If you are on Facebook, you’ve probably seen the relentless advertisments for massage “guns.” These are heavy duty, hand-held vibrational massagers that sellers claim provide a number of benefits; namely increasing blood circulation to muscles, reducing muscle tightness, reducing pain and improving muscle recovery from sports activities. The ads suddenly exploded on the scene a couple of months ago. There appear to be multiple sellers selling the same device, with brand names including Halo Pro, G3, Hypervolt, XVan and Intellitop and most if not all are manufactured in China. The price ranges from about $100 – $225.
Below is a screenshot of the Amazon listings of these products. Apparently, they are selling like pancakes:
But are massage guns really good for you? Are they worth the money you spend? Or, are they just old technology being packaged as something new and innovative, using exaggerated claims and expensive marketing? Or perhaps…can massage guns be harmful to you?
Well, let’s break it down, piece by piece. First of all, there isn’t much medical technology involved in these massage guns. At the heart of these massage guns is a variable speed motor and armatures that together produce rapid oscillation of a rod, to which you can attach various treatment heads. That’s it. It’s essentially the same engineering as a jigsaw/ reciprocating saw, with a shorter depth of movement.
You apply it to a large muscle, such as the quadriceps (thigh muscles), gastrocnemius (calves), erector spinae (back muscles), or if you are a bulky weight lifter, the biceps and triceps muscles. If you want to use it on the smaller posterior neck muscles, there is a horseshoe shaped attachment available.
Mind you, the force generated by these massage guns is significant: people with smaller and/or more sensitive muscles will not be able to handle it, and may even get bruised. These massage guns, in my opinion, are better suited for those who have a larger muscle mass than most people; muscle that is well-conditioned from training; i.e hypertrophied muscle.
Are There Health Benefits to Deep Vibration?
The sellers of these hand-held massage guns instruct the user to place the treatment head over the belly of the muscle (thickest part; usually in the middle), applying a downward force as shown in the picture above. You can keep it stationary or slide it up and down the muscle, applying light to heavy pressure.
In order to get an idea of what happens to the muscle when you use a massage gun on it, it helps to understand the anatomy and physiology of muscle and surrounding tissue.
Starting from the top, your skin: is your skin firm or saggy? This depends on the quality and density of collagen and elastin fibers that form your dermis, or lower layer of skin. Younger people have firmer, resilient skin, thanks to dense and higher quality (less degraded from age) collagen fibers. People 50 and over, not so much. So if you are in your 30s, that’s a plus for you if you want to use a massage gun. Your skin is likely tougher and able to handle the force of those vibrations.
Small blood vessels and nerve endings are present just below the dermis, or hypodermis. When these vessels dilate, you get hyperemia, or reddening of the skin.
Next in line, your subcutaneous fat. This is the fat directly underneath your skin, laying just above your muscle whose function is to provide a protective cushion for the body. Its thickness varies, depending on the location in your body; your age, sex (females tend to have more subcutaneous fat as a percentage of body mass), and health status. If the subcutaneous fat over your muscle is a good inch or more thick, this provides a barrier to the vibration and absorbs and dissipates some of that force. So, thicker subcutaneous fat is another plus for massage gun use.
And third, the target of the massage gun– skeletal muscle. Muscle is denser and heavier than fat as it is comprised mostly of protein; specifically actin and myosin, the specialized fibrous protein that comprise the contractile units. Muscle is covered by fascia, a tough fibrous webbing that lends support to the muscle as it contracts.
Blood vessels penetrate the muscles, supplying them oxygen and nutrients and transporting waste products away. Below is an illustration of the vessels that service the upper leg muscles. It shows the large caliber vessels– the femoral artery and veins, and the smaller branches that attach to multiple areas of each muscle.
Lastly, be aware that there are nerves in the area. The femoral and sciatic nerves pass through the leg muscles, and smaller divisions branch off and attach to multiple areas of each muscle to provide direct stimulation from the brain.
