A bizarre exercise trend has recently gained popularity in China which sees fitness fanatics dangling themselves from high bars by the neck on a harness.
Images and videos show participants, most of them pensioners, swinging their bodies back and forth on improvised cervical traction devices attached to high bars at public parks.
Many people who have tried the out-of-the-box contraption claim it has healed their neck and back pains, according to Chinese reports.
One 68-year-old woman living in Qingdao, Shandong province said the device helps her stretch out her neck.
'The routine has healed my spinal issues. I don't have to take medication anymore,' Song Lianyun told video news site Pear, adding that she 'hangs herself' from the harness on the exercise bar for 30 minutes every day.
Video footage shows the pensioner carefully placing her head between two straps, one of them under her jaw and one of them at the nape of her neck.
After securing the ropes to the high bar, she then kicks away the stool she was standing on to allow her to dangle in mid-air.
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'I can even take a nap on it. It's so comfortable,' she said.
Other park-goers said they were horrified when they first saw the bizarre exercise.
'It just looks so dangerous and frightening, strapping in your neck like that,' one man said.
Such neck cervical traction devices are said to be able to relieve pain by stretching the vertebrae of the cervical spine and neck, reducing pressure on the nerves.
The traction pulls one's head away from your neck to create expansion and eliminate compression and could be used as part of a physical treatment at home, according to Healthline.
However, experts also warned that people adjusting their body this way could experience side effects such as headache, dizziness and nausea.
There is also a risk of tissue, neck or spine injuries if the traction is performed more than 30 minutes. Big movements should also be avoided.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
