Massage guns explained: what they are and what they do

What is percussion massage

Massage guns, or percussion massagers, are hybrid machines that attempt to combine the benefits of two widely used and effective therapies: vibration massage and conventional massage. This is a great marketing gimmick, but do you really get all the benefits of both. The easiest way to explain this is by using the following diagram showing a vibration massager, a massage gun, and a conventional massage tool.

What do massage guns actually do

Now you understand what massage guns are lets look at the marketing claims vs what they actually do.

Does driving the head into the muscle add benefits?

While vibration has a host of proven benefits we know of no studies that show that driving the head into the muscle does any good at all. Moreover, it doesn’t even seem logical. The most widely marketed use of massage guns is post exercise recovery. After a workout your muscles will have suffered microscopic damage to their fibres. It makes no sense to pummel damaged muscles to help them heal.

Safety

Putting a jackhammer mechanism behind a t-bar makes it a lot more capable of doing damage. This is not trivial, as colleagues are telling me that they are seeing build ups of scar tissue in muscles from massage gun use, there is even a report in a journal of someone nearly dying from internal bleeding after using a massage gun to “help recovery” (2).

Summary

Rather than combine the benefits of vibration massage and conventional massage, massage guns do neither well while increasing the risk of causing injury.

What scientists think of massage guns

Some practical advice

As you have seen massage guns do not combine the benefits of vibration and conventional massage. Instead they do neither well. The irony is that massage marketers spend so much money on advertising and paying for endorsements from athletes to sell you that it is a good idea that you end up paying a lot more for something that is no where near as good. Our practical advice would be to stick to either vibration massagers or conventional massage. They are both excellent proven therapies.

Self massage options

The advantage of a massage gun is that you can use it for self massage (though in keeping with the gimmick nature of these devices they do not have a decent handle allowing you you to easily reach all of your body). Foam rollers are marketed as a way to self apply conventional massage, but as discussed in our article Can foam roller be harmful these are no where near as effective as a professional therapist. Your best option will be a genuine vibration massager. We discuss how to choose one in this article How to choose a massager

That said, genuine vibration massagers are not that common, and most are built for professional use rather than personal use. Most hand held vibrating massagers are not serious therapeutic devices, and of course massage guns don’t deliver the proper therapeutic vibrations. Because of that we built our own personal use vibration massagers.

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.