So, when you place the massage gun over the skin and press into the muscle, it pulsates rapidly and with each stroke the skin, fat, muscle, blood vessels and nerves get compressed and then rebound hundreds or thousands of times, depending on how long you apply the massager
Here are the physiological effects of the massage gun:
- Blood in the vessels of the skin are repetitively blanched and dilated, reddening the surface of the skin. In some cases, capillaries may burst, and if enough of them burst you will get visible bruising (small volume blood leakage into the tissues).
- Special sensory nerve endings in the skin fire. These nerve endings detect vibration, pressure, and light touch. Any neural input is sent to the brain for processing, and complex interactions with other nerve pathways may occur causing distal/secondary effects such as change in heart rate and blood pressure.
- The collagen in your skin gets stretched/worked. This could loosen the skin over time.
- The subcutaneous fat gets compressed. Fat is enclosed in tough, fibrous tissue so there is no effect on fat mobilization.
- The muscle absorbs the force. While muscle cells are very durable, it is possible that some of the actin and myosin proteins could be damaged especially those with smaller and/or less conditioned muscles; or older people. This could affect muscle contraction and strength.
- The nerves that cause muscles to contract by depolarizing the muscle membrane fire repeatedly, causing small muscle contractions and some fatigue (try curling a weight after using a massage gun on your biceps, and see if you have full strength). If you have an abnormally contracted muscle, this may help it regain normal tone by hyperpolarizing the nerves that stimulate it, causing them to deplete their neurotransmitter temporarily.
- If there is scar tissue around your muscle or fascia, the repetitive force of the massage gun may help loosen it by stretching the shortened fibers. This could help regain some lost range of motion and improve flexibility of the muscle.
- The deeper blood vessels in the legs may absorb some of the force, if you angle it just right. This could be a dangerous, especially for those who have blood coagulation problems. It could loosen a thrombus (blood clot resting in a vessel) causing it to detach. This could cause a stroke or pulmonary embolism, two potentially fatal conditions. So be careful if you use the gun on your legs, especially your calves.
So what’s the final verdict? Are massage guns worth it? Will they work as advertised?
As in many cases like this, it depends. My advice is that it wouldn’t hurt to get one if you know that this kind of massage makes you feel better– relaxed, invigorated, less muscle pain, or other perceptible benefit.
Secondly, don’t think these massage guns are a magical, new technology. They simply are another form of vibrating massage devices, which have been around for decades. However, they do have one good selling point, and that is ergonomics. They are much easier to handle, and lighter, than the old generation of vibrational massagers like the one below. This means you have better control on applying the massage.
These massage guns are also convenient for travel, as they take up a relatively small space in your luggage. For those who travel frequently, it could be a good way to reinvigorate your leg and feet muscles.
I can see the massage guns being a better choice for massaging a trigger point, or patch of scar tissue. The interchangeable heads allow you to focus the pressure over a smaller area, too.
And finally, don’t overdo it. Longer time does not always translate to better for you. Due to the massage gun’s power, I’d say two minutes maximum for any large muscle like the quadriceps group; and one minute max if you are massaging your neck muscles. Get the blood circulation going, and stimulate the muscle just enough to get it to loosen, and no more. If you take blood thinners to reduce blood clotting, I would avoid using it on your legs. Instead, opt for a Swedish style massage from an actual massage therapist. And warning, some people get nauseous from strong, high frequency vibration, and it’s worse the closer you are to your head (inner ear/ vestibular apparatus). The vibration generated by a typical massage gun is strong enough to move the fluid in your inner ear, which may cause nausea and vomiting in some people, so be careful.
Here is one of the better selling massage guns on Amazon. It seems good quality, and has many positive 4 and 5-star reviews, with over 3,500 reviews as of this writing.
A massage gun can be a good addition to your arsenal of home therapy tools. Make sure to visit our homepage, where you can find free self-care videos on the 15 most common presentations of musculoskeletal pain. You will discover the tools and equipment that I personally recommend for pain management at home. There are not many, because not all products are worth your time. As a chiropractor, I’ve tested nearly a 100 therapeutic products on my patients over 20 years, and based on their feedback and treatment results, these are the products I recommend. Opt in to my “Pain Relief Tips” newsletter to get great ideas o how to minimize pain and increase strength and flexibility in your body.
