What Is Percussion Massage Therapy And How Can It Benefit Runners?

Percussion massage therapy and the use of percussion massage guns have been all the rage on social media streams lately.

I don't know about you, but when I first saw images of athletes getting their muscles pummeled by a device that looks like a fancy woodworking jigsaw, I was skeptical.

Not anymore.

So what is percussion massage and do percussion massage guns work?

These are the questions I set out to answer in this article.

The quick answer to "Do massage guns work?" is yes. They do work. But it also depends on what you plan to use a massage gun for.

A massage gun, like this Theragun 4th generation Pro model  will definitely help you feel better and help you heal faster but you still have to match proper recovery with the adequate amount of rest and recovery.  If you want to read about my experience using the Hyperice Hypervolt percussion massager, I wrote a detailed review here.

I also wrote a detailed review on a cheaper model here. It is a Cholas massage gun that is not as powerful, but you can't beat the cost and performance for a massage gun under $35. It is no Theragun or Hypervolt, but it can be a decent starter massage gun.

When it comes to claims like do massage guns improve blood flow or reduce post exercise muscle soreness, the research is there to show that percussion massage therapy does work. In fact, percussion massage therapy has been around long before massage guns were even invented. Massage guns are just tools to make our life easier when it comes to applying self-massage techniques.

What Is Percussion Massage Therapy?

Percussion massage therapy is actually a type of massage that has been around for a long time. Percussion massagers, otherwise referred to as massage guns are a tool to help apply percussion massage to anyone who wants to simulate a deep tissue massage or vibration massage.

Percussion massage guns work by delivering a series of rapid strikes, or blows to your muscles and soft tissues in order to increase blood flow to the area and increase your muscle range of motion.

Proponents of percussion massage claim that massage guns help promote pain relief from post workout soreness to promoting faster, soft tissue repair and healing.

Percussion massage guns mimic soft tissue massage techniques that some massage therapists do in order to deliver a form of deep tissue massage. These devices apply rapid, highly targeted pulse vibrations to a target area like your back, quads, hamstrings, calfs, adductors, hands, feet, shoulders, neck and arms.

Various attachments are used to deliver slightly different strikes and vibrations to various trouble spots you may have.

What Are The Benefits Of Using A Massage Gun?

Here are some of the benefits of using percussion massagers:

• Helps increase blood flow to your muscles and remove lymphastic waste fluids that collect as part of intense exercise and inflammation.
• Helps reduce muscle inflammation and post exercise soreness, like DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)
• Helps reduce and eliminate muscle adhesions. These are the knots and trigger points that develop naturally over time as muscle heals.
• Helps increase overall mobility, flexibility and range of motion by keeping muscle fascia loose and frictionless
• Helps activate the nervous system to give us an amazing post-massage feeling of relaxation and stress reduction.

When Should You Not Use A Massage Gun?

There are actually situations when you should not use a massage gun. Primarily it comes down to preexisting conditions like pulled muscles or broken bones. However, just like any form of massage or self myofascial release techniques like foam rolling, you should not perform them without seeking medical advise first. A massage gun is no different.

Here is a list of conditions or situations where you should not use a massage gun without seeking medical advice first.

• Muscle strains and sprains
• Injuries that result in chronic inflammation
• Broken bones or suspected broken bones
• Sprains
• High Blood Pressure
• Varicose veins
• Osteoporosis (bone degeneration)
• Conditions that affect your blood vessels (atherosclerosis, deep vein thrombosis, peripheral artery disease, etc)
• Autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis, lupus, etc.
• Rheumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophy, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia or gout.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list. If unsure if a massage gun is safe for you, please check with your doctor before using.

Do Massage Guns Work?

There is actually limited research available specific to the use of massage guns, however there is a decent amount of research available on percussion massage and vibration therapy itself.

As I researched the topic, most of the research was conducted using massage therapists to deliver the percussion techniques and not massage guns themselves. But that does not mean that they don't work. In fact, I experienced it working on me in at least a few key areas. Other areas were harder for me to evaluate because I did not notice or could not tell.

