Inversion Therapy for Hip health?
Thanks for this great info Alex. A tangential question to the topic of hanging has to do with inverse hanging- many years back, inversion boots and inversion hanging was quite popular with many reported health benefits attributed to do with positive effects on blood flow and a host of other benefits. It seems that hardly anyone talks about inversion therapy anymore. Are there indeed health benefits to inversion?
Sincerely,
John S.
This is a great question and one I was asked by many people after sharing the benefits of overhead hanging for the shoulders.
It seems initially intuitive that if hanging is good for the shoulders, then hanging upside could be good for hips. Both these joints can be tight and stiff in various ways.
There is a Problem with this reasoning…
mainly that it falls under that category of a False Equivalency
A False equivalency is when an inferred equivalence (quality of sameness) is attributed to two different objects, subjects, ideas, properties (etc).
Said simple: you think two things are similar based on an observation, but they are NOT similar (the similarity is superficial)
Shoulders and Hips are superficially similar, and I dont fault people for thinking inversion or hanging would benefit them, but their functions on a fundamental biomechanical level are not the same
The shoulders are NOT a weight bearing joint ordinarily in day to day life. They can bear weight (overhead pressing for example), but this is not their primary function. The shoulder joint is quite literally suspended in the "socket" of the shoulder. There are anatomical arguments that the shoulder joint is not a ball and socket at all, but rather a "spoked wheel" orbital rotation joint.
You can see the shoulder here and what I am talking about. The Ball of the humerus is not encased in the socket of the scapula at all. It is held in place by ligaments and muscles.
When you do a dead hang, you are training these suspension and pulling muscles at the same time. Again, the shoulder was evolved/designed for your arm to hold your weight over head.
This is opposite of the Hip, which IS a load bearing joint 24/7. The hip NEEDS your weight bearing down on it to function properly and keep it in place
As you can see in the picture, the head of the femur is half ensconced within the acetabulum.
It is NOT supposed to be pulled out. That overstretches the ligaments and can dislocate the hip if done too aggressively
You are NOT evolved/designed to "hang" from your feet. The hip is not a suspension joint.
Inversion tables and apparatus can feel good for neck pain and spinal decompression, but for hip health, they are not doing anything beneficial.
If your hip does feel stuck, a chiropractor of physical therapist can often do a "reset" by pulling on the leg. This often "clicks" the hip back into a more comfortable position
If your hips are tight though, the solution is not to hang upside down, its to move into Deep ranges of motion
Tight hips are hips that dont move.
If your hips are tight, incorporate dynamic and static stretches and multi directional lunges
Exercises like a pigeon stretch would probably benefit you
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What about Inversion therapy for things like neck pain, or blood flow?
There is anecdotal evidence that inversion therapy is helpful for neck pain. Ive heard this from multiple combat sports athletes, that is sufficient evidence for me that something is beneficial is happening, as these populations suffer from an increased incidence of neck injuries.
As to improved blood flow or any other benefits, there is no scientific evidence for this
That does not mean I think its useless, but I strive to be intellectual honest with any kind of therapy.
A LOT of holistic therapies are NOT based on any defined evidence, but perceived and assumed benefit and reasoning that "sounds good" but is never actually tested
That said, I love "alternative" therapies and I encourage people to try them, sometimes medicine and healing work in unconventional ways, but I also wont pretend there is compelling evidence and they are miracles. If you like inversion for neck pain, do inversion. As to everything else, its all hypothetical.
Hopefully that was helpful,
As always, feel free to reply with any questions or comments
Love you all,
talk again,
Alexander