How NOT to use a massage gun- bad advice given by YouTube gurus

Introduction

There are several common mistakes people make when using a massage gun. These include:

• pressing in too hard, and
• using the machine where inappropriate, (eg injured tissue, bony areas, blood vessels and nerves).

However, the biggest mistake that dramatically reduces the effectiveness of the treatment and increases the risk of injury is using techniques appropriate for conventional massage rather than for vibration.

Just like using a chainsaw needs a different technique than using an axe, vibrating massagers need different techniques than the pressing in and rubbing used with conventional massage. However, most “experts” don’t realise this, and you get shown inappropriate techniques. Even worse, many professionals do this and and their patients only get a fraction of the benefits they should be getting.

Why most massage gun advice is wrong

Vibration massage can be an excellent therapy, but not if you follow the advice like shown on the video from the YouTube gurus. The problem is they’re using a machine with a motor that vibrates, but use their old hand massage techniques.

It’s like going from an axe to a chainsaw, but still swinging it like an axe. To get the good results with a vibrating massager you need to use proper vibration massager techniques, and that’s what I’ll show you today.

The difference when using a vibration massager

The main thing you need to know when using a vibration massager is that it’s the vibrations that do the work. For a complete set of instructions with hints and precautions see our article How to use a hand held massager , but basically it’s like using the chain saw. You just sit the machine on and let it do the work. The vibrations will penetrate right through your body without any need to press in, and when they do they have a host of wonderful effects on your muscles. What you do is put the machine on, let the vibrations soak in, when that part is done move onto the next spot. It’s really that simple.

Percussion massage explained

To explain the difference I like to use the analogy of these two machines that most people will be familiar with. Genuine vibration massagers are like these construction compactors. They’re designed to send strong vibrations deep into the ground without harming the surface. By trying to add conventional massage percussion massagers are like jack hammers. Instead, their vibrations are used to smash the surface. One machine pummels the surface and can feel like it’s doing something, while the other just sends in deep soothing vibrations that relax the muscles, increase blood flow, and a host of other good things.

How to get (half) decent results with a massage gun

If you have brought a massage gun you can do what the scientists do to get half decent results when they trial percussion massagers. They know that driving the heads in like a jackhammer trying to add the benefits of conventional massage is a stupid idea, so what they do is use special soft or damper heads so they don’t drive in and behave more like vibration massagers, ,, and of course they use proper techniques.

Our General Purpose Massager

This is our General Purpose Massager . The business end delivers copious amounts of therapeutic vibrations. It’s got a proper ergonomically designed handle so it’s easy to use anywhere on your body, and it has very easy to use controls. The on/off switch is underneath and it has a sliding variable speed control under your thumb.

Over the years we’ve sold over 100,000 of these without any advertising, mainly though professionals like chiropractors, osteopaths and physical therapists using them and recommending them to their patients.

Get a DrGraeme massager

Our Ultimate Quad Head Massager

More recently we’ve developed our Ultimate Quad Head Massager that has all the good things the General Purpose Massager has, but can do a much greater area at once and because the front part is larger and flatter you can easily use it like a cushion or chair massager.

It took us a while to build a machine to do a large area. The laws of physics say if you have a machine with a really large head it will vibrate a lot, and it will need to weigh a lot to get it to send the vibrations in. That’s why if you’ve ever tried to put one of these machines in the back of a trailer they are really heavy. The way we solved that was to have a special mechanism that has four heads work independently. While some are going down others are going up, so the vibrations tend to cancel each other out. We can have a light machine that’s easy to use, but still sends in copious amounts of strong vibration.

Get a DrGraeme massager