Best massage guns: Sort your pains with the top options in 2023

They’re designed to freshen you up for your next workout in double-quick time. But what does the science say? We investigate…

By James Witts

Published: Wednesday, 08 March 2023 at 12:00 am

Massage guns are gaining in popularity thanks to athlete endorsements giving them a huge global platform. Take basketball legend LeBron James, who has 56-million Twitter followers.

He’s not only a Hyperice user but also an investor. Among its many mooted benefits, ‘percussive’ massage therapy purports to warm your muscles for exercise and heal them more rapidly after; in short, they’re your pocket-friendly masseuse.

But do they actually work? It’s something we set about finding out by testing five of the most popular massage guns on the market.

That ticked off the anecdotal. We also trawled journals to see how much empirical evidence supported the claims. It’s time to hammer home the truth…

Best massage guns

Homedics Myti Mini: Best value

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Homedics’ Myti is only 14cm high – smaller than an iPhone XS, as the marketing crew tell us – and weighs just 350g, but it packs an impressive 3,000 percussions per minute (ppm). That’s at top speed, which is the peak of its four modes. Its petit size is matched by its petit sound as this is one quiet gun.

It comes with four head attachments: ball, U-shaped, flat, targeted and, uniquely in this test, heated. The heated flat massage head heats up to 45°C in just 15secs and is designed to further stimulate bloodflow within the muscle tissue to accelerate recovery. We don’t know about that but it was certainly soothing.

It’s USB-C rechargeable for use on the go, lasts for a maximum 3hrs and comes in a svelte protective case. It’s also a stylish-looking gun thanks to its aluminium finish and evergreen colourway. (It comes in anthracite and dusk options, too.) All in all, it’s impressive stuff, though we’d like a little more exercise guidance in the instruction booklet and online. And those looking to hit large muscles in a thorough all-over refresher session might want something a little larger.

Hyperice Hypervolt 2: Best overall

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The Hypervolt 2 is the beefiest gun on test, coming in at 7.5 x 2.5 x 9.5in, though it only hits the scales at 1.8lb. It comes with five head attachments – fork, ball, cushion, flat and bullet – that are packaged up in a small pouch.

It’s quiet for a unit housing a 60-watt motor, and recharges via an 18-volt charger that has international plug adaptors for those of you who’ll hit foreign climes in search of goal sporting events. On full charge, it lasts a maximum 3hrs. It has a robust, sturdy feel and features three percussion speeds (2,000, 2,350 and 2,700ppm), of which the highest setting packs quite a punch.

You certainly feel the area massaged when in top gear, signalling this is for committed athletes. We spent most of the test period utilising the company’s Hypersmart feature. This is a really neat feature where the gun connects to the Hyperice app that contains lots of workouts, from ‘run recovery’ to ‘all-day desk tension’. Simply click on your desired workout and the app will control the gun’s pressure as it guides you through the respective session. For a massage-gun newbie, this is essential viewing. It’s an impressive piece of kit with the only downsides being that price and the fact the gun doesn’t come with its own case.

Theragun Elite

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The Theragun Elite is one of the more premium massage guns currently on the market. It comes with five possible attachments, all aimed for different parts of the body and five separate speed settings: 1750, 1900, 2100, 2200 and 2400 pulses a minute.

While it was nice to have the choice, we mostly stuck to the lowest speed as this offered more than enough pressure. For those looking to really dig in deep to the muscles, those higher speed options and more pointed heads can really do the trick.

The Theragun Elite offers a special handle design which is great for reaching spots on your back. With the triangular handle, you can hold it in a multitude of ways, compared to the stick-style handles seen on other massage guns.

MUSCLE GUN CARBON GO

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The Muscle Gun Carbon Pro’s another svelte contender that hits the scales at just 510g and, again, is no larger than your average smartphone. It has three modes, peaking at 3,200ppm, and is similar to its contemporaries here in that it’s appreciatively quiet.

It’s an ergonomic design that’s slightly angled as per a revolver, so fits snugly into your palm. It has four heads – fork, ball, flat and bullet – that do a job, albeit the ball feels akin to a very lightweight squash ball and on the verge of popping at any moment. As is a theme in this test, battery life is a maximum 3hrs from USB-C charging.

