The sports and exercise guide to vibration massage
Most professional athletes and sports clubs make heavy use of massage type treatments. The ability to do self massage using a hand held... Read Article
Common massage gun mistakes we see on YouTube: and how to use them safely and effectively
Looking at websites and YouTube videos demonstrating massage gun use we see a lot of common mistakes that can dramatically reduce the effectiveness of a massage gun or even hurt you.
It is common to see:
- ineffective techniques
- the wrong choice of heads or settings
- bad advice that can cause injury.
A lot this misinformation it originates from those with a background in conventional massage who do not seem to understand that vibration massagers are different and require different techniques. In this article we will quickly cover:
- why massage guns need different techniques
- why massage guns can easily hurt you
- How to reduce those risks (where not to use your massager, techniques, heads and settings)
- The inappropriate techniques and what you should do instead
- the advertised uses that are actually harmful
Why massage guns need different techniques to those usually shown
Vibration massage works differently to conventional massage
The easiest way to show you why massage guns need different techniques to those usually shown is to use a simple analogy of an an axe vs a chainsaw. Years ago when chainsaws were invented lumberjacks had to learn completely different techniques. It is the same when using powered vibrating massagers after using conventional massage.
People (including professionals) still use conventional massage techniques
A lot of professionals have immense experience and knowledge of conventional massage and think that this transfers to using a massage gun. What they do is conventional massage with a motorised tool. This is the massage version of swinging a chainsaw like an axe.
Why massage guns can easily hurt you
The reason massage guns can easily hurt you is that they drive their head into your muscles. Whereas genuine vibration massagers discussed later sit on the surface and send in vibrations, massage guns are effectively jackhammers. Most come with hard plastic heads, and the more powerful massage guns drive their heads into your muscles up to 16mm. That can very easy damage sensitive structures such as nerves or blood vessels, but they can easily damage muscle as well. There is even one journal report of a person nearly dying from internal bleeding after using a massage gun to help recover after a bike ride (1).
How to reduce massage gun risks
With that, let us look at ways you can reduce this risk.
Where not to use your massage gun
As shown in this pic massage guns come with heads capable of acting like mini jackhammers, which means they can cause a lot of damage if used in the wrong places. In a following section we recommend that you do not use these hard “jackhammer” heads at all, but regardless the following areas should be avoided.
Special note
I once brought a chiropractic adjusting tool that had instructions stating not to use on eyeballs or testicles. I’m going to assume that you have enough sense not use a massage gun on really stupid places.
Injured tissues
Do not use over injured tissues such as sprains, torn muscles, bruising or inflammation.
Medical conditions
There are a large number of medical conditions that may prevent or modify the way you use a massage gun. When in doubt discuss any condition with your heath care professional.
Bony prominence
There is no benefit in massaging bones, and this may cause pain or injury.
The front and side of your neck
There are sharp projections at the side of your cervical (neck) vertebrae, and many sensitive structures towards the front.
Very thin muscles
If your percussion massager head goes up and down 12-16mm but the muscle you use it on is thiner the head will drive right through the muscle and potentially do damage.
Joints
There is generally no benefit in using a massage gun directly on a joint, and you will likely cause injury.
Neuro-vascular bundles
There are parts of your body where there are major nerves and blood vessels with little overlying muscle to protect them. Here are some examples:
- in your groin
- behind your knees
- in front of your elbow
- the front of your neck
Veins
If you have deep vein thromboses in your calves and dislodge a clot this clot may block the arteries to your lungs and kill you.
Techniques, speed setting and choice of heads
In this section:
- The main safety issue is just a marketing gimmick
- It is the vibrations that have the therapeutic effects
- How to reduce these risks
The main safety issue is just a marketing gimmick
The issue with massage guns is driving their heads in to penetrate. This is totally unnecessary and just a marketing gimmick. To make a massage gun safer you need to modify the machines and use techniques in order to minimise the effect of this marketing gimmick.
Why it is just a marketing gimmick
The easiest way to understand how vibrations can easily penetrate without this is to compare with ultrasound which is vibrations at a different frequency. It is well understood that with these you just sit the head of the machine on the surface and the vibrations will penetrate your whole body.
