While the fitness industry is a billion-dollar giant, there is a separate demand for pre and post-workout supplements, therapies, and equipment. One such popular option among athletes and fitness enthusiasts is muscle percussion therapy.
Muscle percussion therapy uses the same methodology of slapping, hacking, tapping, and cupping used by the Swedish massage technique, tapotement. All these motions improve blood flow and reduce the pain following an intense workout.
Why Should you Consider Muscle Percussion Therapy?
Percussive therapy does much more than just boosting your workout performance and fighting muscle soreness (which is already pretty good). Here are a few reasons for considering muscle percussion therapy:
1. It Speeds up Muscle Recovery and Improves your Workout!
According to Psychology Today, most people do not exercise because they do not want to be uncomfortable or be in pain. If you are such an individual, hop onto the treadmill right now because deep-tissue percussion therapy can take care of the soreness later.
During exercise, your body is not taking in as much oxygen as it usually would. Due to the lack of oxygen, the cells start respiring anaerobically, i.e., in the absence of oxygen.
This kind of respiration produces lactic acid, which sits in your muscles and bones, making you tired. Although lactic acid production is inevitable during the workouts, flushing out this acid is equally essential.
Hand-held percussion massagers assist in instant flushing of lactic acid by improving blood circulation and increasing blood supply.
Once you put a deep tissue percussion therapeutic massager, like The Exogun Dreampro, on your back or calves, small bursts of vibrations enter your body. These vibrations improve blood flow, leading to quick excretion of lactic acid.
Think of beads on a surface. If you start to move the surface by providing it vibration energy, the beads will move too. Vibration therapy has the same effect on the red blood cells in circulation.
Blood carries oxygen to all cells of the body. As the blood circulation increases, the availability of oxygen to cells also increases. In the presence of oxygen, cells can go back to respiring aerobically, leading to the removal of lactic acid.
Typically, your body would take a certain amount of time to remove lactic acid. But muscle percussion therapy makes the process faster as it brings in a catalyst, i.e., vibrations.
Studies have shown that percussive therapy prevents delayed onset muscle soreness. Also, it helps in improving muscle performance, reducing stiffness. All of these factors collectively contribute towards quicker post-workout recovery.
2. It Reinforces your Immune System and Helps with Fatigue!
In your house, there is a proper system for the drainage of water and waste. In your body, this system is called the lymphatic system.
The vascular system consists of blood vessels, while the lymphatic system has lymph vessels. These vessels move through the muscles and transport the toxins and waste to the excretory system.
Excessive amounts of waste in the body play an active role in increasing fatigue. Also, the accumulation of waste is hazardous for muscles, making them prone to sarcoma disruption and stiffness.
Deep-tissue percussion helps in removing these waste products from the body. As a result, the immune system becomes healthier, while muscles can thrive in a toxin-free environment.
In addition to that, therapy also improves the metabolic functioning of the body. If you're working out to lose weight, this could be of great use to you.
3. Prevents Injuries
Besides making your muscles stronger, the use of a therapeutic massager for percussive therapy also makes them more flexible.
Often, people get injured during workouts because they try to do intense workouts without warming up. Consider percussion therapy as a warm-up for your whole body. It allows your muscles to flex without getting strained or injured.
Vibrations from the therapeutic devices stretch out the muscles, over time. Due to that, there is a lesser chance of your muscles getting injured or strained during a workout.
A bonus point here is that more flexibility also gives you better posture. So, you cannot only do intense workouts, but you can also maintain a healthy posture.
4. Reduces Cellulite
Almost 90% of the women have cellulite in some part of their body, whether is their hips, stomach or legs.
Having cellulite does not necessarily mean that you are fat but it does make you feel conscious about your appearance.
Dimpling in the skin is caused by the accumulation of fats around the muscle tissues. To smoothen the skin, the fat needs to be redistributed.
Percussion therapy does this by improving circulation and pumping up your skin. The vibrations, from percussive massagers, break the fatty acid deposits apart, making the skin relatively cellulite-free.
Apart from that, vibrational therapy also helps in removing fluid from the subcutaneous tissues and distributing them inside the body.
This liquid deposits into the collagen pockets and causes skin dimpling that looks very similar to cellulite.
Percussive therapy improves circulation in the tissues, preventing the fluid from accumulating into the collagen network. Even though percussion therapy has a short-term effect on cellulite, it lets you feel more confident about your body.
While other methods, like supplements and surgery, are expensive, percussion therapy is a budget-friendly and safe method for reducing cellulite.
5. Reduces Anxiety
Just like any other massage, percussive massage therapy also has positive outcomes against anxiety. A one-hour massage session can reduce the secretion of the stress hormone by up to 30%.
Research shows that patients of anxiety, who were given regular massage therapy, showed a 50% reduction in symptoms in just 12 weeks.
Thus, it is obvious that massage can help in calming down your brain and reducing stress.
Percussion therapy, along with having calming effects, also proves effective against symptoms of anxiety such as sleep disturbances.
If you suffer from anxiety, it is best to have a percussion massager at home. You wouldn’t want to wait for an appointment for two days later when you are experiencing the symptoms right now, would you?
In times like this, having a therapeutic handheld massager, like Exogun, at home is a blessing.
You can use it on yourself or a family member who might be having trouble sleeping or is under too much stress.
