Are massage guns scientifically proven, or an ineffective gimmick?
Professionals have been using massagers like the one pictured for decades. They sit on the surface and send in vibrations. Massage gun marketers modified these machines to instead drive their heads into your muscles and claim that their machines give the benefits of vibrations, but in addition give better penetration and add the benefits of conventional massage.
In this article we will at whether science supports the three main claims:
- Do massage guns deliver reasonable standard therapeutic vibrations?
- Do massage guns penetrate more?
- Do massage guns add worthwhile conventional massage?
In addition we will look at other things anyone considering a massage gun needs to consider.
Percussion massage (massage guns) explained
Before we look at what science says about massage guns let us quickly look at what they are and how they differ from the vibration massagers professionals have been using for decades. The easiest way to understand the difference between massage guns and vibration massagers is to use the analogy of the two machines pictured.
Vibration massagers
Vibration massagers are are like the yellow machine pictured. They are designed to sit on the surface and penetrate deeply with vibrations.
Massage guns (percussion massage)
Massage guns are like the jackhammer. Rather than send in vibrations they are designed to drive their head into the surface.
They both vibrate, but are completely different
While both the yellow machine and the jackhammer vibrate their effects are completely different. The yellow machine sends huge amounts of vibrations deep into the ground while not harming the surface, while the jackhammer is designed to smash the surface while any ground vibration is smaller and incidental.
What science says about massage guns
Understanding that, let us look at what science says about the claims made by massage gun marketers.
Do massage guns deliver reasonable standard therapeutic vibrations?
As shown in this diagram and discussed in The scientifically proven effects of vibration massage- with clinical applications , vibration has excellent therapeutic benefits. Professionals have been using genuine vibration massagers to deliver these for decades. While massage guns do give some vibrations, as we will see they give far less vibrations than a proper vibration massager, and these are at the wrong frequency to have the therapeutic effects.
Massage guns deliver less therapeutic vibrations
Looking at our two machines above, while a jackhammer does vibrate the ground it sends in far less vibrations than the purpose built yellow machine. Likewise, massage guns send in far less therapeutic vibrations than a genuine vibration massager.
Massage guns are unsafe to use at the best therapeutic frequencies
As discussed in The scientifically proven effects of vibration massage- with clinical applications the best therapeutic vibration frequencies are from 30-60 Hz (cycles per second) with about 50 Hz being optimum. High powered massage guns usually cannot be used at anywhere near that speed because they would be very uncomfortable or hurt you.
An example
As an example a Theragun (high powered massage gun) drives it’s head in 16 mm. Driving something into your muscles 16 mm 50 times a second could do tremendous damage, so Theraguns have a maximum speed of 40 Hz (2), while a survey found that most professional therapists use high powered massage guns at much slower speeds (2).
Do massage guns penetrate more?
While the heads of massage guns penetrate it is the vibrations that have the therapeutic effects. It is a basic law of physics that vibrations penetrate much better than physical penetration. That is why ultrasound (vibrations at a different frequency) can go right through you while the head sits on the surface. The vibrations from a genuine vibration massager penetrate much further than the head of any massage gun.
Do massage guns add worthwhile conventional massage?
We know of no scientific evidence that percussion adds any worthwhile conventional massage benefits. The marketers say it does, but only the only evidence they provide relates to vibration.
How massage gun markers mislead you
In this section
- Misleading statements
- Modifying massage guns for clinical trials
- “Rigging” clinical trials
Misleading statements
Massage gun marketers will make statements such as “give the benefits of vibration”. They do give some vibration so this is true, but as you have seen these are very small and no where near that of a proper vibration massage. Likewise they may say “adds the benefits of conventional massage”, which is technically correct but those benefits are hardly significant.
Massage gun marketers modify their machines for clinical trials
As discussed below while massage gun marketers are claiming how beneficial it is to drive heads into muscles, in clinical trials the massage guns are modified so they don’t do this. Of course they do not mention this.
”Rigging” clinical trials
I actually found one clinical trial where it was clearly “rigged” to favour a Theragun. The claimed purpose of the trial was to compare the Theragun to vibration massage, conventional massages and foam rollers for post exercise recovery. In this trial:
- The "vibration" they used was a vibrating pad rather than a proper massager,
- they only they used the vibration for only one minute whereas the Theragun was used for a lot longer.
Even with this handicap the vibration still got better results (4). Despite this the report conclusion (which is what most people read) ignored the results and was basically praise for the Theragun. I’ll discuss the details in this short video.
Other things you need to consider
In this section:
What do scientists think of massage guns?
The most compelling evidence that percussion massage is a poor idea comes from the scientists they get to do massage gun clinical trials. While marketers tell you that it is good to have heads that drive into your muscles and give you an assortment of hard plastic “jackhammer” heads, when the scientists do clinical trials they modify the machines to do the opposite.
Example one: using a damper head
This picture from a trial report shows that the massage gun came with an assortment of plastic heads. For the trial they used head one which as you can see is designed to spread the contact over a larger area and “gives” rather than push into the muscles (3).
