I've had this for a few months now and I use it regularly. For reference, I have undiagnosed decades long lower back and hip pain. Mine is all at the base of my spine. It works for the lower back and hips but with a few warnings.

1. You have to know how to relax your muscles in order to let gravity do it's thing. If you keep your muscles tight or cannot force them to relax you won't feel anything.

2. This thing is painful. It's not padded. A towel can help. I'm a woman, and it's painful to wear. Mostly on my ribs"¦ I imagine it's painful for everyone, though. Breathe through the pain (which is also hard) and it's more than worth the trade off.

3. Sometimes it makes me nauseous. My two theories are either eating too close to using it or toxin release. Just a word of warning"¦ it can happen.

When you relax and kick your feet out in front of you, you'll know it's working. It's like take your breath away good pain in your lower back. When I'm consistent with using this nightly, my day to day pain is significantly reduced. It is absolutely amazing relief. It completely abolishes pain in 3 minutes of hard to breath torture. I say worth it.

My suggestions to the creator of this"¦ put some pads in this thing! It could be perfect with some strategically placed padding. Also it wouldn't hurt to have a women friendly cut. Also some actual handles near the height adjustment rings would help tremendously with the rib pain and breathing.

BIG DISCLAIMER - out of the box this thing is complete junk, it hurts so bad you won't last 10 seconds in it. It should cost about $20, the material is the bare minimum, and the buckles are PLASTIC!

But, with a bit of work it's the best ~$120 (including bar/other materials) decompression I've found. Using the Chiropractor decompression machine as the gold standard, I tried to find something that would approach that feeling.

I have the inversion belt (refurbished $109) and an inversion table that are really good, better in some ways. Excellent stretch but a bit annoying hanging upside down sometimes. The inversion belt changes the game for an inversion table, no ankle or knee pain and you can fully relax upside down. The problem is you're upside down and the inversion belt can be a problem for males"¦ you have to work at making it comfortable.

I've tried the Stamina InLine Bench with inversion belt AND the T-bar accessory, I really hoped it'd mimic a professional table but no, not worth it. I'll write a review for that soon.

I've tried the Stamina inline Traction control system, no go. It just hurts, you can't use it for more than a few seconds and you're in pain the entire time under your arms; not worth it. The only positive about it is ease of use, you can walk up to it and get in/out in seconds.

Fisher traction system. Not enough of a stretch but not bad, I'm still evaluating.

This thing, with the mods I will describe, is excellent for the price. Even though it costs double what it should. With some padding and a tight belt you can really relax and get a good stretch. 30 seconds is easy to achieve, pain free. Maybe even a minute at a time or more. To me, comfort is a big deal if you're going to fully relax and let your spine decompress.

I had to order an extra large for this. I use a belt to secure a yoga mat around myself and after strapping in I cover the sit and decompress with a low back brace belt to really get a tight fit. Place the contraption a bit under your ribs and let the yoga mat really cushion under your arms. It works really well. The yoga mat provides grip for the site-and-decompress belt so that even if you don't use a back brace to really cinch in, it'll still greatly improve the experience.

There's another device called a gravity belt that looks promising, but I honestly can't justify $350 for it"¦.

I've included pictures for your enjoyment and my embarrassment. It looks ridiculous but I don't care, it feels great.

Ok, I use this and I do get some relief. However, most of the stretch I feel is in the lumbar spine. I feel like the longer I hang though, the more it begins to work on my thoracic spine which is what I need. The problem is, it's hard to stay on this device for long as it's hard to breathe! The feeling definitely takes some getting used to. I don't have the same problems as other women have complained about but I do think that a man would get a better stretch from this because breasts would not get in the way. I'm glad I have it and will continue to use it because anything that gives me some relief is a keeper for me.

I've endured lower back pain for 35 years and have tried everything from self medication to oxycodon and flexeril to chiropractic service on a weekly basis. The on;y time I was totally pain free was when I had lumbar facet injections but that pain free duration was for only a couple of weeks. My compressed and degenerative disks and subluxation fortunately did not warrant surgery according to the spine specialist at Sinai Hospital. When I tried this harness I could feel the decompression immediately and have been pain free since I started using it 5 days ago.
I was hoping that I'd be one of the lucky few who had no issues with this brilliant, simple, and effective device but after i day my nipples had been rubbed raw ( I actually have one of those V shaped torsos that a lot of the folks who've reviewed this product lament that they do not have. At day 2 I noticed that my arm pits were also getting rubbed raw and I observed that nips and pits are roughly in line with each other and that turned out to be a boon. Here's the kicker...by the time you pad the harness with enough towel to make it comfortable you wish you'd ordered the next size larger harness. I decided what had to be done was to simply pad heavily under the arm pits ( think about the top pad of a crutch). I cut 2 lengths ( 6 ") of those Wacky Noodles that kids use in the swimming pool and sliced each one to the center hollow core so it slid over the top of the harness and tried the harness on.....felt pretty good but when I used the harness and adjusted the cinch belts the pads were pushed off.
Next step was to sacrifice an EZ Bagger ( strong thin and flexible plastic) and cut 2 'belt loops' 6" wide and 15" long. I folded these over the top of the harness between the 2 belts on each side of the harness, secured at the bottom with Gorilla Tape, and then put the wacky noodle pads on top ( like a saddle) and secured them in place with Gorilla tape continuously from top to bottom. It works really well and is quite comfortable.....unforseen bonus is that the cinch belts are held in place like belt loops in pants so you don't have to fumble at your sides to find them.
This is the end product for me.....have used comfortably for 3 days now but a woman may still have problems with her breasts being brutalized and I think the simple solution would be to stack another piece of wacky noodle on top of the first. I really hope this helps anyone like me who needs this decompression but doesn't want another set of pains somewhere else. Good Luck !

This is a God sent to me. It decompress the spine. Work up to the shoulder blade. You can feel the most traction on the lower back. It can hurt, depending on how tight your muscles are. It is a 3 minutes things only and it feels so much better after. I have one hip lower than the other. I can feel it being leveling up. It is not one day thing though. It helps with my arthritic knees. It gently stretch the knees.
However nothing is perfect. It can slide up and hurt you in the armpit area. But I get around the problem by using it naked. Before putting it on, I spray a little bit of water on the belt and it keeps it from sliding up. There is another problem for the women: the breasts. I put it on and then try to pull as much skin out of the belt. as I can. And then rethight the belt. This is easy for me. I am 72 and have flabby skin and my breasts are not as perky as they onc were..
So you should l try it. I tried an inversion table before and it doesn't compare with the Sit and Decompress. I get a lot more relief from the latter.. But you shouldn't overdo it. More is not better. Better to be safe than sorry and respect the instructions. I can tell you. I tried it.
It sound so much like an advertisement. But it is not. But I helps me so much that I want people to know it can help them too.