I put this together in a little over an hour - some of the instructions and drawings weren't clear to me at first. I just kept an eye on the main sketch of how it is supposed to look and it came together easier than I thought it would.
The only thing that wasn't perfect, the instructional CD had a crack in it. I thought I would wait until I could order another one before using it - but I read the instructions and decided I was going to try it out. If you have back trouble, after all the bending & such to put this together you will really need it by the time you are done. So if someone else in your family can assemble it for you, so much the better. And I can't find the tether - know I saw it when I opened the box but no where to be found later. Dog may have run off with it. No matter, I don't think I'll be needing it since I did just fine without it.
I got on the inversion table (adjusted the height to a few inches taller than me after reading the other reviews) and it was so easy to use. Just move your arms back to invert, put them down at your sides to come back to upright. Perfect! Balanced with no trouble, and hung upside down in nearly a complete inversion for 10 minutes. My back felt so much better. I think I will be seeing my chiropractor less - this thing made my back feel better in 10 minutes than it has felt in years.