Everything You Need To Know About Massage Guns

Get ready to bounce back from workouts faster, and accelerate your gains, too!

It looks like a power tool, and can sound like one, too. But it just may be your best method of recovering from a tough workout — and warming up, too.

Meet the massage gun, the hot new trend that just may be landing in a gym near you. Over the last three years, more and more people have grown aware of the need to increase blood flow in muscles, whether you’re training or recovering. Various methods have grown popular to do that, with everything from foam rollers to vibration therapies to standard massage landing in gyms.

The massage gun inhabits this same space, and while it’s supported by limited research, the theory behind it is sound, and it has the potential to change the way you warm up and recover. Several pro athletes have been seen using massage guns during games, with NBA star Kyrie Irving the most prominent. In the 2017 NBA Finals, Irving was spotted midway through a critical game lying on his back, a trainer using one to keep him loose.

But athletes aren't the only ones using this to keep their bodies in top form. Also known as percussive therapy, I’ve been using massage guns on my clients for several years and the results have been strong. If you train hard and are looking for an edge, a way to recover more quickly and get into your workouts more aggressively, this is a device you should consider.

What Exactly Is a Massage Gun?

The massage gun trend is a relatively new one in fitness. You’ve used foam rollers before, and vibrating foam rollers appeared on the market three or four years ago. The theory behind these foam rollers was that the vibrations confused something called the Golgi tendon response, which would help to relax tight muscles.

Then, two years ago, the Jialekang massagers took off, kicking off a wave of massage guns, and earlier this year,  introduced the massage gun LM-308 (below,click the picture or here to lear more).