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Percussion massage is a form of therapy where the head of a machine, typically a massage gun, is driven into one’s muscles like a jackhammer. Proponents say it is likely to combine the benefits of conventional massage and vibration therapy, and claim a host of scientifically proven benefits (1).
While vibration massage is an excellent scientifically proven therapy, to our knowledge there is no merit what so ever in driving the massager heads into muscles like mini jackhammers. The scientific validity of percussion massage (massage guns) has been misrepresented the following ways
Vibration massage is the safe, effective scientifically proven therapy, while the jackhammering effects of percussion massage has not been shown to add any benefits. Percussion is likely to be a lot less effective and certainly a lot more dangerous.
In this article I’ll explain the difference between vibration massage and percussion, and how to tell them apart. I’ll share with you how percussion advocates use science in an inappropriate and misleading manner, and how reports show percussion massagers sometimes cause serious harm. Finally, I’ll finish by showing you the treatment that the scientific evidence actually supports.
What is the difference between percussion and vibration massage
The scientifically proven effects of vibration massage
What is the science behind percussion therapy (massage guns)
Are percussion massagers (massage guns) safe
Vibration massage: the therapy that actually gives you the benefits
Appendix: how to tell the difference between a percussion and vibration massager
Professionals
References
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. Please see our appendix for how to tell these apart.
With vibration massage vibrations (rather than the massager heads) penetrate deeply into the muscles. Scientists have found that these have the following effects. For more info please see: The scientifically proven effects of vibration massage- with clinical applications.
Short summary: to our knowledge there is none. In this section I’ll discuss:
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 (2). 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 (3) 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.
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 is good references the following journal articles (4–9). They are all studies of vibration therapy, not percussion.
What I’d like to do here is show you an example (below) of how even scientists use a “slight of hand” to mislead you. This is from a university based author and has the impressive title: A critical evaluation of percussion muscle gun therapy as a rehabilitation tool focusing on lower limb mobility. A literature review (10).
Please note the logic it uses. It says vibration therapy has effects such as stimulating reflexes and increasing temperature, therefore percussion massage may used during warmups etc. Percussion is not vibration therapy so this is not a logical or scientifically valid conclusion.
The trouble is people read this not picking up that it is illogical and misleading. In this scientific paper two popular percussion massagers Theragun and Hyperice are mentioned a lot so draw your own conclusion about whether the author made a mistake or was deliberately misrepresenting the science to promote these.
Quote showing inappropriate logic supporting percussion
Previous literature has reported that vibration therapy leads to mechanical oscillatory motions, thus enhancing reflex activity by stimulating the muscle spindle to initiate a tonic vibratory reflex. Lee et al. (2018) demonstrated that vibration therapy corresponds with an increase in intramuscular temperature. Further to this finding, Lee et al. (2018) also reported an increase in muscle temperature from vibration therapy increases counter-movement jump height. Therefore, handheld percussion massage devices may be used during a warm-up before physical activity to promote increased muscle temperature (Cochrane et al., 2008) and muscle activation (Cochrane et al., 2010).
The premise behind percussion massage is that there is extra benefit from driving their heads into your muscles (like a jackhammer). As you will see in the appendix to do that percussion massagers:
As the next quote (below) shows, the previously mentioned scientific literature review (10) of massage guns looked at 19 studies and found that in all of them the scientists chose to use a soft attachment head. The scientists know that the benefit comes from the vibration, not the jack hammering, so what they do is put on a head that flattens out for better vibration transfer and has a bit of give in it so it goes up and down a bit less. In other words they remove the percussion effect and make them more like a vibration massager.
Quote showing that in trials of percussion scientists try and make their machines be like vibration massagers so they actually work
thirteen used a muscle gun that delivered percussions at 53 Hz. Six studies used a handheld percussive device operating at 80+ Hz. All of the experiments used a soft attachment head for the device
As an example, a study tested the effect of percussion massage using a Theragun on the performance of bench press exercises, and found slight improvement. However, as shown in the following quote the scientists used the optional damper attachment. The Dampener attachment is specifically designed to lower the impact and increase the surface area, creating more efficient contact with the body. Basically, to get decent results the scientists ignored the things that are supposed to make percussion better (the physical penetration) and made the Theragun act more like a vibration massager.(11)
Example of a trial of Theraguns where the scientists used a damper to reduce percussion and increase vibration
The Theragun® G3 Pro (Therabody, Los Angeles, CA, USA) device was used for the
experimental treatment in the PTG. The PT treatment provided by the device during this
study had the following mechanical characteristics: amplitude (16 mm), torque (60 pounds), and frequency (2400 per minute). PT was applied to each participant immediately following completion of the last rep at the end of each set. PT was applied to the pectoralis major and minor, given that the standardized grip used in our study was 100% or more of the biacromial width [24], and the bench had no inclination (0) [25], with the pectoral as
the muscle group with the highest activation during the BP exercise. PT was applied
to the muscle in the PTG with the dampener attachment using moderate force and fast
movement, gliding up and down along the muscle belly from the origin to the insertion for
15 s, ensuring constant pressure at all times, and following the direction of the muscle fibers.
This picture illustrates the danger of using machines that are like mini jackhammers. When driving a hard massager head into a muscles there is always a danger of causing damage to the muscle, or worse impacting a nerve or blood vessel. Colleagues are reporting to me that they are seeing many people with these injuries, and more recently serious damage is being reported in the scientific literature .
The following quote is self explanatory
Quote from a published scientific report
there are no published clinical or evidence-based reports on percussion guns regarding their benefits, indications,contraindications, and even side effects. The purpose of this case report is to describe the first case of rhabdomyolysis as a severe and potentially life-threatening illness following use of a percussion gun (12)
In this case a massage gun was used to relax tired muscles after cycling but afterwards there were multiple hematomas (bruises) on her thighs and the damage was so severe:
Hopefully from that you can see that although percussion claims to combine the benefits of conventional massage and vibration therapy, it actually doesn’t effectively deliver vibration and the penetration of the head adds nothing worthwhile. Further, it’s actually dangerous. What I’d like to do now is share with you something you will actually get the promised benefits from: genuine vibration massage.
The benefits claimed for percussion massage are actually those for vibration massagers. Please see the appendix for how to tell which is which. Better still, 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 vibration massagers: the General Purpose Massager or our Ultimate Quad Head Massager.
So, if you’re after a massager how do you tell the difference? There is some crossover between the two types of machine, but there are certain characteristics to look for.
The most obvious is the shape of the heads. Again, if you think jackhammer vs compactor your percussion massagers are going to have heads that look like they’re for driving in, while vibration massagers will tend to have flatter heads designed for vibration transfer.
The next thing to look at is the amplitude, which is how far the head goes up and down. You can easily see this if you look at the head side on while it’s running. A good vibration massager will have an amplitude of about 3-5 mm, while a percussion massager will have more. Looking at our jackhammer and compactor again, a jackhammer head might go up and down a few cm to drive the head in, but if the big flat plate on the compactor went up and down that far it would just bounce around uncontrollably.
Most of our massagers are sold through professional clinics where where the professionals use them themselves and recommend them to patients or clients. 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.
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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
As a chiropractor for over 27 years vertebral subluxation complexes are a very real problem that can cause pain, long term spinal damage... Read Article
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