Example two: using soft ball heads at an angle
Most of the rest of the trials used the softer round heads, and as you can see from this picture taken from one of the trial reports if you hold the machine at an angle it stops the head driving into the muscle (4–9).
Are massage guns safe?
Genuine vibration massagers have a pad that sits on the surface and just sends in vibrations, so they are very safe. However, is modifying a massager so it hammers it’s head into your muscles safe? For this we need to look at:
- the hard plastic heads, and
- driving the heads in in general.
The hard plastic heads
There can be no question that driving a hard plastic head that would look at home on a jackhammer is potentially dangerous, especially if the user did not know anatomy and drove the head into something like a nerve or blood vessel
Driving the heads in general
As previously mentioned driving anything up to 16mm into your muscles very fast is a dangerous idea. There is even a journal report of a person nearly dying from internal bleeding after using a massage gun to recover after riding an exercise bike (9). In another case a massage gun user suffered hemothorax, which is a collection of blood around the lungs that usually results from blunt force trauma (10). This is why a survey found that most professionals with massage guns used them on slow or medium speed (2), which as previously mentioned makes any vibrations well outside the optimal therapeutic vibration frequencies.
Are massage guns easy to use?
The pros
A few years ago the decent massagers were for professional use while the ones for personal use tended to be non-serious machines targeted more as mothers day presents (11). This is why we built our own . As a positive massage guns are portable and targeted for self use.
The cons
Like a real gun massage guns need to be pointed into the muscles to get the intended effects. However, as this diagram shows with their gimmick shape and aerosol can shaped handles you cannot do this for a lot of your body.
Are massage gun makers even trying to make serious therapeutic devices?
You need to ask the question: ”Would someone making serious therapeutic devices make one that you could not use effectively on a large part of your body”
What are the alternatives?
Self massage devices allow you to have practically unlimitted therapy without the need for appointments or professional fees.
In this section:
- Foam rollers
- Other person use massagers
- Genuine vibration massagers (recommended)
Foam rollers
As discussed in our article Do foam rollers work , the trial results for these are very poor and they are no substitute for conventional massage from a professional therapist. As a Chiropractor for over 27 years I saw a lot of people hurt themselves using rollers for very little benefit.
Other personal use massagers
As discussed in our article Why most massagers are a waste of money the market is flooded with devices built by factories with no interest in building therapeutic devices.
Genuine vibration massagers (Recommended)
As we have see above therapeutic vibrations have excellent benefits. Genuine vibration massagers are built to deliver appropriate amounts of these at the proper therapeutic frequencies. Professionals have been using them for decades. They are very safe and work extrordinarily well. Bascially, they deliver everthing massage gun marketers promise for their machines but do not deliver. For information about using vibration massage please see our Guide to vibration massage .
Most vibration massagers are built for professionals to use
Most genuine vibration massagers are built for professionals to use on their patients, not for self use. As discussed above most massagers built for personal use and sold in shops or on-line are not serious therapeutic devices. When looking for something our patients could use we could not find anything we could recommend and be confident the patients would improve, so we built our own. For information about these please see the links below.
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
- Michal.L. Comparison of changes in muscle contraction speed using the " TheraGun " massage gun and sports massage. 2021.
- 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.
- Konrad A, Glashüttner C, Reiner MM, Bernsteiner D, Tilp M. The acute effects of a percussive massage treatment with a hypervolt device on plantar flexor muscles’ range of motion and performance. J Sport Sci Med. 2020;19(4):690–4.
- García-Sillero M, Benítez-Porres J, García-Romero J, Bonilla DA, Petro JL, Vargas-Molina S. Comparison of interventional strategies to improve recovery after eccentric exercise-induced muscle fatigue. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(2):1–11.
- Mansuri U, Patel S. Effectiveness of Theragun and Ergonomic Advice in Patients with Low Back Pain among Bus Drivers-A Randomized Controlled Trial. Int J Sci Res 2021;10(4):50–3
- Godemeche N. Efficacy of localized vibration massage on the flexibility of the posterior chain muscles in active adults and athletes 2020.
- Ateş R, Yaşar P, Başkurt F, Başkurt Z, Ercan S. A Comparison of the Acute Effects of Percussion Massage Therapy and Static Stretching on Hamstring Elasticity. Ethiop J Health Sci. 2023;33(4):695.
- Seju Y, Rajput V. Efficacy of Theragun and Surge Faradic Stimulation in Subjects with Trapezitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Int J Sci Res . 2021;10(4):46–9.
- Chen J, Zhang F, Chen H, Pan H. habdomyolysis After the Use of Percussion Massage Gun : A Case Report. 2021;1–5.
- Masters A, Duarte R, Chiang B, Sarvottam K, Patel K. Hemothorax After Use of Percussion Massage Gun: A Case Report. 2022;A4172–A4172.
- McDonagh D, Wilson L, Haslam C, Weightman D. Good vibrations: Do electrical therapeutic massagers work? Ergonomics. 2005;
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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