Massage guns did not hit the mainstream until 2018, when the founder of Therabody (formerly known as Theragun) released their massage gun to the market.A few years prior, the founder, a physical therapist, was in a motorcycle accident and was struggling with pain that was not being solved through traditional treatment.

While home recovering, he created a rudimentary massage gun in his garage and found that the application of percussive techniques made his back feel better. As he researched why, he realized that percussion massage could help others and after working with some of his own patients and additional research, he decided to productize it with the invention of the Theragun. Once released, hundreds of other knock-offs started hitting the market.

One of the most popular research studies on percussion massage looked at three groups of women. One group received percussion massage therapy techniques, one group received traditional massage therapy techniques and the last group (the control group) received no massage at all.

Using a wide range of pre and post massage measurements, the results did back some of the claims that massage gun manufacturers are making. For example, both the traditional massage and the percussion massage research groups reported less post exercise (DOMS) soreness and the results were statistically equal among both groups. This indicates that both traditional massage and percussion massage is great at reducing muscle soreness.

Another key finding was that massage therapy was a bit better at helping the women recover strength faster over the percussion massage group and the control group (as measured by a one rep maximum strength test). I am not sure this is a useful finding, at least not in terms of helping runners. As runners what we want is faster healing.

Another key observation was that the percussion group saw a signifiant reduction in Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) after 48 hours. This is important because LDH is found in muscles after intense exercise and is a key blood marker indicating muscle damage and the need for healing.

The fact that the LDH was lower than the control group shows that the percussion massage group was healing faster. This is most likely due to the fact that both percussion massage and traditional sports massage increases blood flow and helps remove the metabolic waste that gets created during muscle use.

Sources and Citations

Imtiyaz S, Veqar Z, Shareef MY. To Compare the Effect of Vibration Therapy and Massage in Prevention of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). J Clin Diagn Res. 2014;8(1):133‐136. doi:10.7860/JCDR/2014/7294.3971Pournot H, Tindel J, Testa R, Mathevon L, Lapole T. The Acute Effect of Local Vibration As a Recovery Modality from Exercise-Induced Increased Muscle Stiffness. J Sports Sci Med. 2016;15(1):142‐147. Published 2016 Feb 23.

In case you don't want to read the whole review…

Before I get into the details, I want to make it known that this is a real review of the Hypervolt I purchased with my own money. I did not receive a free product or compensated in any way from the manufacturer.

I purchased my Hypervolt from Amazon back in May. I researched several brands and models, and ultimately it came down to the Theragun G3 Pro and the HyperIce Hypervolt.

Here is the quick summary of what I found:

• The Theragun G3 Pro was a little more powerful. Almost too much for my taste as I did not like the highest setting. The Hypervolt had plenty of power. Trust me; it will still hurt at times as it digs into those tight or sore areas!
  
• The Hypervolt was much quieter than the Theragun. The newer Theragun models have corrected the loud noise issues, but at the time, the Hypervolt was less annoying to use on the noise front.
  
• The Hypervolt was more affordable and more readily available on Amazon.

The Theragun G3 Pro and Hyperice Hypervolt are well made. They have plenty of power and are considered the best massage guns on the market. Both are used and recommended by physical therapists, athletic trainers, massage therapists, and recreational/pro athletes alike.

So, which massage gun is best? Well, I will leave that up to others to debate. After trying both, I think you would be happy with either. It comes down to personal preference and what you are willing to spend.

Speaking of which, let's dig into whether or not a massage gun is even worth it.

Are massage guns worth the money?

In the months leading up to my purchase, I kept asking myself, “Are massage guns worth the money?”. I tend to be skeptical when it comes to products that promise to make me a better runner or impact my health in some way. GPS watches and running shoes? Sure. But a massage gun? It looks like my electric drill! However, after borrowing both models from my physical therapist friend for a weekend, my skepticism quickly wore away.

