You will find a well designed vibration massager easy to use, safe, and will do a great job, whereas massage guns:
The simplest way to explain the difference between a percussion and vibration massager is that vibration massagers use vibration to penetrate whereas percussion massagers use mechanical vibration to assist physical penetration. This is like comparing a jackhammer with vibrating compactors used in the construction industry. In this article we will discuss the effectiveness, safety and usage of each.
Comparing the scientifically proven benefits
Comparing the penetration
Comparing the safety
You cannot self massage a lot of your body with a massage gun
The flood of poorly designed percussion massagers/massage guns
How to tell the difference between a persussion and vibration massager
Table: Comparison of percussion and vibration massage
Further information
Professionals
References
Vibration massage is supported by extensive scientific research. For an excellent summary please see the The scientifically proven effects of vibration massage- with clinical applications. In summary, these clinically proven effects include the following.
We were not aware of any research or other scientific information supporting the use of percussion massagers so we did an extensive search of websites claiming to show the benefits of percussion massage. In every case where they referenced a scientific study it was a study of vibrations, not percussion. For example: on Hydragun’s website their article 5-scientific reasons percussive therapy works references the following journal articles (1–6). They are all studies of vibration therapy, not percussion.
Please see our article on the “science” of percussion for more information on how scientific information is misrepresented, and how to get half decent results in trials researchers even modify percussion massagers so they act as vibration massagers.
In our research we found many unsubstantiated claims that percussion massagers penetrate 60% better than vibration massagers. We believe the source of this claim is the following statement on Theragun’s website, claiming that their professional grade percussion massagers penetrate 60% more than consumer grade vibration massagers. This is probably true, but consumer grade vibration massagers are generally poor quality, poorly designed and not very effective (7). A comparison with these is neither valid or flattering.
It is a fundamental principle of physics that properly applied vibration penetrates much further than physical penetration. For example, according to a scientific journal article on the effects of vibrations in the construction industry (8) vibrations from a pile driver travel from 18- 247m, whereas vibrations from a quarry blast travels 1.6-6.4km. There is no question that a properly designed vibration massager can penetrate much further than a percussion massager.
The physical penetration of a massager head that occurs in percussion massage creates a far greater risk of causing damage or injury.
As this diagram shows, like a real gun massage guns need to be pointed correctly to have their proper effect, but their handles do not allow doing this for self massage for a lot of your own body, unless you have arms like Inspector Gadget. This is why we so often see people demonstrating massage at the back of the shoulders with the massage gun at an ineffective angle.
As a contrast, the vibration massager pictured has an excellently designed handle allowing effective self use anywhere on the body.
With percussion massagers/massage guns becoming a fad we have factories in China with little knowledge of building therapeutically beneficial machines flooding the market. If you check Alibaba.com, the website manufacturers use to list their products you will find over 200,000 listings for massagers. As stated, most know very little about therapeutic benefits and try and differentiate their product by price and gimmicks. This pic shows an excellent example. You can buy those machines for under $15 from the factory, and they come with a range of stupid looking heads, one which might be useful as a hair brush.
Gimmicks are things manufacturers add rather than functionality. The easiest way to pick a gimmick with a massager is to consider it as a power tool (which they are). For any feature, consider whether you would expect it on a quality power tool from manufactures such as Makita, Bosch or AEG. If not, it’s probably a gimmick.
While there is some crossover between the two types of machine there are certain characteristics to look for.
Amplitude simply means how far the head goes up and down. A typical vibration massager will use an amplitude of about 3-5 mm. If the amplitude was much greater it would push the head in or tend to patter and bounce uncontrollably. Theraguns have an amplitude of 16mm, which is clearly to help drive the head in. To tell how far a massager head moves up and down you can look at it side on while it is running.
Looking at the example of the compactor and the jackhammer, vibration massagers tend to use a flattish contact to help vibration transfer, whereas percussion massagers tend to have shaped heads such as balls or more pointed contacts to help the head penetrate.
Mode of operation |
Scientifically proven benefits |
Safety |
Amplitude |
Heads |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vibration massage |
Penetrates with vibration |
Extensive: see research summary |
Relatively safe |
3-5mm |
Flattish for vibration transfer |
Percussion massage |
Uses vibration to push in head |
Tries to claim the benefits of vibration |
Penetrating head can cause injury or damage |
larger |
rounded or pointed |
For how to choose an quality massager that will do a great job and that you will be extremely happy with please see our article How to choose a massager, or you can go straight and check out our economical, easy to use professional standard machines: the General Purpose Massager or our Ultimate Quad Head Massager.
If you are a professional and wish to know more about vibration massage please check out practitioner page for more information and possibly a sample massager to try this therapy yourself. Our 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.
We are continually adding more information on research and uses. Subscribe below to have us email them to you "hot off the press".
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