Since it is lightweight, you can give yourself a whole 60-minute session that you’d get from your masseuse, without straining your hands. The massager’s heads let you reach all places, such as your back, neck and legs.
6. Promotes Connective Tissue Health
Connective tissues and muscles make up the whole movement machinery in your body. All important tissues, including nerves, blood vessels, and muscles, are surrounded by a cushioning layer of connective tissues.
This layer keeps the underlying tissues safe from mechanical and physical injury. If there is an injury, connective tissues are responsible for forming a healing space for the injured cells or tissues.
Connective tissue health is crucial for tissue repair and maximum mobility. With time, connective tissues tend to thicken up and lose their effectiveness. Deep-tissue percussion therapy can reverse this by relaxing them.
When the connective tissues are doing their job correctly, there are reduced instances of pain, injury, and aches. So, this therapy is not only for athletes or body-builders but is suitable for common use.
Nowadays, therapeutic massagers make percussion therapy very accessible. Instead of having to book a massage appointment and wait for days to get rid of your pain, you can relax at home.
7. Breaks Down Scarring
Your body has its own ecosystem, consisting of muscles, bones, blood vessels, and lymph. All these things could adhere to each other, creating scars and point of adhesions.
Adhesion is common in muscle tissues if you sustain an injury during a workout. The adhesion points could form between two muscle fibers or muscles and organs surrounding them.
Something very similar also happens after surgery. Adhesion restricts muscle movement by gluing muscle fibers to each other or nearby organs. An attempt to move causes pain in the target region.
Muscle percussion therapy helps in breaking down this glue. As the vibrations pass through the muscle fibers, they break down the adhesion points, giving you a free range of movement.
Therefore, if you are recovering from surgery or have just followed a strict workout plan, you can benefit from percussive therapy.
Make sure that you consult your doctor before using this therapy for post-surgery recovery.
8. It’s a Real Pain Relief
Lastly, but most importantly, percussive therapy is your best ally against pain. Muscle pain is common in aging individuals, people who work out regularly, and those who are recovering from an injury.
As you move your muscles, they contract and relax, depending on the brain signals they receive. However, under stress, your brain would continue sending contraction signals to the skeletal muscles even when you are not using them.
Increased neural transmission to the muscles leads to pain and cramps. Muscle percussion therapy prevents this by slowing down the message transmission from the nervous system.
It helps in the down-regulation of the nervous system, which further reduces signal transmission to the muscles. Consequently, your muscles will not get contractions signals from the brain when they are not in use.
If you have trouble sleeping due to back pain or neck pain, this therapy is of great benefit to you. You just have to put a therapeutic massager on the affected region for a few minutes for pain relief.
Expert opinions, research, and user reviews make it very clear that percussive therapy works. It would be awesome if we could all go home to a massage chair and get rid of the day's fatigue.
However, the problem here is that these chairs are costly. Vibration therapy is a cheaper alternative that you can use to increase flexibility and improve blood circulation.
Is Percussive Therapy Right for You?
In most cases, percussion therapy is safe to use. But there are a few exceptional cases in which you should consult a chiropractor or your doctor before using an at-home therapeutic device.
If your pain or injury is due to inflammation, you should avoid using percussion therapy. Also, do not use any device or massager to relieve the pain of a broken bone. It would only worsen the pain and possibly make its treatment harder.
Pregnant women should consult their doctors before using any kind of massage therapy. Everyone is not the same, so avoid using this therapy just because your gym buddy is doing it. What is safe for them might not be in your best interest.
If you have any underlying health condition, talk to your doctor first to avoid disappointments and complications later.
Also, percussion therapy is not an alternative to medication, where applicable. It merely supplements the healing process.
If you qualify for percussive therapy, investing in a therapeutic massage device, like Exogun, will prove helpful. It is an at-home deep tissue massage gun with six speeds and four attachments for a full-body massage experience.
Being expert-formulated and approved, it is a portable and customizable option for long-term pain relief.
The anti-slip design lets you reach difficult parts of your body while the powerful motor sends vibrations deep within.
Simply put, if you own a percussion massager, you don't always have to book an expensive massage session or travel the world for a relaxing experience.
If you have long-term massage needs, you would find yourself spending hundreds of dollars every month on getting massages.
A full body massage roughly costs around $90 and the price may be higher, depending on your geographical location.
Here is an article that tells you how much you should pay for a massage these days.
Similarly, if you get a Swedish massage, which is very similar to percussive therapy, you will have to pay up to $100. For a prenatal or sports massage, the price goes even higher up to $130.
Why spend so much money on massages when you can buy a percussive massage for much less?
Once you have your own Exogun, you wouldn’t have to wait for an appointment or spend all this extra money.
You can give yourself a massage in the comfort of your own home.
More importantly, everyone in the house can use the same massager, making it a much better option than the $200 couple’s massage.
Conclusion:
At first, it might seem like percussive therapy is only for athletes and people who work out regularly, but this is not the case. You can use this therapy to stimulate blood circulation in your body, manage stress, and improve muscle mobility.
Since percussion therapy is scientifically backed and supported, there is no harm in trying it.
Percussive therapy devices help bring this therapy to the comfort of your home and, frankly, that is one of the many blessings of modern technology.