Scientists recognise these risks
When scientists have been asked to conduct clinical trials of massage guns they recognise these risks and modify the machines and their usage as discussed. As an example, this except from a trial report shows that they used a special damper head for this purpose (2). A damper head reduces the amount the head goes up and down, and spreads the contact.
It is the vibration that has the therapeutic benefits
The main thing to understand when using a mechanical vibrating massage is that it is the vibrations that have the therapeutic effects. These are shown in this diagram. This is a bit like understanding that it is the moving teeth on a chainsaw that cuts the wood. Not understanding this is why we have massage guns driving their heads in and people using their conventional massage techniques.
To get the best vibration transfer to your muscles you need:
- a larger contact area for vibration transfer
- The contact head/pad going up and down 4-5mm
Choice of heads to reduce the risk
The best guide for what you need to do comes from the scientists who get asked to do trials on massage guns. Lets start with the heads. This pic is from from a clinical trial report. The scientists chose head one that is in the machine now. As you can it has a reasonable contact area, but most importantly it has some “give” in it. That reduces the machine penetration of about 12mm down to something closer to the ideal 5mm. Note that they could have used head two with a similar contact, but it’s made of hard plastic and would push in the full 12mm.
We can also see that the machine comes with a bullet head number 5. You will see advice to use heads such as these to increase penetration. This is based purely on that use of obsolete conventional massage techniques, and not understanding that it is the vibrations that penetrate and have their effects. These heads are less efficient at vibration transfer, and much more likely to hurt you.
Throw away "jackhammer" heads
Because of this we recommend that you throw out every head that looks as though it would be home on a jackhammer and use ones with a larger surface area. As discussed above, the scientists trialling massage guns chose to use special damper heads so a head with a bit of “give” in it rather than a hard plastic head would be ideal.
Techniques to reduce the risk
To get effective vibration transfer you need the head to go up and down about 5mm, however the head on powerful massage guns go up and down up to 16mm. Using a soft or damper head will reduce this, but you can also reduce the penetration by holding the machine at an angle so some of the movement is along the muscle rather than into it.
This picture taken from a clinical trial shows both:
- a larger softer spherical head being used
- the machine being held at an angle rather than straight into the muscle.
Choosing a setting
The ideal therapeutic “speed”
The effects of therapeutic vibrations depend on their frequency. The best therapeutic frequency range is from 40-60 Hz (cycles per second) with about 50 being ideal. For more information please see The scientifically proven effects of vibration massage- with clinical applications .
The main problem
Driving a massage gun head into your muscles 50 times a second could cause damage or injury. This is why powerful massage guns usually have a maximum speed of 40 Hz, but even this is way too fast as a survey of professionals found that most used their massage guns on “slow” or medium (3). This means that their vibration frequency is way outside the best therapeutic range.
Balancing speed and penetration
To use a massage gun in the optimum therapeutic frequency range (40-60Hz) you need to modify the machines and their usage like the scientists do for the clinical trials. To get the best therapeutic effects you need to use a combination of modifying the technique and using a soft/damper head to allow you to safely get as close to this speed as possible.
Genuine vibraration massagers do not have this problem
Genuine therapeutic vibration massagers discussed below do not have this problem. They have a larger contact that goes up and down approximately 5mm, so these are very safe to run at 50 Hz.
Inappropriate usage techniques
To get the best therapeutic vibration effects you simply need to apply the machine then let the vibrations have their therapeutic effects. However, many do not understand this and use obsolete conventional massage techniques like pressing in and rubbing. This has little or no conventional massage benefits while not allowing the therapeutic vibrations to “soak in” and have their therapeutic effects.
Examples of inappropriate techniques
It is extremely common to see professionals with conventional massage backgrounds using inappropriate techniques, both in practice and in demonstrations. This video is a compilation of "experts" demonstrating these inappropriate techniques. You will see that they press in and move their machines around like doing conventional massage. This does not let the vibrations soak in, while the rubbing adds very little benefits.
Video: YouTube gurus showing ineffective techniques
The correct way to use your machine
Please see our Guide to vibration massage .
The advertised uses that are actually harmful
While it is generally a bad thing to be encouraging people to drive massager heads into their muscles we see two uses advocated that are both:
- totally false, and
- actually encourage people to do things that are dangerous.
Dispersing or breaking up fat cells as a treatment for cellulite
Some massage gun marketers claim that their machines will either break up fat cells so the fat can be reabsorbed, or disperse the fat cells. Fat cells cannot be dispersed, and any force strong enough to smash fat cells would damage the much flimsier fine blood vessels.
Breaking up adhesions
We have seen advice that one of the effects of massage guns is breaking up adhesions in the muscles. They are not doing this, and if people believe one of the goals is to break things up it would encourage very dangerous usage.
The reality about adhesions
Most of the issues dealt with by massagers, (eg. tight spots and lumps) do not involve adhesions. In the cases where musculoskeletal issues do involve adhesions treating this involves re-injuring tissues to allow them to heal up again normally. This is not something you would be using a massage gun to do, and really requires someone with the appropriate skill and knowledge.
Genuine vibration massagers
In the guide we have mentioned genuine vibration massagers several time. These have been used by professionals for decades. We have pictured one below.
Safer and more therapeutic vibrations
The machine pictured has a large pad on the bottom that goes up and down the optimum amount, so these machines are capable of sending in huge amounts of therapeutic vibrations (much more than a massage guns). Because they just sit on the surface they are very safe, and can easily be run at the optimum therapeutic vibration speed of approximately 50 Hz.
It is obvious how these should be used
It is obvious that to use one of these machines you just sit the machine on where you want to massage and let it do the work. There should be no tendency to be confused and think:
- you need to press the machine in to help it penetrate
- you need to use conventional massage techniques.
These are a much better option than a massage gun
Genuine vibration massagers are much more effective at delivering therapeutic vibrations, without all the negatives of a massage gun. You are far better off with one of these. To help you do this we will link two guides below.
The only caveat is that when we were looking for one to recommend to our patients the only decent vibration massagers we could find were those designed for colleagues to use on their patients, not personal use. Because of this we built our own, and now supply these to colleagues, their patients, and other members of the public. For information about these please see General Purpose Massager or this video.
Guides to help get an appropriate massager
Why most massagers are a waste of money
How to choose a massager
Our personal use vibration massagers
Professionals
DrGraeme massagers were originally built by Dr Graeme for use in his clinic, and to prescribe to his patients for additional self use at home. Now these are used by colleagues and other professionals for similar purposes. If you are a professional and wish to know more about this therapy, or possibly get a sample massager to trial please check out our practitioner page .
References
- Garc M, Jurado-castro JM, Ben J. Acute Effects of a Percussive Massage Treatment on Movement Velocity during Resistance Training_. International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 18,15 7726. 21 Jul. 2021,
- Chen J, Zhang F, Chen H, Pan H. Rhabdomyolysis After the Use of Percussion Massage Gun : A Case Report. Phys Ther 2021;1–5.
We are continually adding more information on research and uses. Subscribe below to have us email them to you "hot off the press".
About Dr Graeme
Several years ago Dr Graeme, a Chiropractor practicing in Victoria, Australia was looking for a serious hand held massager his patients could use at home to get the extra quality massage they needed. The ones he found in the shops and on-line for home use looked nice but were not serious, and... read more
Other Articles You May Like
Percussion massage vs vibration massage
If you use a massage gun incorrectly you may not get any benefits, or worse still hurt yourself. To help you get the most out of your... Read Article
Muscle knots: causes, prevention and the best treatments
Muscles knots can make you feel stiff and tired, plus cause a host of muscular aches and pains. However, a lot of advice and treatments... Read Article
Self massage and trigger point therapy for headaches and migraines
Scientists have found that a high proportion of headaches result from pain coming from the muscles and joints of your head and neck. ... Read Article
The best massage for cellulite: science based guide
Cellulite is a very common problem which can be unsightly and have unpleasant symptoms. Common treatments include lasers, needles,... Read Article
The practical, science based guide to post exercise recovery
To become fitter, stronger and faster your need to push your body to create the microscopic damage that stimulates improvement. That... Read Article
Trigger point therapy for fibromyalgia: inc. self help advice
Trigger point therapy is not only good for fibromyalgia, scientists have found that trigger points are the main cause of fibromyalgia and... Read Article
Trigger points and tennis elbow: cause, diagnosis and treatment
(Myofascial) trigger points are a large but often overlooked cause of tennis elbow, with this omission being responsible for too many... Read Article