[tomtom]

Seen these being used at the wall (pre lockdown) and on some SM posts...

Are they any good? And any recommendations? MrsTT has a permanently sore shoulder and I could get her one for Xmas that I could also ‘borrow’ from time to time

[Adam Lincoln]

I have the theragun pro which is around £450 so not cheap. Its great on the forearms after getting pumped at crag all day.

Also great after a day out on the bike for leg recovery.

There are cheaper versions but not as powerful. You get what you pay for i guess.

[cheque]

My other half (runs 1000+ miles a year, spends quite a lot of the rest of the time rolling, stretching, rubbing etc.) was recommended one by her physio. She’s one of those people who never spends money on herself so I got her one, obviously with making use of it myself in mind as well. 

I got her a Theragun Elite which was not cheap but cheaper than Adam’s. Not sure how much of what I’m about to type applies to all the different makes and models available though.

It’s so good, way better than I expected. 15-30 seconds buzzing any area with it seems to be equivalent to at least 60-120 seconds of inexpertly self-massaging with a thumb/ Decathlon plastic nodule/ spiky ball etc. and because it supplies the force you can just casually use it on your own shoulders/ back etc. without having to involve your partner/ roll on the floor/ rub against a closed door like a bear scratching itself. One of my thumbs is kind of fucked so it’s good for reducing wear and tear on that too.

One of the heads is a cone shape and if your forearms are tight, bashing the golfers elbow place with it almost immediately frees it up. My wrists always click the day after I climb/ fingerboard/ do wrist curls etc. and after about 20 seconds of indiscriminately buzzing my forearms with it they don’t click any more. You can basically extend that to any part of the body- it’s really helping me with my ongoing project of trying to regain basic flexibility. Before I stretch I just buzz that muscle with the Theragun first and it feels loads more effective.

Happy to write more about how much I love it if required. 

[abarro81]

We have a cheap one (£80 ish IIRC?), seems fine but not used an expensive one to compare... Much less faff than normal self massage, but the noise makes it annoying if you're sat in front of the TV with your partner and one of you is using it.

[SA Chris]

We've got one of these https://reviber.co.uk/reviber-zen-physio-deep-tissue-massager/

I really like it, the long handle means I can get decent pressure on back and shoulders.

Available for less than the above at popular online retailers.

[nai]

We've got one of these https://reviber.co.uk/reviber-zen-physio-deep-tissue-massager/

I really like it, the long handle means I can get decent pressure on back and shoulders.

Available for less than the above at popular online retailers.

Ah, now I've got one of those. Where you're trying to massage seems most important.
Makes very little impression on big muscles, better off using a lacrosse ball.
Ok on smaller muscles, elbows, forearms, etc but around the shoulder it still feels like a ball gets in deeper, certainly pain levels seem closer to a sports massage  .

[Adam Lincoln]

We've got one of these https://reviber.co.uk/reviber-zen-physio-deep-tissue-massager/

I really like it, the long handle means I can get decent pressure on back and shoulders.

Available for less than the above at popular online retailers.

Ah, now I've got one of those. Where you're trying to massage seems most important.
Makes very little impression on big muscles, better off using a lacrosse ball.

Which is why its £69, you get what you pay for.....

[moose]

I have the theragun pro which is around £450 so not cheap. Its great on the forearms after getting pumped at crag all day.

Also great after a day out on the bike for leg recovery.

There are cheaper versions but not as powerful. You get what you pay for i guess.

No direct experience of them but I have noticed that those are the massagers of choice in the NFL where (a) money is presumably no object (b) the players are absolute units, so any massager would have to be pretty penetrating (e.g. the physiological type for an elite "edge rusher" is basically Anthony Joshua with an extra 2-3 stone of solid muscle). 

I've heard that the Theragun Mini is a good cheaper option - only slightly less penetrating, a lot easier to travel with, and "only"around  £175.

[Adam Lincoln]

I have the theragun pro which is around £450 so not cheap. Its great on the forearms after getting pumped at crag all day.

Also great after a day out on the bike for leg recovery.

There are cheaper versions but not as powerful. You get what you pay for i guess.

(b) the players are absolute units,

You've seen me at Kilnsey   

[moose]

I have the theragun pro which is around £450 so not cheap. Its great on the forearms after getting pumped at crag all day.

Also great after a day out on the bike for leg recovery.

There are cheaper versions but not as powerful. You get what you pay for i guess.

(b) the players are absolute units,

You've seen me at Kilnsey   

Of course, I took a photo of us together to mark the occasion:

[Adam Lincoln]

I have the theragun pro which is around £450 so not cheap. Its great on the forearms after getting pumped at crag all day.

Also great after a day out on the bike for leg recovery.

There are cheaper versions but not as powerful. You get what you pay for i guess.

