Best Massage Guns

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Percussion massagers are marketed on speed settings, which is the least useful number on the box. The specs that decide whether a gun does anything are stall force and amplitude. Stall force is the pressure you can push with before the motor stops punching, quoted in pounds or kilograms; under about 20 pounds a gun feels pleasant on calves and gives up entirely on glutes or a thick quad. Amplitude is how far the head travels per stroke, and this is where cheap and serious units genuinely diverge: 10 to 16 millimetres reaches muscle, while the 6 to 8 millimetres common in budget models buzzes the skin without much beneath it. Speed in percussions per minute matters least, and a lower speed with high amplitude beats a fast shallow flutter. Noise is worth checking honestly, since a brushless motor around 45 decibels lets you use the thing while watching television and a cheap brushed motor at 65 decibels does not. Of the attachments in the box you will realistically use two: the round ball head for large muscle groups and the flat head for anything near bone. The bullet and fork heads look precise and are easy to press too hard with. Finally, look at battery format and weight: a gun over about 1.1 kilograms becomes awkward to hold at arm's length behind your own shoulder, which is exactly where you will want it.