Just wondered if anyone on the forum has any advice or tips on buying a percussive massage gun?
I am tempted to buy one although I have never used one before but I am hoping it will help with sore quads. There seems to be various reviews online with some people saying that they really work and others saying that they do not really feel a difference.
Also from looking online there are so many options and price points!
Any help or guidance would be much appreciated. Thank you!
You’ll get a whole lot of responses on the schools of thought about recovery and recovery tactics.
Personally, I just lightly stretch my whole body at the end of the day and do some yoga. Yeah I have doms daily, but you get used to it and can sense and feel different levels of working within doms and still growing.
DOMS is your body’s way of telling you it’s recovering. You can push doms to an extent but your performance will suffer if you don’t listen to your body. It’s a delicate balance of pushing and adapting. You want to be in or near functional Overreaching to obtain the best growth and results. That’s different for every person in here because our levels of adaptability and thresholds for working within fatigue are so unique and personal. It all equates to TSB CTL, and ATL.
Do you need a massage gun? IMO, no. Percussive therapy is hitting already fatigued and micro torn muscles and is arguably injecting more trauma through high frequency vibrations into the muscle fibers possibly exacerbating the micro tears in the muscles. Will it increase blood flow, yes. Could that then hasten recovery, possibly. But your body is already keyed and programmed to do that on its own if you’re eating the right macro balance for the workloads you’re doing. I find that if my DOMS is really bad it’s also a sign of not being properly hydrated. The better hydration, the less DOMS I experience and I switch stuff up quite a bit.
@Sir_Craig @SirAlexanderLee +1 on yoga and solid diet of recovery foods and hydrating. Also try a foam roller or lacrosse ball on tight areas to release the fascia.
Exacerbating?
I tried one out at Sir Neal’s pain cave in Boulder in 2019. I liked it much more than the recovery boots that I also tried. I wound up buying one on Amazon and I absolutely love it. I have used it so much that I wore the original battery out and cracked the gun open to replace a battery that was not supposed to be replaceable. I use it on my quads, hams, groin, calves, and sometimes lower back. It really seems to help me work out soreness in conjunction with yoga and nutrition. For the cost I don’t think you can go wrong.
I bought one to try it and have loved it so far. There’s research out there that shows the placebo affect is quite real in recovery. That’s why you get a lot of anecdotal evidence of random things helping people.
But the thing I genuinely think it has helped me with is if I’m feeling tight (normally calves recently) before a run, a few minutes with the gun makes a huge difference, especially in the early stages of the run.
Thanks, Spellcheck
I have been suffering from shoulder impingement on both shoulders and have sought professional care/advice. Unwilling to get surgery I began using a percussive gun in addition to yoga and hanging. While yoga and hanging provide incremental improvement and are helping me recover, the percussion gun provides immediate relief of pain. All three approaches work for me, however, the gun is very satisfying and used after yoga and hanging. I have started using it on my legs after riding and IMO it is effective at recovery. There is a reason they are on the market and popular.
I bought and used one on post workout legs and was quite enthusiastic about the perceived benefits. Now I am less sure. Post ride fueling and hydration seems to have a better effect. Where I find it does work well is on other parts of the body such as lower back and shoulders, those bits put under strain by a workout but unaffected by dom’s.
Thanks to everyone above for your replies and input it is much appreciated 
I have decided to try and get back in the habit of using a foam roller after my daily yoga session with Abi. I just find the roller a bit awkward to use!
Interesting that I spotted Sir @Coach.Neal.H using one on his New A Week With Velodrome video and @Sir.Jeff.Kerr comments above from his experience in Boulder!