(b) the players are absolute units,

You've seen me at Kilnsey   

Of course, I took a photo of us together to mark the occasion:

You need to work on your legs

[moose]

leg day is forever tomorrow! [incidentally, they are both current US football wide receivers - so speedsters rather than bruisers - the photo was taken pre-draft, when they were nominally "student athletes".... ]

[Anti]

So, I bought one of the Chinese ebay ones for I think £20 on a whim because I thought they're snake oil and was hesitant to invest but wanted to see what the fuss was about...

It's great. It gets used almost daily in our house, I use on my forearms (and surprisingly climb balm on hands and using this really loosens up fingers!) and general shoulder stuff, heavily pregnant wife uses it on stiff legs etc.

I'd love to see what they proper ones are like, because if they're notably better I wouldn't hesitate to get one.

[tommytwotone]

Am I the only one who keeps reading this thread title as "massive guns" and assuming it's about UKB's resident Italian stallion Lore?

[SA Chris]

Makes very little impression on big muscles, better off using a lacrosse ball.
Ok on smaller muscles, elbows, forearms, etc but around the shoulder it still feels like a ball gets in deeper, certainly pain levels seem closer to a sports massage  .

I use one of the Decathlon hard rubber balls for that too, and I have a knobbly massage stick, which also works well.

[tomtom]

Am I the only one who keeps reading this thread title as "massive guns" and assuming it's about UKB's resident Italian stallion Lore?

It’s not got a happy ending...

[csl]

Theragun have a Black Friday sale on at the moment with discounts from 15% - ~25%. The bigger discounts are on the more expensive models

[JohnM]

Out of interest has anybody read any of the scientific literature about massage guns?

[Adam Lincoln]

Out of interest has anybody read any of the scientific literature about massage guns?

I haven’t, though i come in sore from climbing. I use the gun. I feel better. That will do for me.

[moose]

I'm very tempted to get a Theragun in the sales.  I've used a cheap vibro-massager, and it eased tightness a bit but fell far short of a proper sports massage from a physio with sadistic tendencies and powerful thumbs. If a Theragun can achieve anything like the requisite steak-tenderising effect (a big "if" there), it'd be well worth the money. WFH at a kitchen table for 8 months (and too much opportunity for ill- advised pull up and woodie training) has left my neck and shoulders in near constant spasm.

[duncan]

Massage has been studied fairly extensively, but usually in small-scale, low-quality research. You can find a single study that will support any proposition (massage helps, hinders, or makes no difference). Systematic reviews into sports performance conclude people generally feel better after massage but there are no consistent objective improvements.  This applies to foam rolling and manual massage, massage guns don't seem to have much literature yet but I'd guess findings will be similar.  There is some suggestion that massage may help slow the deterioration of muscle function during immobilisation, so could be something to do if you can't train.

Interesting case report of someone who suffered quite severe muscle damage after their coach overdid things with the massage gun.

[webbo]

Yet cycling with its well researched marginal gains still insists on massage post race/ training.

[SA Chris]

I've usually snubbed post race massages as an expensive luxury, but was offered a free one after London Marathon by my charity, and I was DOMS free the next day. I know that the sample is small, but I've had DOMS for at least a few days to a week after just about every other race I've run, even at half the distance.

[petejh]

Massage has been studied fairly extensively, but usually in small-scale, low-quality research. You can find a single study that will support any proposition (massage helps, hinders, or makes no difference). Systematic reviews into sports performance conclude people generally feel better after massage but there are no consistent objective improvements.  This applies to foam rolling and manual massage, massage guns don't seem to have much literature yet but I'd guess findings will be similar.  There is some suggestion that massage may help slow the deterioration of muscle function during immobilisation, so could be something to do if you can't train.

Interesting case report of someone who suffered quite severe muscle damage after their coach overdid things with the massage gun.

There's something in the way scientists look at stuff like massage and physio etc. that suggests feeling good and pain free isn't an important and worthy goal. 

[jwi]

Massage has been studied fairly extensively, but usually in small-scale, low-quality research. You can find a single study that will support any proposition (massage helps, hinders, or makes no difference). Systematic reviews into sports performance conclude people generally feel better after massage but there are no consistent objective improvements.  This applies to foam rolling and manual massage, massage guns don't seem to have much literature yet but I'd guess findings will be similar.  There is some suggestion that massage may help slow the deterioration of muscle function during immobilisation, so could be something to do if you can't train.

Interesting case report of someone who suffered quite severe muscle damage after their coach overdid things with the massage gun.

There's something in the way scientists look at stuff like massage and physio etc. that suggests feeling good and pain free isn't an important and worthy goal. 

+1

Hard to concentrate on work when the DOMS is real. A bit of massage can surely help in that case.