Are Massage Guns As Good As They Say?

You can't miss them, massage guns are everywhere. Sports stores have them on display, fitness coaches recommend them, athletes endorse them, and fitness trainers back them, and they’re certainly not hard to find when you go online. Some go as far as to claim that gun massagers are the best muscle recovery tool in your arsenal. But are massage guns really as good as they say? Is this mad popularity just a fad or is there actually a good reason? 'Is there actual science to back the amazing claims?

Well, let's find out.

What Is a Massage Gun?

If you're new to gun massagers, it's a massaging tool that allows you to give yourself deep, powerful messages anytime, anywhere. A good gun massager delivers rapid bursts of force into your body muscle and tissue, helping muscles recover from stiffness. “Massage guns can be used as an alternative to the foam roller as a self-myofascial release tool,” says Vinh Pham, a physical therapist and the founder of Myodetox.

There are a plethora of these gun massagers on the market, and unless you've done your research, it is kind of hard to separate the best massage guns from low-quality ones. Here, we're going to filter out the cheap knock-offs and take a look at the ones most favored by pro athletes and fitness buffs.

The Science Behind

The leading massager guns harness the force of percussive therapy -- also known as vibration therapy -- to recover, manipulate and destress your body's soft tissue. The therapeutic benefits are solidly backed by the same extensive scientific research that supports massage therapy as the optimal tool for treating a sore muscle after a workout.
A study published on NCBI concluded:

"We suggest including a (gun massage) percussive massage treatment in a warm-up regimen to optimize the flexibility level of an athlete, without losing muscle performance."


Plus, a number of studies suggest percussion therapy/massage guns positively boost blood flow to tissues and muscle groups, increase joint range of motion, and can help reduce muscle stiffness from a hard workout (DOMS). The benefits of percussion therapy and massage guns on muscle soreness and range of motion is essentially well researched.

The Tool

Vortix top gun was developed for fitness fanatics and pro athletes. However, it quickly became popular among mainstream wellness enthusiasts. Dubbed the 'Top Gun' (after the popular 80s movie), the Melo Massager drills into your muscles with 30 percent more intensity than most handgun massagers in the market. The gun massager is developed to provide quick and precise relief by increasing blood flow and reducing built-up lactic acid to ease muscle fatigue, stiffness, soreness, and spasms. The Melo was engineered to be lightweight and features 6 head attachments that will allow you to reach every muscle on your back, neck, feet, legs, glutes, hips, and arms.

This fitness tool clocks in an immense 3,200 percussions per minute that really targets those stiff muscles. The gun massager runs for hours on a single charge and comes with 6 different heads to target and drill the massage area.

So, is it as good as they say? We say ABSOLUTELY!