4 Evidence-based reason to use Vibration

You have probably seen or heard about the massage gun. It is that hand held device that vibrates at a high speed. People think this is a new invention when actually vibration directly applied to a muscle, was used in studies as early as the 1960s to investigate sensory afferents, reflexes, and motor response. These massage guns are not a fad and their benefits are real so let’s look at 4 reasons you might want to buy one.

1. Training Effect: Local vibration can increase strength in very de-conditioned muscles. This is more along the lines of post surgical inhibition, sarcopenia in the elderly(an age related, involuntary loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength) and atrophy(loss of muscle tissue) from osteoarthritis
2. Reduce Pain: Studies have demonstrated that vibration may inhibit acute pain. This is in regards to soreness that comes from working out and within the rehab and clinical realm.
3. Recover Better: Pre-exercise local vibration may be protective; reducing swelling, improving range of motion and decreasing the pain associated with delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) that can come from working out.
4. Release Better: Current research suggests  that adding vibration to self-administered release techniques improves DOMS, pain pressure sensitivity, proprioception (your body's ability to sense movement, action, and location), and range of motion when adding local vibration to static stretching results in further increases in mobility.

Guideline for using the vibration gun

• Trace the whole muscle(higher setting) and guard any bony areas
• Identify and hypersensitive areas
• Hold on the hypersensitive area on the lower setting using a smaller attachment the guns should come with.
• 30-120 secs per muscle no more than 5 mins max
• Protect any bony areas

There are massage guns for every budget. They range from $15 to over $300. I bought one during lockdown for $99 and it does the job. I recommend them to my clients and I use them on my clients before and or after the workout session as needed. Do you have one yet?
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