Massage Guns: Do Percussive Devices Work?

A brilliant recovery tool? Or overhyped? Turning to scientific data for answers.

Author

Mark Christie
December 02, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

IN TODAY’S ISSUE
Massage Guns: Do Percussive Devices Work?

Growing in popularity, with huge advert campaigns from a range of companies like Therabody and RecovaPro, we want to take a look at whether massage guns are worth the cost?

And no, this won’t be the magic bullet that turns you into cbum or adds 100kg to your squat, it may however help your recovery and improve your performance. I guess you’ll just need to read on further to find out what the evidence behind massage guns has to say.

What You'll Find Out

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WHAT’S UP
Massage Gunning 101

You will have seen the adverts or your favourite fitness Tiktoker using a small hand held device hammering there muscles repeatedly.

Massage guns are classed as a percussive device, which uses rapid head movement to deliver bursts of pressure/vibration/massage to myofascial tissues, through different shaped adaptor heads (which they usually come with).

Manufacturers of these products claim that they offer similar benefits to a standard sports massage, using vibration to warm your soft tissue and increase blood flow to the target muscle or area, along with improving range of motion, alleviating pain and reducing myofascial tension.

SCIENCE BRO
Good Vibrations

Before we dive into reviews and studies directly on massage guns, they work through pressure and vibration- we have a meta-analysis and systematic review which looked at the effects of vibration on DOM’s (everyone’s favourite thing). Just trying to sit on the toilet after an effective heavy squat session or lower / leg day is a painful chore.

(Lu et al., 2018) reviewed 10 studies which included 258 participants, measuring the changes using the VAS (visual analogue scale) and CK (creatine kinase) levels, after various vibration interventions including: WBV, cycloid vibration and sonic vibration.

The Visual Analogue Scale is used in clinical research to measure the intensity or frequency of various symptoms (in this case, DOMS)

Creatine Kinase levels are usually elevated when DOMS are present, hence why the authors measured this as a metric.

The results found that a vibration intervention significantly improved the VAS at 24, 48, and 72 hours after exercise, and significantly improved CK levels at 24h and 48h, but not at 72 hours. The authors concluded that vibration is beneficial at reducing DOMS. Results can be seen below from the study in figures A&B👇.

Figure A From: (Lu et al., 2018) - Effects of vibration on CK levels at 24 (a), 48 (b), and 72 hours (c) after exercise

Figure B From: (Lu et al., 2018) - Effects of vibration on VAS at 24 (a), 48 (b), and 72 hours (c) after exercise

Another One

A Meta-analysis by (Yin et al., 2022) looked at vibration intervention methods and their effects on DOMS.

Findings from the meta-analysis showed that vibration therapy was effective at reducing subjects pain from DOMS, increase pain threshold, decrease serum creatine kinase levels, while increasing muscle damage repair compared with a control group with no vibration therapy.

Figure C: From (Yin et al., 2022) - Results of subjective pain from DOMS. Forrest Plot shows favour to vibration.

SCIENCE BRO #2
Massage Gun Research

A Systematic Review by (Sams et al., 2023) reviewed 13 studies and looked at whether PT (Percussive Therapy) had any effect on muscular pain and performance in strength & conditioning. Results quoted below:

❝

A significant relationship was found between a single application of PT delivered by massage guns and an acute increase in muscle strength, explosive muscle strength and flexibility, with multiple treatments eliciting a reduction in experiences of musculoskeletal pain.

(Sams et al., 2023)

A recent study by (Roberts et al., 2024) published in the Journal of Sports Science Medicine, looked at the effects of percussive massage treatments on exercise induced muscle damage in 17 untrained adults.

They investigated the results of using a massage gun immediately, 24h, 48h and 72h after exercise on maximal isometric torque, ROM (range of motion), and an 11-point numerical rating scale of soreness of the biceps from 24-72 h post exercise. 9 of the subjects underwent 1 minute of PT (percussion therapy) while the other 8 (control group) rested quietly during this time.

Their finding showed that including percussive massage in a training and recovery protocol may increase range of motion without hindering strength and can improve the effects of DOMS effectively at the 72hr mark.

See Figure D & E below which show the results of perceived soreness (DOMS) and range of motion effects from percussive massage.

Figure D From: (Roberts et al., 2024) - Perceived soreness (DOMS) (CON= Control Group) (PM= Percussive Massage Group)

Figure E From (Roberts et al., 2024) - Range of Motion results.

Another Systematic Review, this time by (Ferreira et al., 2023), included 11 total studies and 281 participants with the goal of discovering the effects of massage gun use on performance and recovery. (It should be noted that the authors of this systematic review state that several of the studies contained a “risk of bias”).

Their findings reported that in terms of performance (strength, balance, acceleration and explosive activities), massage guns used before training had either no effect or a slightly negative effect.

In terms of recovery, stiffness reduction and range of motion, there was shown to be a slight benefit.

Authors state that the evidence for recovery purposes points towards using the gun for 2+ minutes per muscle group.

Interestingly the review also found that 30hz speed setting on the gun was not enough to promote increased blood flow, where as 40-50hz was, with 50hz offering the largest increase.

TL:DR
Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

The evidence for massage gun use is still limited compared to other forms of recovery. However from what we currently know with the data that is available, I’d say there is enough evidence to warrant the use of massage gun (percussive therapy) for recovery purposes.

  • In terms of athletic performance, the available data is somewhat contradicting, with some showing an improvement while others finding that use of massage guns before exercise to have no benefit or negatively impact strength and performance. (Although it can help range of motion and increase flexibility- it’s a similar idea to stretching before training which can negatively impact strength)

  • In terms of recovery, the majority of evidence points towards a benefit in terms of reducing DOMS, and increasing recovery speed. Especially through multiple treatments over longer than 2 minutes per muscle, post exercise.

That’s it for today ✌️

If you have any questions you’d like answered, topics you would like discussed, or perhaps some feedback, email them over to me at: [email protected]

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