Both models did precisely what I wanted them to do. Each model had a choice of different power settings and attachments. Both the Theragun and Hypervolt left my muscles feeling similar to a post-massage session with an actual massage therapist.

Which is better? A massage gun or a massage therapist?

I will not pretend that a massage gun is better than a deep tissue massage by a licensed massage therapist.

But it is very close!

Close enough that I feel it is the next best thing.

While a massage therapist can hit challenging areas to reach, a massage gun hit the places I care about as a runner — areas like my feet, calf muscles, quads, hips, and hamstrings.I also like to use it on my shoulders and neck whenever I feel tension building up.

Here is how I justified my purchase.

A good massage therapist can cost you $60-120/hour, and it can require several visits to work out all your knots, trigger points, and tightness. Then you have to maintain that a couple of times each month or you go back to your pre-massage condition.

A good quality massage gun will cost you around $250-400.00, and it is a one time purchase. There are cheaper massagers, but my research found that most are cheap knockoffs that lack power, durability, and simply do not work as well or last as long.

Hypervolt specifications and features

• Rechargeable, lithium-ion battery which gives you up to 3 hours per charge
• 3-speed settings which deliver up to 3200 percussions per second
• Four interchangeable head attachments (see below)
• Weight: 2.5 lbs
• Dimensions: 5.23" x 3.25" x 10" making

What is included in the box

When I purchased my Hypervolt, it came with the following:

• Hypervolt massage gun
• AC Charger
• 5 Attachments (see attachment descriptions below)
• Operating Instructions

Hypervolt attachments explained

The Hypervolt comes with 5 different attachments. Here is a picture of each and a brief description what they do

Bullet attachment

Good for targeting trigger points or highly targeted areas.

Cushion attachment

A soft attachment that provides a softer, gentler massage.

Flat head attachment

A broad attachment used for larger muscle groups like quads and hamstrings.

Fork attachment

Good for targeting areas around the calf, ankles, and shoulders

Round ball attachment

A softer attachment that can be used almost anywhere for a gentle, but effective massage

Quick Thoughts

Here's the deal. It's good. It's not Hypervolt or Theragun good, but it does an OK job as long as you don't need to press deep into your muscles. If you simply want to hit your calf muscles, IT band, hamstrings and glute, the Cholas can handle it.

If you need to press deep and hard into your muscles, don't get this one. It will bog down and stop. It can do light and moderate massage well. And the quality was better than expected at this price range. I mean, seriously I only paid $31.77 for this thing and that included shipping!

If you are curious about the Hyperice Hypervolt, I did a detailed review here. It is still my top-recommended massage gun, but the Cholas is a good beginner massage gun to see if you like percussion therapy and will use it consistently before moving on to a better one.

Unboxing – What's Inside?

When I opened the box, I found the massage gun, 6 different massage heads, a USB charging cable, and a carrying case. Everything was neatly packed and in perfect condition.

My only disappointment was the lack of a charger plug. It comes with just the USB cord. It wasn't a big deal, but I would have paid a few more dollars to get a charging plug. I am always short of plugs.

The quality of the box and internal packaging was great.

The carrying case was decent quality. It isn't the highest quality case, but it seems good enough to last for some time and I would not shy away from purchasing this massage gun based on it. Again, better than I expected for a massage gun in this price range.

Honestly, I was surprised it even came with a case!

The massage gun itself has a quality feel and felt good in my hand. It is a bit lighter than my Hypervolt which may actually be a benefit here for longer massage sessions. Here are a few close-up photographs:

The power switch and USB charging port are on the bottom of the handle:

The Cholas massage gun comes with a partial charge. Enough to get in a short massage session in. It also offers 30 adjustable vibration modes. The number on the left indicates the speed/vibration level. This picture shows the unit turned on, but not running. Using the + button ramps up the power level from 1-30.
Level 1 is more of a soft vibration. Level 30, the unit is hammering pretty hard.

Here are the six attachments that came with the Cholas massage gun: