Are massage guns worth it?

Video overview

What are massage guns (percussion massage)

Professionals have been using therapeutic vibration for decades. The vibration massagers they use have a vibrating pad that sits on the surface and sends in vibrations. Massage gun marketers have modified these machines so they drive their heads in, claiming that that this increases penetration and adds the benefits of conventional massage. However, as we will discuss doing this reduces the amount of effective vibration while increasing the risk of doing harm and adding very little. The easiest way to understand this is by looking at the picture below.

The deceptive and misleading marketing

Massage gun marketers claim that their machines give you the benefits of a vibration massager, but by driving their head in it increases penetration and adds the benefits of conventional massage. Let us look at each of these claims.

Massage guns do not give the therapeutic vibration benefits of a genuine vibration massager

As discussed in our article The scientifically proven effects of vibration massage- with clinical applications, therapeutic vibrations do have excellent benefits. However, massage guns:

• do not give anywhere near the amount of vibrations, and
• those vibrations are at the wrong frequency.

Massage guns do not give anywhere near the amount of vibrations

As you can see from the diagram above massage guns are designed to drive their heads in like jackhammers rather than send vibrations deep into your muscles. Because of this massage guns do not deliver anywhere near the amount of vibrations a proper machine does.

Those vibrations are at the wrong frequency

As discussed in our article The scientifically proven effects of vibration massage- with clinical applications, to have the therapeutic effects the vibration frequency should be between 30-60 hz (cycles per second), with about 50 being optimum. Most massage guns come with hard plastic heads while powerful machines drive their heads in 14-16mm. Driving something 16 mm into your muscles 50 times a second would cause tremendous damage so Theraguns are limited to 40 hz, but even that is way too fast because a survey of professionals found that most used their massage guns on “”slow” or “medium” (4). At these speed any vibrations are way outside the therapeutic range.

Massage guns do not add worthwhile conventional massage benefits

While massage gun marketers claim their machines add the benefit of conventional massage we know of no study or trial that actually shows this. The only scientifically proven benefits massage gun marketers discuss are those of therapeutic vibration, which as we have discussed massage guns give very little.

Massage guns are likely to hurt you

Realistically the only thing driving the head in does is potentially hurt you. What will happen if you drive one of the hard plastic jackhammer heads into a nerve or blood vessel? Even using a percussion massager on muscles is not safe. There’s a journal report of someone nearly dying from internal bleeding after using one to help recover after a bike ride (2). Another report discusses a massage gun user who suffered hemothorax (bleeding in the lung cavity). This condition is usually associated with blunt force trauma (5).

What scientists think of percussion massage

The most damning opinion of massage guns actually comes from those scientists massage gun advocates get to conduct clinical trials. Marketers tell you that it it a wonderful idea to have hard plastic heads and machines that drive into your muscles up to 16 mm. However, to get some benefits and not hurt the patients when scientists conduct trials they do the opposite (1,3). As an example, as the excerpt from the journal report below shows the scientists used a damper attachment. These spread the contact out and reduce the amount the contact goes up and down.

Of course this gets buried in the fine print and you are mislead that the massage guns were used as the marketers advocate.

My colleague's experience with a Theragun

Some massagers have a powerful jackhammer mechanism that drive their heads in 16mm. Because of this a colleague told me that that she could only use hers on slow speed, otherwise it would hurt her patients. As discussed above, to get he the proper therapeutic effects vibrations need from 30-60 Hz with the optimum being approximately 50 Hz. My colleague could not use her Theragun at anywhere near that speed because it would hurt her patients.

Alternatives

So, hopefully you now understand that while massage guns claim to combine the benefits of conventional and vibration massage the reality is that they do neither well and are more likely to hurt you. You are best to stick to either genuine vibration or conventional massage. If you want the hand held device you can use yourself that will need to be a genuine vibration massager. Please see our article How to choose a massager

Personal use vibration massagers are not that common

That said, as discussed in our article Why most massagers are a waste of money serious personal therapeutic vibration massagers are not that common. Most genuine vibration massagers are made for professionals to use on their patients, not personal use. Because of this, to get something decent for our patients we built our own.

References

1. Garc M, Jurado-castro JM, Ben J. Acute Effects of a Percussive Massage Treatment on Movement Velocity during Resistance Training. Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jul 21;18(15):7726.
2. Chen J, Zhang F, Chen H, Pan H. Rhabdomyolysis After the Use of Percussion Massage Gun : A Case Report. Phys Ther. 2021 Jan 4;101(1)
3. Martin JD of H and WU of winchester. A critical evaluation of percussion muscle gun therapy as a rehabilitation tool focusing on lower limb mobility. A literature review. 2021.
4. Cheatham SW, Baker RT, Behm DG, Stull K, Kolber MJ. Mechanical percussion devices: A survey of practice patterns among healthcare professionals. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2021;16(3):766–77.
5. Masters A, Duarte R, Chiang B, Sarvottam K, Patel K. Hemothorax After Use of Percussion Massage Gun: A Case Report. 2022;A4172–A4172.