How do you apply lumbar traction?

When setting up your lumbar traction pillow, you will want to make sure you are setting it up correctly and paying attention to how and where you are placing the lumbar traction pillow. One of the first things to note is that you will always want to use your cervical traction pillow along with your lumbar traction pillow. You should never use just the lumbar traction pillow by itself.

The first step is to place your cervical traction with the flat part of the pillow against your shoulders. Once it’s placed, you will do a little tuck to make sure its secured against your shoulders and that your head is in the right position.

After your cervical traction pillow is positioned correctly, you will place the lumbar traction. To do so, you will raise your hips up and slide the pillow underneath. Feel to make sure that the top of the pillow is right at the bottom of your ribs and the bottom of the pillow is not pushing your pelvis forward. The wide part of the pillow goes up towards the ribs and the skinny part points down towards your hips.

How often should you do lumbar traction?

You will want to do both traction pillows for a full 15 minutes every single day. In the beginning, you might need to work up to that. If the cervical traction feels fine and you can do a full 15 minutes with it but the lumbar traction starts to ache maybe at minute five, you can take out the lumbar portion and just do the cervical, but never the other way around. You do not want to do the lumbar traction without the cervical traction.

If you are starting at a lower time, then you want to work up to the full 15 minutes over the course of a week to a month depending on how slowly you need to move. The rule of thumb is that you want to give it a little bit of extra time each day but that can be just as little as 30 seconds if it’s really sore for you.  Additionally, you can do these traction pillows either on the floor or in bed. In bed is a little bit easier to make this a habit, but however is best for you to make that habit is going to be fine.

If you have any questions about this, make sure to ask us here in the office because the placement of the traction pillows are very important and one of the most critical parts of your home care.

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