Massage Guns have been increasing in popularity over the past few years. These percussive therapy devices are being used by athletes and those with active lifestyles all over the world. Massage guns are designed to emulate the benefit you would experience from a sports massage, but do they work?
Massage Guns Quick Look
The Nuasan Active Massage Gun is a percussion therapy device that is designed to aid muscle recovery, reduce muscle soreness and increase range of motion. We have been using ours in a variety of ways over the past few months and have been loving it.
Why We Love The Nuasan Massage Guns
Irish Company
Nuasan is an Irish, ethical, sustainable natural skincare and body care brand that is based out of Galway. They offer a natural alternative for athletes to the many skincare and muscle recovery products on the market. Nuasan makes a range of products including; Body Moisturiser, Active CBD Muscle Gel, and much more to aid recovery between training sessions. At the end of 2022, Nuasan added the Active Massage Gun to their product line-up.
Nuasan: Everything You Need To Know
Price, Build Quality & Battery Life
At €120 (currently) on their website, the Nuasan Active Massage Gun currently sits in the middle of the price range. The features of the massage gun include; 7 different attachments including an original dual-headed attachment for greater surface area, a 3-hour battery life and a powerful yet quiet 50W motor. We think that this makes the Nuasan Active Massage Gune quite good value when compared with its competitors.
Anecdotal Benefits
Put simply, we noticed a difference. We enjoy the practice of waking up tired muscles before our morning runs or working out sore muscles afterwards. We have found that it has benefitted our perceptions of muscular fatigue the day after a hard session.
Psychological Benefits
Not satisfied by our own anecdotes we began researching the science behind massage guns. We wanted to see if there was any scientific literature to support the benefits we felt. We found that the physiological benefit of massage guns is still to be conclusively reported. However, one aspect of massage gun use that we find particularly interesting is the psychological benefit. We found that if we committed to using a massage gun for 10 minutes prior to hard training, we were more likely to execute the other aspects of the session better. We were making a commitment to ourselves that our goals are worth investing time and money in. It’s a vote for yourself.
If you are the kind of person who uses a massage gun to help with activation or recovery you are likely paying attention to other aspects of health. You are probably hydrating well, fueling well and trying to sleep well. Over the past few months, we have intentionally brought the massage gun in a bag with us when we were heading out for our training. This habit got us thinking about other items we could bring to optimise the session.
We began bringing our massage gun and a recovery drink, then added sports nutrition that we often forgot and so on. This is known as habit stacking. We first came across this in James Clear’s book Atomic Habits. The massage gun became a trigger from which we began to build a more robust exercise regimen. If purchasing and using a massage gun is what you need to kickstart a string of positive habits we say go for it!
Who is it for?
Massage guns are potentially useful for those that put a lot of strain on their body or routinely experience muscle soreness after exercise. Studies have shown that D.O.M.S. (delayed onset muscle soreness) is reduced by 7% in those that get a massage within the first 30 minutes post-exercise. It has not yet been proven that this benefit extends to massage guns it might. So, if 7% increased muscle recovery is worth €120 for you we say go for it! Otherwise, stick to free alternatives. Nuasan also sells cork balls, these are great for working out sore muscles.
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