Are you a fan of reliable massagers and excited to improve your massage experiences? Heads up! The latest buzz focuses on percussion massagers and its popularity with athletes. With its fantastic claims, it’s no wonder that you’ll find yourself asking, “do percussion massagers work?”
Percussion massagers, or also known as massage guns, are ideal for soft and deep tissue massages to relieve muscle pain. We’re here to show you its real deal and what makes it different from other massage tools. From its functions to its benefits, we’ve prepared some key points to take note of before getting yourself one. Check them out!
Table of Contents
What Is Percussion Massage Therapy
Percussion massage therapy is an advanced massage technique that uses continuous rapid blowing movements to produce deep pressure into the soft tissues of your body. These pulses are aimed to target muscle pains and enhance relief, tissue repair, and relaxation.
Percussion massage therapy originated from five Swedish massage strokes which involves kneading, sliding, friction, vibration, and drumming. This massage therapy is concentrated in repairing muscle fibers to improve blood flow and range of motion. What’s unique about it is its range of percussion strokes.
Compared to other traditional massage techniques, studies show that percussion therapy repairs muscle fibers 30 times more efficiently. Its advanced speed and function further boost flexibility, recovery, and muscle performance. How?
The pressure movements from percussion therapy heal your scar tissues faster to improve your blood circulation. The series of these improvements greatly enhance your range of movement to help you with sports further or even just with your daily activities.
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Who Can Benefit Using Percussion Therapy?
In general, percussion therapy is ideal for everyone who has active physical activities. Whether you are an athlete, a gym buff, or simply working at an office, your body will surely thank you for a satisfying percussion therapy.
For athletes, it’s given that extreme training and exercise results in muscle soreness and stiffness. You can highly benefit from this massage since it will significantly improve the repair and recovery of your muscles during workouts. It also boosts the oxygen distribution in your body to maximize your muscles’ function.
Post-workout perks also involve lessening your cramps and soreness. Percussion therapy targets muscle groups to set you free from tightness and muscle stress. These massages are highly suggested to trainers, bodybuilders, swimmers, runners, and other active individuals.
Percussion massage therapy is also ideal for people who get sore muscles from office works, which require long hours of sitting. It has incredible benefits for your neck and back, especially since these are the body parts that are usually strained due to a sedentary lifestyle.
Why Use Percussion Therapy Massagers?
If you’re still not convinced and still stuck with the question of “do percussion massagers work?”, here are the extensive explanations on how it can further benefit you personally:
Improves Medical and Health Issues
Percussion therapy is well-acclaimed for being a great help for patients with post-surgery treatment. It works by increasing the circulation within your veins and lymphatic system while breaking down scar tissues. As a result, your healing becomes a faster process.
For typical body pains such as muscle spasms or stiff joints, percussion functions well by lengthening your muscle fibers. It also helps by relaxing your fascia and muscles to avoid more development of muscle spasms.
Faster Recovery
Another advantage of percussion therapy includes the quicker recovery of your muscles when it undergoes stress or injury. If you can’t afford to have physical therapy after surgery, percussion therapy can also do wonders for your recovery.
It has remarkable effects on people who have partial or full paralysis as it strengthens their reflexes through avoiding non-use atrophy. If it could do wonders for people who have injuries, imagine the benefits it can provide you on a daily basis with muscle recovery.
Various Health Benefits
Percussion therapy has extensive benefits for your health and wellness. Some of the most important aspects it covers are a better immune system, lower blood pressure, improved sleeping habits, and an active nervous system. It also results in lower stress levels as well as anxiety.
How can we forget the relaxation it provides? Percussion massages are true to its claim for bringing complete relaxation with its deep massage penetration. The frequencies that percussion signals to the brain is also the key to better pain relief as you use it.
How Percussion Therapy Increases Blood Circulation
Percussion therapy boosts your optimal health and fitness by promoting better blood flow to your muscles. In fact, recent studies show that at least an hour of having a percussion massage effectively showed blood flow in a thermographic mapping sample.
It’s ideal for people to release their stress through proper blood flow. Blood circulation is the key process in transporting vitamins and nutrients all over your body. It’s also responsible for your waste productions to remove harmful toxins from your body.
Getting yourself consistent massages is vital to keep your blood circulation flowing and boost your energy. Good blood flow also contributes to muscle recovery, especially when you are an active person with daily physical activities.
How It Helps With Workout Recovery
Percussion therapy has also proven to improve your muscles after heavy workouts effectively. It aids you in recovery by specifically targeting areas of your body with continuous jolts of stable pressure. Through it, the muscle tissues in the area full of stiffness get to loosen up and provide you satisfying relief, especially after a whole day of exercise.
If you regularly workout, you would also notice that traditional massages tend to be a little painful since it doesn’t have a specific pressure to the areas you need it most. Percussion therapy has its advantages by desensitizing the area until the tissue is successfully alleviated from pain and stiffness with specific targeted tissues.
How Long Should I Massage My Muscles?
Ideally, percussion massages are great to use between 3-5 minute massages per body part. You can use it several times a day with 10-20 seconds of body surface contact to effectively ease muscle pain and soreness. You can use it before and after your workout or anytime you feel the need to relieve some tightness around your muscles.
If you have an injury or have undergone any medical procedure, it’s still best to listen to your body and don’t overdo it. You can also use a wrapping method if you feel that the pressure is heavy for your injury.
Can Percussion Massagers Get Rid of Knots?
According to athletics and physiology experts, percussive massagers are highly effective when it comes to relieving knots, especially in the shoulders, arms, and legs. This type of therapy can be compared to machines that unravel muscle knots through continuous pulses of pressure.
The vibrational friction of percussion massagers helps in getting rid of your muscular tensions and excess lymphatic buildup. Then, you can also depend on it to help you drain your lactic acid faster. Muscle knots are common when you are physically active; that’s why investing in a percussion massager will surely benefit you with daily comfort and convenience.
Other Considerations
Percussion massage therapy is safe to use, but there are still some health-related things to take note of before using it to assure complete safety. First, if you are prone to blood clots, it’s essential to consult your doctor if you are okay to utilize it.
It’s also essential to check with your doctor if you have medical conditions such as recent surgery, radiation, osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, and chemotherapy before using percussion massagers. It’s also ideal not to use it directly for wounded areas and fragile fractures to be safe with the intensity it provides.
Lastly, those who are pregnant should still get their doctor’s permission before going for this therapy. Don’t worry because all these precautions are just stated to make sure that you get the best massage experience safely.
Final Thoughts
Percussion massage therapy is truly a beneficial new technology to further improve your overall health and wellness through targeted muscle recovery and relaxation. Its benefits are not only for athletes but for people who are active in any physical activity so trying it out is such a good booster for your daily living.
We hope that we answered your curiosities with this new massage therapy and just comment down below if you have any more questions. Are percussion massagers now in your next “to-buy list”?
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Our team covers many categories to help you hustle better, from ergonomics to productivity, and technology. We are willing to ask questions (lots of them), seek experts, and dig deep into conventional wisdom to see if maybe there might be a better path towards the healthy workspace. We apply what we learn not only to our company culture but also how we deliver information to our readers. Ergonomic and productivity research is changing all the time, and we are 100% dedicated to keeping up with breakthroughs and innovations. You live better if you work better. Whatever has brought you here, we wish you luck on your journey towards better hustle.