How can a massage gun help my pain?

Massage guns are great at desensitising areas to leave you feeling brand new again. This means that in the early stages of an injury a massage gun can be great for releasing built up tension and reducing pain.

Here’s some of our favourite ways we use a massage gun to battle common injuries.

Neck pain

Although there are many different reasons for neck pain one of the most common being trapped nerves, hands on treatment can offer a lot of relief. When there is inflammation from an injury the surrounding muscles will often tighten up in an attempt to protect the injury. Although this is your body’s natural defence mechanism it can lead to a reduction in range of movement. If left uncorrected it can hinder your rehab progress.  

Heres how we would use the massage gun to help release tension around the neck.

We start at the chest and the lats as when tight these muscles can internally rotate the shoulder which can cause excessive stress on the back of the neck.

We would then work into the upper trap muscles, these start at the shoulder work up into the back of your head. If these are tight then restrictions in rotation and flexion occur at the neck.

Lastly we finish on the neck extensors. This is often the sight of pain so working to desensitise this area can be ideal for pain relief. We can use the curved attachment and then the bullet attachment to give a deeper massage.

IT band syndrome (runners knee)

IT band syndrome will present as pain on the outside of the knee. This can often lead to tightness that runs up your IT band on the outside of your leg. Although it may seem logical to work on the area that feels tight, your IT band is far too strong to be manipulated with a massage gun.

Instead you must work into the muscles that attach into the IT band, here’s how we would release the IT band.

The TFL is located at the front of your hip and runs down and attaches into the IT band tightness in this muscle will cause a major restriction in the amount of adduction and extension you can have at the hip.

The glutes are the next muscles that leads into the IT band. If this muscle is tight it will also create disfunction for the IT band and restrict its potential movement.

Plantar fasciitis (fasciopathy)

Plantar fasciitis or more recently known and fasciopathy is another overuse injury that causes degeneration of the plantar fascia that runs along the bottom of your foot.

When looking to ease off the symptoms of plantar fasciitis we want to relax the tight plantar fascia under the foot as well as working on any muscles that will contribute to the tightening of the plantar fascia.

Using the massage gun directly onto the plantar fascia is great way to relax any tension within the plantar fascia aswell as desensitising the area leaving your foot feeling brand new.

The tibialis anterior muscle sits just next to the shin, if this muscle becomes tight it then it can pull the foot into dorsiflexion which places the plantar fascia under stress.

Not injured? Don’t worry there are plenty more benefits to massage guns

Increased range of motion

Losing range of motion in a joint can come from injury to that joint or the surrounding structures. This means when trying to rehab your injury you are unable to properly strengthen the full range necessary to get back to normal function. With the help of the massage gun it is possible to very quickly increase the available range at a joint. This then begins to open up new avenues for exercises that will speed up your healing process.

Improved recovery

Recovering from your workouts is just as important as having a strong workout. If you fail to properly recover then your future performance is guaranteed to be hindered. Research has shown that using the massage gun for just two minutes improved the muscles ability to contract as well as improvements in muscle soreness and stiffness post exercise.

How often should you use the massage gun?

A massage gun can be used 2-3 times a day and the best part about it is a little goes a long way. There’s really no need to spend more than 1-2 minutes on a large muscle group. This leads to quick and effective pain relief, leaving you with far more treatment time to focus on your goals.

Where should you not use a massage gun?

Massage guns are most effective on any large muscle groups however can still be used on smaller ones if caution is used. For example areas that are surrounded by a large amount of bone such as the back of the shoulder. Although you wont do any damage percussion therapy can be very uncomfortable when used over bony areas.

When can it get confusing?

Although the massage guns are relatively straight forward to use the variety of different treatment heads/attachments can be overwhelming. It is common to get around 6 different attachments with your massage gun.

This attachment is best used for travelling over large flat surface areas like that hamstrings, shoulder blades and pecs. It can be ideal for opening up the shoulder if you’re struggling with shoulder impingement.

This is a great attachment to start your session off. It can be used for full body work and is especially good at working on larger areas such as your quad, hamstrings and glutes.

It can help to relieve any tight areas and sensitive pressure points such as the sole of the foot if you’re dealing with plantar fasciitis.

The bullet attachment is ideal for zoning in on specific tight areas. It is perfect for trigger points and smaller muscles such as the bottom of the feet or back of the neck. It is important not to use this attachment around bony areas and also to try and limit use to 15-30 seconds per trigger point.

The fork attachment can be used to glide perfectly over the trapezius muscles at the top of the shoulders. It is made for using over areas that run parallel to bone such as the spine in the lower back.

The curved attachment is perfectly designed to hug your muscles. It curve fits perfectly around muscles such as the bicep and triceps in your arm  and for working on large areas. Its best used for fast effective gentle massage pre or post workout.

The airlock attachment is used for those tender spots on your muscles. Its soft and bouncy design is perfect for relaxing soft tissue work. It can be used post injury in sensitive areas where you can slowly increase the percussion speed.

The list is almost endless due to the versatility of percussion therapy and its ability to desensitise any tight or aggravated areas. Click the link below to book your sports massage so we can help you get back to doing what you love.