on me. It did take me longer than 30 minutes, but I was taking very frequent breaks due to mobility issues. You can hire a professional, but all the tools and parts are there. It is really simple to screw together with the two provided wrenches and get enough torque to feel everything is secure. I did not have any issues with any missing parts. It took me at most 2 hours to assembly by myself, but again, I am very immobile right now due to extreme lower back pain.Usage:The instructions recommend putting the locking pin in at the lowest setting and getting accustomed to it befire increasing. I like to try every function, so I tried every setting. Of course, I made sure the wife was standing by in case of any emergency. She laughed and continued taking photos. Even "flipping" the full 85 degrees the machine allows, I was able to gradually lower myself to that position and pull myself back up. Those concerns about being trapped are now gone from my mind. At most, you are using your arms to pull a quarter of your bodyweight. The actual table hangs from the fulcrum about six inches to move the fulcrum closer to center mass on the Y-axis. As long as the height is adjusted properly, the X-axis will take care of itself. With center mass at the fulcrum, you could easily move the world (to paraphrase Archimedes).Do stick to the 15 degrees initially until you get accustomed to it. Righting yourself does cause a bit of a head rush. I stay locked into it for a couple of minutes until the blood drains back where it belongs. Even the 15 degrees is enough to relieve some of the pressure in my lower back. It was the first time I was relatively pain free in two months. Pain went from an 11 to a 2 where it was more of a slight discomfort. As soon as I got off the machine, It was back up at about a 9.Be careful about spending extended period on the table. I would recommend no more than 20 minutes every couple of hours to start with. Your body will tell you it wants to get off. Listen to it. Just take it slow. Even small doses have been helpful for me.Make sure you set the height appropriately. Round up to the next inch if you are between. This should account for the soles of your shoes well. You will know it is right when it is easy to invert yourself and pull back up without a spotter. I am a hair over 5'9", so I set it at 5'10". It turns out to be the perfect pivot point where I don't have to have any upper body strength to manipulate it.Make sure you lock your ankles in tight. This is the one function of the device that is more difficult for me to use. The extended bar is helpful in that I don't have to bend over and grab my ankles to strap them in like with other tables. The pull lock on the end is a bit stiff, so it takes more muscle than I want to use when bent over, but it is easier to reach. It may loosen with time. Lock the ankles in as firmly as you can tolerate without curring off circulation to your feet. You will be hanging from your ankles like Achilles (two Greek references in one review). It is a bit disconcerting at first and you feel like you might slip through, but if the bar is snug, you will do fine. Don't worry if your feet leave the support bar when inverting. That is just gravity pulling you down. It just feels a bit scary at first. You'll do fine.Heat & Massage:I find the included massage/heat attachment to be a bit useless for anything more than added lumbar support. It connects to the table with two plastic clips on web belts similar to how a backpack connects. The massage modes are in my opinion weak and annoying. Hit the manual massage button 4 times to get to the steady setting. The steady setting helps to annoy my muscles and nerves into thinking the pain is gone, but it is just a vibrating massage and not shiatsu. That is what my masseuse is for.The heat was a bit weak. It did not feel much warmer than my body heat. But it is summer and I tend to run hot, so maybe I just didn't notice it.I will update this review after it gets some weeks worth of use, but my expectations thus far remain high. The first 24 hours have been a godsend!

It was pretty easy to assemble, not bad at all. I'm 6'00" and it was very comfortable and relieved my back pain and helped with a right side rhomboid pain I've been suffering from for a while now. The relaxing feeling in my whole torso has been incredible. Especially since I've been back in the gym for a few months now and squats have been taking a toll on me at 55, I'm feeling it way more than I did 20 - 30 years ago. That decompression is awesome. The heat and massage are the best. Absolutely worth every penny.

I do like this inversion table. It works better then the one I am replacing (which I did not use because it hurt my ankles). But, as in most cases there is a but, The ankle support could use some tweaking. for my height (5.8") and smaller it should be able to adjust it to be closer to the placement of the feet. Reason is that when I invert my self to level 4-5 my body slides down towards the floor, causing me to struggle to invert back to the upright position I tried to adjust the position of for a taller person but that made it so that it was harder to invert as I was to low for the system to invert as I extended my arm upwards. And the back support/massager would slip towards my head after a few minutes on the table. The massager is not that great but, I did not buy it for that function.

I bought this for my husband (235 lbs at the time) who has been dealing with a bad back for a long time. It was easy to put together by myself, but an extra set of hands is helpful. We put it in the corner of our carpeted bedroom and it stands firm. The legs fold up for storage when not in use. It does stand tall. It is very heavy but that's what I would want for a product like this to be heavy duty. The different levels of incline are easy to adjust. I love that you can tighten and release the ankle cuffs without much bending. I do feel safe on it at all times. The massage pad is a nice feature, and I love that it heats up as well.

So far, so good. Assembly was easy but read directions twice, assemble slowly, and you won't make errors. Pieces fot together nicely. Having a socket and ratchet (that someone else recommended) made assebly better than using the wrenches that come with the bolts and nut. The handle extension that controls clamping your feet securely is a great feature so you won't strain your back reaching down to clamp and unclamp your ankles. The five setting for inversion are fine and you feel secure that it stops at that setting. Very comfortable cushion for back support and heat/vibration electronics works well. Good value for the money. Very satisfied. Shipped to home in 2 days.