You need an appropriate massager
To get these effects you will need a genuine professional standard vibration massager. if you have not got one please check out our practitioner page , or you may be eligible for a complementary sample massager .
Evidence based vibration and percussion massage
"Evidence" can be used to mislead
We are all for evidence based practice, but evidence needs to be sensible, relevant, and properly represented. As an example of this not being so, in the video linked in a previous summary I discussed that one of my pet hates was that researchers who conduct clinical trials on treatments for myofascial trigger points know that their courses of treatments do not eliminate trigger points so they deliberately choose not to re-check for their presence and just make short term symptomatic measurements. This allows them to claim that their treatments were successful, even though there is no evidence of any long term changes or benefits. Colleagues follow these and think they are practicing “evidence based”.
However, most trials testing “vibration” and “percussion” are even more misleading. I actually went through about 30 clinical trials looking at the equipment they used, what they did, and the actual results measured. Most were very poorly done, and many of the researchers did not let the facts get in the way of a good story. You can read were I’ve reviewed those trials here. It is an eye opener.
With that in mind I'll bring you up to speed on the actual evidence regarding “vibration” and “percussion”.
The evidence for vibration and percussion
What is the difference?
Vibration massage is where vibrations are used to penetrate and have their therapeutic effects, whereas percussion massagers have heads that physically drive into muscles trying to incorporate a conventional massage effect. The easiest way to understand this is that vibration massagers are like this yellow machine, whereas percussion is like the jackhammer.
Like the yellow machine vibration massagers are built to penetrate deeply with the most effective vibration. On the other hand percussion massagers are built to physically drive their heads into muscles in order to mechanically assist convention massage therapy. The vibrations they send in are limited and usually not at the optimum therapeutic frequencies.
The evidence for vibration massage
The physiological effects
There is a large amount of information about the physiological effects and clinical applications of therapeutic vibrations. Please see out guide: The scientifically proven effects of vibration massage- with clinical applications .
Trial results
Those approx. 30 trials used a variety of equipment and protocols. These ranged from pure vibration massage with proper equipment and protocols through to full blown percussion massagers such as Theraguns, with a lot of equipment that had characteristics of each. Overwhelmingly the ones using vibration produced far better results.
The evidence for percussion massage
The physiological effects
Massage gun marketers claim all the physiological effects of therapeutic vibration, but they deliver far less vibration than a proper massager and it is at the wrong frequency. Marketers claim additional conventional massage effects, but I know of no evidence that supports this.
Trial results
The percussion machines did very badly in the clinical trials. In one trial applying the vibration using one of those vibration plates you stand on rather than a proper massager still gave better results than a very expensive Theragun. Looking at the actual methodology of the trials those claiming good results for “percussion” typically:
- were really using vibration machines,
- modified their massage guns using things like damper heads to stop them doing percussion and act more like vibration machines,
- had conclusions that misrepresented the actual results.