Muscle recovery is a topic of constant discussion among fitness people. After all, if we can make our muscles recover faster, our muscles will have less pain, and we can train more frequently.
Various kinds of foam shaft, fancy stretching, all kinds of supplements, etc., all claim to help your muscles recover. If you pay more attention to this topic, I think you must be very familiar with “massage gun”
Although massage gun has existed for more than ten years, it has only become popular in recent years, mainly because of the advertising, star endorsement and marketing of major brands. Maybe you can’t help being planted with grass, but are you wondering, is massage gun useful and worth buying?
What is a massage gun?
A massage gun is a handheld electronic device that looks like an electric drill. There are several parts of the massage gun: a handle, which contains motors, batteries and other electronic components, and a massage head, usually a soft plastic or foam, which can vibrate according to the type and setting.
The purpose of using a massage gun is to relax muscles, speed up muscle recovery, or relieve muscle soreness. However, whether the massage gun has the role of business publicity, we still have to see the experimental data.
There are several parts of the massage gun: a handle, which contains motors, batteries and other electronic components, and a massage head, usually a soft plastic or foam, which can vibrate according to the type and setting.
What’s the usage of a massage gun?
The researchers asked 30 professional ball players to complete a series of tests to measure their posture, balance and muscle soreness, as well as blood samples to measure indicators of muscle damage.
The researchers then asked the athletes to do five 15 second eccentric leg lifts, which can cause a lot of muscle damage. Then, the researchers divided the athletes into two groups. The first group used the massage gun to relax for 15 minutes immediately after training, and also used the massage gun 24 and 48 hours after training. The second group did not use the massage gun.
The researchers asked all the athletes to do all the tests 24, 48 and 72 hours after training. The final results showed that the subjects who used the massage gun had 33%, 43% and 50% less muscle soreness than the control group at 24, 48 and 72 hours after training, respectively. The researchers also found that there were significant changes in posture and biomechanics in the control group, which may affect their performance, while the subjects who used the massage gun did not.
Should you buy a massage gun?
The effect of massage gun may be similar to that of traditional massage, but there are still differences between them. One of the reasons why many people like massage is the relaxed atmosphere and the contact between people, which can’t be brought by massage gun.
However, in terms of convenience and cost performance, the massage gun will be better. You just need a massage gun to relax at any time. Massage gun is not a “must have” tool, but if you have the budget and want to relax, massage gun is also a good choice.
How to buy massage gun?
There are so many kinds of massage guns on the market that people are dazzled. Ordinary people really don’t know how to choose. Now let me talk about some important factors.
- Wallop
This is the amount of force that the massage gun motor can exert before stalling, in pounds. If you are a professional athlete or a very muscular person, it is better to choose the one with strong impact. On the contrary, if you don’t exercise much or have low muscle mass, too much impact is not necessary. Therefore, according to their own special needs to choose the size of the impact.
40-45 pounds of impact is a good balance between impact and versatility. More than 60 pounds of impact is useful for big people, but it’s too strong for others. The impact force of 25-35 pounds is only suitable for the elderly and thin people. This kind of massage gun is also cheaper. - Strike range
This is the range that the accessories of the massage gun can reach before and after each operation. A bigger blow will give you a stronger feeling. The common striking range of massage gun is 6-16 mm. For most people, 10-12 mm provides a balance between relaxing and relaxing tense muscles. For very muscular and professional athletes, 16 mm may be more effective, but it’s too strong for ordinary people. - Speed
This refers to the number of times the accessories of the massage gun hit the body every minute, usually in RPM, which is also the “gear” on the massage gun. Choose a variety of range of massage guns, because sometimes you need deep massage, sometimes you need to call a more relaxed massage, different parts of the force is different.
The above three points are more important factors. For example, some other factors, such as weight, noise, endurance and the number of massage heads, are the details we need to consider when choosing different brands of Massage guns.