It’s another fine miniature offering, though if we’re being pernickety, it’s the only one here that doesn’t have LEDs to indicate which mode you’re in. You’re given anatomical guidance via a paper manual and app, albeit it’s not as clear as the Hyperice offering. And doesn’t deliver workouts via syncing to the app.

Mind you, Muscle Gun’s so confident in their product that there’s a 90-day money-back guarantee if you’re unhappy with your purchase. Its comes with a protective case and, to finish things off, it comes with a free ab wheel worth £40. We didn’t test this as it didn’t come with our test sample.

Renpho R3 Active: Best on a budget

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First up, confusion. While the user manual stated this was Renpho’s Mini Massage Gun, it’s actually Renpho’s R3 Active version. It’s no biggy, albeit does raise questions about quality control. Then again, it worked well across its five modes. And despite weighing just 680g, it’s a powerful beast.

We appreciate the detail on their website, especially when it comes to the mooted benefits at the different modes. According to Renpho, at 1,800rpm it wakes up muscles; it’s fascia release at 2,100rpm; 2,500rpm and you’re eliminating lactic acid; you’re enjoying deep-tissue massage at 2,900rpm; and 3,200rpm is all about muscle recovery.

Of course, the paucity of independent studies means you can’t take those figures as read but it’s certainly user-friendly advice. Like many of its rivals, it’s portable and comes with a solid protective case. And that omnipresent feature list stretches to the attachments, of which there are five: bullet head, flat head, air cushioned head, ball head and fork head. It’s also pretty quiet.

Are massage guns scientifically proven?

There’s minimal independent research to match the claims.

That said, a 2020 study in the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine examined the effects of 5 minute percussion treatment on the calf muscle’s range of motion and showed that dorsiflexion range of motion (when you lift your foot up from the ankle) in the 16 subjects improved by an average 5.4% over the control group, leading the Austrian University of Graz team to recommend its use as a warm-up tool.

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Sport Phyical Pain Physiotherapy And Muscle Recovery And Massage

Also, a 2021 study out of Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering also supported the benefits of massage guns, suggesting they accelerate muscle healing by accelerating the clearout of immune cells called neutrophils.

Best way to use a massage gun?

There’s no definitive answer to this due to the lack of literature, so we’ll lean on one of the major brands, Therabody, to clarify.

Prior to a workout, they suggest floating a Theragun for up to 30secs on the key muscles that’ll be worked during exercise and up to 2mins after. (Floating means resting the gun on an area and letting the weight of the gun elicit pressure, not you.) They also suggest reactivating the muscles during the workout for 10-15secs, albeit there’s a case that your muscle should be fully activated during the exercise itself and this isn’t needed.

Can a massage gun slow your recovery or cause more damage?

The percussive nature of massage guns is mooted to accelerate recovery and ready the limbs for exercise. But it’s that same percussive element that can arguably do more harm than good in certain situations. It’s suggested that if you’ve strained a muscle, you should avoid massage guns as that hammering motion can further damage the muscles. Instead, you could turn to the proven rehabilitative technique of POLICE, which stands for Protect Optimal Loading Ice Compress and Elevate. It’s the same with sprains.

Avoid using a massage gun if you’re suffering from an inflammation injury. Your body becomes inflamed through myriad reasons, from food poisoning to an infection. This stresses the body, which is arguably compounded further by the gun. Broken bones are an obvious one, albeit you should stay away from bony parts in the first place, whether broken or not. And if you hammer an existing bruise, that bruise is only gonna widen.

The most extreme case we came was a study into a young Chinese athlete who developed the potentially fatal condition of rhabdomyolysis after using a percussive gun. Her coach recommended its use to refresh tired muscles, but they were unaware she was anaemic. Multiple hematomas were found on her thighs after gun use, which led to the ‘rhabdo’ condition, which is when damaged muscle tissue releases its proteins and electrolytes into the blood, which can damage the heart and kidneys.

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