IV18600 Pro Inversion Therapy Chair

Just received this via FedEx today. Seems sturdy, well built, and does the job of getting me stretched out with the option of doing modified situps. Previously I had another inversion system which required boots for my ankles and placed all my body weight on my ankles. This was not working for either ankles or knees -- eventually caused considerable pain and swelling. So I searched for a replacement and found this -- now I have absolutely no strain on either ankles or knees. Very well designed. The directions are lacking. Considerable assembly is required. Clearer pictures would've been very helpful. Those provided are black in color and are not clear enough for us to tell what part goes where. Descriptions and instructions could've been much better. Also, instructions for using the machine could've been much clearer. I went crashing backwards and landed rather hard because I didn't understand how I was supposed to mount and lean back. But after some experimentation re both assembly and use, I finally have it figured out, and am very pleased with the product. 5 stars for product. But 2 at best for the manual.Now that I've used this a while, I feel constrained to warn users that it's very easy to fall backwards and land hard. I've learned that I must grasp the handles, place legs inside the rolls, carefully sit on seat while leaning forward in it, then attach seat belts. If you lean back in the seat while handling the seat belts, you're going to fall backwards suddenly and land hard. On the other hand, this becomes readily apparent after a short period of use and especially after a crash such as I had on my initial mount. Next, if you have sound ankles and knees, this equipment is not as good as those inversion seats that dangle you by the ankles. Without my old inversion equipment, I've lost the ability to truly dangle, something that greatly benefited my lower back. I cannot twist, or roll my head. Situps are reduced to a much smaller range of motion. However, for those of us with ankles and or knees that cannot endure being the sole source of support, this equipment is probably the best we can do, and I'm very grateful to be able to benefit from it.

Decent instructions and easy to assemble. Very sturdy apparatus and reasonably comfortable once you manage to get in the chair but this is where the criticsm comes in. The safety belt is very uncomfortable and cheesy; hard to release after a session. The back is one piece and adjusts up and down reasonably easy before you get in the chair; emphasis on before. My complaint with the adjustable back is it is one piece; that means when extended to accommodate my torso size it opens a large gap in my lumbar section which soon becomes very uncomfortable during inversion since my rump/lower lumbar section of my back tends to slip into the gap and contact the steel post. An easy fix would be to split the back into a lumbar support and a thorax/head support sections independently adjustable from the seat and each other. I may have to do that to my unit to continue long term therapy. The other design flaw in my opinion is the lack of any counterweighting mechanism to assist in righting oneself from the inverted position; and this is major if you are over 170# and carry your weight in your torso as I do. I am 6'1" and 260# and very wide in the shoulders. Due to the as-designed fixed pivot point and fixed handle locations of the chair, once inverted, the angle you are required to pull against to right yourself is akin to lying flat on your back and trying to pull yourself into a sitting position with handles in the floor below your hips, using only arm strength and without using your abdominal muscles. Very difficult at best! Throw in the reason why you're in the chair in the first place and all but impossible. Absent adjustable pivot points; the answer is adjustable counterweights or sequentially mountable springs/resistance bands mountable somewhere near the foot pegs and the horizontal backside bar that sits on the floor. This is a critical modification to my unit for my continued use. The seat belt fix was easy; I bought an aircraft certified seatbelt with a simple pull-up latch style quick release buckle online and replaced the cheesy as-delivered belt with it.Having said all that and despite its flaws, this chair unit is far superior to the inversion tables available out there, especially for those of us who have severe back issues and the physical limitations that come with them. If the design flaws are fixed, this unit would truly be a godsend for those suffering the ravages of compressive spine conditions and arthritis.

I greatly appreciate the ability to hang from my thighs rather than my clamped ankles on the inversion table. I think this is a great prototype that needs some important modifications.1) The instructions tell you to sit against the back of the chair before fastening the lap belt. DON'T DO IT! Your chair assembly will flip back before you are strapped down and you will fall off on your head at an unhealthy angle for your neck. Instead, it is an awkward balancing act between backing up your butt enough to properly tighten up the belt while leaning forward to prevent your body weight to flip you back prematurely. There is definitely no need to raise an arm or two to make yourself flip back.2) As mentioned in many reviews, the belt is highly inadequate. It will cut into your thighs and become as distracting and painful as the above mentioned clamped ankles . I purchased on Amazon a "White Foam Roller 6x36 Round", cut it in half(about 2x18" pcs) , pushed a heated piece of flat metal in the middle to create a slit from one end to the next of one of the halves, removed the buckle from the belt, ran the belt through the slit and put the buckle back on. I now have a padded but firm support to hang from.3) For men only: refrain from the temptation of using the foam that's on the bar that fits under knees as rollers to get off the chair. The flattening of some parts of your body could created excruciating pain and maybe sterility.