So these massage guns. I know you’ve been seeing them all over Facebook just like I have. There seem to be a hundred different brands and they all claim to do the same thing. If you’re like me, you’ve probably been asking yourself these same questions…
Which brand is the best?
Why is there such a broad range of prices?
How do they make you feel better?
How loud are they?
Well, today we are going to answer all of these questions for you.
So first how do they work?
They work by doing what’s called percussive therapy or percussion massage. I like to think of it as a “meat tenderizer”. It is going to be percussing or tapping on the muscles and when you watch a lot of the videos you will see almost a “wave” form from the impact.
These impacts can happen at up to 2,000 beats per minute, depending on the instrument you use and the settings you have set.
Percussive therapy can provide a multitude of benefits including both neurological and physiological.
In the neurological sense, it can help by:
- Decreasing your sensitivity to pain and discomfort while stretching.
- Increasing your total range of motion
- Increase proprioception (knowing where your body is)
- Increase blood flow
In the physiological sense, it can help by:
- Preventing or eliminating adhesions or scar tissue
- Efficiently flush out the lactic acid build up in the muscles
- Stimulate tissue remodeling (Wolf’s law and/or Davis’s law)
- Increase collagen uptake
Okay so now that we know how they work and how they can help you, how do you know which to buy? There are indeed LOTS of companies that make these types of devices. I want to talk about two of the best-known brands, one of which we use at Synchrony Chiropractic ourselves. Those two brands are the TheraGun and the HyperVolt
The prices of these devices can range from $250 up to $600 depending on which model you decide to choose from. Both brands create great products and they both have very good reviews, it just depends on what you want.
With the HyperVolt they have two models: the HyperVolt ($349) and the HyperVolt Plus ($399). Here at Synchrony Chiropractic, we use the Plus model. The big difference between the two models here is that the Plus has more power and a greater depth for treatment. There are two big things that we love about the HyperVolt compared to the TheraGun.
- The HyperVolt has more user variability when it comes to the speed of the percussion. We have three different speeds that we can use depending on your sensitivity levels and how deep we need to get through into the tissue.
- The HyperVolt is significantly quieter when compared to the TheraGun. Now I will say that in the newest model of the TheraGun they have quieted down quite a bit, but it is still much louder than the HyperVolt.
Now the TheraGun, while I said, is much louder they do have a wider range of products to choose from. Where the HyperVolt only has two options with TheraGun you have three. There’s the Liv ($249), the G3 ($399) and the G3PRO ($599).
While the Liv is the cheapest option it is also the most limited model. Both the G3 and the G3PRO have two different speed settings whereas the Liv only has one. The higher the priced models have more power and deeper depth of treatment.
All models of these percussive devices can swap out different attachment heads to help in different situations.
At the end of the day, I don’t think you can go wrong by getting one of these devices. I can’t speak of other brands because quite honestly I haven’t had exposure to them. But if you go with one of these you won’t be disappointed.
As always make sure to check out our Facebook Page and make sure to join our Synchrony VIP Group.
You can also catch a replay of our Facebook Live video talking about these massage guns on our YouTube Channel Here!
See you next time!
