Are Massage Guns Worth Your Time and Money?

Chances are you’ve seen someone use a massage gun at the gym or watched a video of someone pressing one into their muscles somewhere on social media. If not, I’m certain you’ve at least heard about this pistol-shaped therapeutic device that sends a combination of percussion and vibrations deep down into your muscles. 

Massage guns, also known as percussive therapy devices, are quite popular these days. They’re pitched as portable devices that can be used by anyone (athletes, couch potatoes, and everyone in between) to relieve pain and enhance recovery from exercise and sports activity. 

But does percussive therapy really work and are massage guns worth their hype? I’ve gotten a lot of questions from listeners about massage guns so I thought I’d give you the scoop on whether these devices are really worth your time and money. 

Percussive therapy

Percussive therapy has, of course, been around for some time. Tapotement, the rapid and repeated striking of the body with the edge of the hand or a cupped hand, is a commonly used Swedish massage technique and is an example of percussive therapy applied manually. 

The wonders of technology have now created percussive therapy devices that are affordable, handheld, and can apply percussion hundreds of times faster than a human hand without tiring out. The speed of these devices not only creates percussion but also simultaneously adds vibration, which can also be beneficial as I’ll explain later. 

Percussive therapy devices have been around for at least a few decades but looked different than the sleek devices on the market today. In the past, they were bulky and were used more often in a clinical setting due to their size and cost. 

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I recall my first encounter with one as a patient at a chiropractor’s office in San Francisco in the early 2000s. The device was the size of a large shoebox with dozens of tiny fingers resembling Bart Simpson’s hair that required another person to hold and press...

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