What Do Massage Guns Do And Is It Worth It?

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Massage guns are used a type of percussive massage therapy. Much like conventional massages and foam rollers, the goal is to massage the muscles and provide myofascial release. This supposedly helps improve range of motion, improve muscle recovery, and reduce muscle soreness, like DOMS.

But how true are these claims exactly? Are there any actual massage gun benefits that make it worth paying a premium? Does the scientific literature in fitness support these claims that popular massage gun companies like to make? Or are massage guns really just another trendy fitness product that is no better than so many of them that have faded away over time. Let's find out what massage guns are actually good for and if they are worth your money.

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Any information in these videos should not be taken as personal healthcare advice. If you have questions about your health, please speak directly to your personal healthcare professional. #massage #gains #lifting

[Syahmie]

I really love the extra sound effects and details that's been in the newer videos

[fieryelf]

I had this part of my body that felt stiff between my legs. Used it on there and it totally fixed my problem. 10/10, I recommend.

[Noj]

While I can confirm that a massage gun can help improve good vibes, but overall I still prefer my magic wand

[harman]

As someone who workouts but also does heavy labour work, its honestly like magic for me! Helps relax the muscles for me and i sleep better

[sem]

Might be anecdotal, but I find my massage gun to be fairly helpful. I often have very tensed up shoulders to the point my traps etc are rock hard. A good minute of applying a massage gun always relaxes my muscles, making me feel so much better

[Drinkyoghurt]

Say what you want, I've tried physio, dry needling, foam rolling, yoga and practically everything under the sun to fix my insanely tight hamstring muscles. You know what fixed it? 2 stretching session with a massage gun targeting the knots I had. It instantly fixed something I struggled with for YEARS, and at the cost of basically one physio session. These days I barely have any knots anywhere, but when I do the massage gun quickly gets rid of them. Just for that they're worth it in my book, whatever the research says.

[me]

I have one, and I really like it. In my personal experience, I get the most benefit from it while I'm holding a stretch. After lifting and cardio, it feels incredible.

[CruzMonrreal]

I've been using a portable theragun mini for months, and love it. I do a bunch of running, cycling, bouldering, and calisthenics, and it complements a foam roller quite well for all of those activities.

Foam roller for bodyweight pressure on large locations, theragun for the smaller spots that still need tlc, but are too awkward to get to with a ball.

But probably the best use case is being able to use it while sitting in traffic

[Angelstar]

Getting a knot out with a massage gun is so much faster and drastically less painful than a foam roller or a massage ball! It’s an absolute lifesaver when I have a knot 🙏🏼

[mattpassey]

Your conclusion summarizes the thing of it; its a luxury item that feels nice in the moment and also has comparable longer term benefits. It takes less effort to run a massage gun across my leg than it is to roll it out or fully stretch it, which can justify the luxury item price tag

[GreenJuiceGuy]

Important. I tried desperately to increase my hip ROM so that I could kick higher. Static stretching did not work no matter how much I did it. Then one day I sat beside a retired physiotherapist on a bus and he said that if the tightness is near the ends/tendons of a muscle static stretching is the most effective, but if the tightness is in the belly/center of the muscle static stretching won't work very well. In this case, you would need a deep-tissue massage. Since I had nothing to lose I bought the thumper maxi pro deep-tissue massager and I was able to kick well above waist height in like a week and a half. So the tightness near the tendons vs tightness in the belly is worth investigating.

[gaigeeeeeee]

Electric massagers changed my life, lol.. I used to have pretty bad chronic pain in my neck and around my head, nothing ever helped as much as using the massagers did.

There are so many uses for them and they feel great to use. I will gladly continue using mine into the foreseeable future and I highly recommend purchasing one to anyone who has been considering doing so.

[MK-rcpq]

After an accident, hospital and 3 weeks of rehab, I started functional training at my physiotherapist as I was missing strength and stability mainly in my right leg as well as didnt have much of range of motion in my ankle. I bought a massage gun and applied it regularly in addition to 1x per week therapy session. For me it helped a lot getting the range of motion back and loosening the muscles in my calves as i could easily point the the thing at the right spots. Other messages or foam rolling might have done it too, but it worked and was much less of a hassle, reliant and (relatively) cheap. Still using it on my legs, definetely one of my better purchases :D

[xllvr]

I will say that having used one, it's really good for a quick fix. It's not necessary, but it is helpful which is more than can be said about a lot of other stuff
EDIT: If you have muscle tightness from a desk job, it’s VERY effective

[Jeffdachefz]

dude I did multiple tests where I massaged gun one leg and not the other after extreme leg days. The massaged leg was FAR less sore while the one that I didnt massage felt like the hams were tearing apart when I was sitting down at the toilet. I've done this alternating legs for two weeks and the massaged legs always was significantly less sore. Its literally indispensable for after leg day soreness. I use it right after leg day before any doms hit and hitting multiple parts of the hams, quads, glutes where i normally feel sore while i'm watching a movie or something. I'll do another session once the doms start lightly hitting the next day. Its just a more efficient min max way than to do foam rolling, stretching or anything else that you have to dedicate actual time to since you can do it during your content consuming down time

[MrJrhickma]

It just work for me tonight with lessening soreness and deleted my back pain a month ago after 8 months of chiro and pt work. It turn out to be so joint and my wife used it on the si and figured it out. I’m all in.

[firstlast]

Also olympic athletes, NBA and NFL use it between breaks. These guys are pushing their body to the limit for millions of dollars so I trust their regiment.

[firstlast]

Ekrin b37. I use it daily and my chronically tight calves finally released after a week of massages. I truly believe it helps recovery because I can go hard daily now. Also functions as a pre workout warm up.

[amermeleitor]

It's just feel great, like stretching. Even more with a sore muscles or with DOMS, is a feeling between pain and tickles.

[Amesang]

I must still be half-asleep 'cause I misread that as _machine_ gun. 🤪