About 80% of Americans will experience back pain in their lives. It all comes down to the spine, more specifically, the part in the lower back area called the lumbar spine.
As most of you know, your spine is made of a column of separate bones stacked on top of one another – your vertebrae. Between each bone are intervertebral discs that allow your vertebrae to make small movements and absorb shock while holding your vertebrae together.
The lumbar spine is located at the lower part of your back and is susceptible to compression – resulting in back pains. Our client, Piotr Majewski came to us requesting product design services for back pain.
Challenge accepted!
The Problem
Piotr Majewski, the inventor of the mumbak, wanted to create a product design to help alleviate back pain due to a compressed spine. It might be because we’re sitting too long. Maybe we’re not lifting heavy things properly. Or maybe we’re hunched over with bad posture. It could be a number of things that end up causing severe back pain.
Medical professionals often recommend a product design or services that offer spinal decompression to alleviate pressure from the intervertebral discs. This is done by carefully stretching the spine.
However, Piotr found that devices on the market were uncomfortable and didn’t allow full control over the device. Inversion tables don’t provide lasting relief from back pain. In addition, it’s not safe for everyone. Not only are they quite heavy to move, which may result in further back pain, but they also require the user to hang upside down.
Hanging upside down could be risky for anyone with high blood pressure, heart disease, or glaucoma. He needed a firm that could leverage their exceptional product design services to solve back pain by building a suitable alternative.
The Solution
Portable, durable, and easy to use, the design of the mumbak gives you complete control over your movements and doesn’t require you to position yourself in awkward and uncomfortable positions.
Here’s how this product design works. Once you strap your feet into the bindings, just like a snowboard, make sure you’re lying on your back. Feel free to do this on a yoga mat or even in the comfort of your own bed! Piotr also recommends wearing a pair of sneakers so you don’t accidentally hurt your feet.
Once you’re strapped in, pull the trigger on the handles of the telescopic poles and adjust them to your desired height. At this point, you should feel like you’re ready to snowboard… while holding ski poles… while on your back. More importantly, you should feel comfortable.
Next, insert the hook at the bottom end of one of the poles into one of the two push points located on the same side of the device as the hand that you’re holding the pole. It’s a brilliantly simple product design! The bottom ensures a stronger, more powerful decompression while the top one offers a gentler and milder decompression. Do the same thing for the other side.
Once you’re locked in and everything’s been adjusted, simply push down toward your feet and hold for 10-20 seconds. Piotr recommends doing 10 reps three to four times a week for the best results.
When you’re done, the mumbak’s collapsible product design makes it easy for you to store it away!
If you have a great new invention and you’d like to learn more about this process, get in touch with MAKO today and visit our website to find out more. Or feel free to give us a call at 1-888-MAKO, and we can set you up on a call with our product strategist!
About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!
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