As a weight lifter and runner, I barely worthy consistently personal some diploma of muscle soreness or stiffness. So when the Theragun Elite got right here across my desk, I was as soon as eager to provide it a are attempting.
The Theragun Elite ($399, theragun.com) is Therabody’s most modern iteration of its percussive treatment tool, which uses a aggregate of amplitude (depth), frequency (tempo), and torque (force) to attain deep into your muscular tissues to personal bigger blood drift and decrease soreness and stiffness, basically based on the corporate’s online online page. The handheld, vibrating tool is touted both for athletic recovery and to lend a hand decrease day to day tension to your body, too.
Every of these factors appealed to me. As SELF’s senior fitness editor, I’ve labored in properly being and fitness publishing for 10 years and I’m at the moment making ready for my strength and conditioning specialist certification. So I positively know the importance of put up-workout recovery, however I’m admittedly now not big about doing it myself. I are inclined to interrupt out the foam curler most productive after something’s already been feeling barely of achy, I don’t stretch continually, and I’ve never gotten a sports rub down.
I strength educate four or 5 days a week and bustle daily (averaging about 30-35 miles per week), so it’s no surprise that muscle soreness and stiffness catches as much as me. While I’ve been lucky ample to skip out on the sorts of injuries that may in actuality sideline you, I enact know that I would be feeling greater—and maybe performing greater—if I spent barely of extra time on recovery.
So I determined to provide the Theragun Elite a are attempting to movement looking out if it in actuality helped my body feel greater. Right here’s what I came upon out.
How I Examined
To settle which factors may be most notable when testing a percussive treatment tool esteem Theragun Elite and to put standards for evaluating put up-recovery workout merchandise, I reached out to Mike Reinold, D.P.T., P.T., C.S.C.S., and Steph Dorworth, D.P.T., P.T., C.S.C.S., to lend a hand tease out the notable concerns.
Right here’s what we selected: To test its usability, I fascinated about aspects, dimension, quality, battery life, and noise (the usage of a decibel measurement app). To gauge its effectiveness, I tested the product for one week: I used it for six put up-workout durations—three of which had been unilateral assessments, the usage of a lend a hand an eye on tool (a foam curler) on the numerous side—two pre-bustle durations, and two after-work, non-workout durations. For the workout-connected ones, I carried out pre- and put up-test assessments to settle any soreness, stiffness, or mobility factors.
“If a product goes to feel perfect, you’ll know perfect away while the usage of it. On the opposite hand, to evaluate recovery influence, it may maybe well require a pair of uses and extra time,” Dorworth says. “Many participants come by delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) 24-72 hours after exercise, so we know that bettering from any model of training can salvage just a few days.”
To tie it all collectively, I regarded at the price and the way it compares to opponents’, as well to how the total testing consequence in contrast with the tool’s marketing claims.
You may furthermore learn extra in regards to the factors we established for put up-recovery workout merchandise right here. Below are my thoughts on the Theragun Elite percussive treatment tool.
Durability, Quality, and Basically feel
Consultants existing that you consistently are in a blueprint to evaluate a recovery instrument’s quality perfect away, so I kept that in mind as I unboxed the Theragun. Confession: After I saw the Theragun Elite field, I was as soon as intimidated. The futuristic handheld tool comes with 5 various foam-cell attachments, a extreme charger, and a mini case that seems esteem a excessive-tech lunchbox for carrying it all.
After I unboxed it even though, I felt extra assured. The Theragun Elite is surprisingly compact, barely of smaller than a long-established hair dryer, and worthy less cumbersome than a foam curler. It also seems and feels high quality and has held up all via my testing period and beyond (even even though it will likely be well-liked that it be costly, in articulate that’s to be expected).
It also wasn’t the least bit complex to come by going. The attachments—which fluctuate in firmness, dimension, and form to treat various areas of your body—pop on and off without issues. And as soon as the Theragun Elite was as soon as fully charged, all I had to enact was as soon as press the vitality button, and it was as soon as ready to movement.
Then, a notable anticipate arose. What enact I really enact with it? Fortuitously, I had the acknowledge to this anticipate perfect at my fingertips, in the personal of its interactive Therabody app, which synced to my tool. The app took me via guided durations—damaged down by muscle neighborhood (think: quads, decrease back, or shoulders) or exercise (I used the running and weight-lifting ones, even though there are also interval training, tennis, and biking choices, to identify just a few). This made obvious I was as soon as hitting the coolest areas for the coolest quantity of time at the coolest tension with the coolest attachments.
One big revenue of this, I secure, was as soon as making obvious I didn’t bustle via it, especially after I was as soon as working on areas that had been already sore. It positively made me extra mindful of what I was as soon as doing—something I skimp on when the usage of a foam curler.
When working with the Theragun Elite, I right now noticed it felt esteem quality: It had a heft to it, obvious—at 2.2. kilos, it wasn’t precisely a featherweight—however it was as soon as in actuality easy to administer, due to the its soft, ergonomic three-ability multi-grip, which match without issues in my limited fingers to provide greater specificity to which areas I needed to hit. I used the long-established grip (farthest a ways off from the attachments) after I needed barely of extra room to hit the back of my body, while a imperfect grip (closest to the attachment) labored big for without issues-accessible areas. I largely used the dampener attachment all via the testing period (it was as soon as less harsh on delicate, sore areas), and I noticed no degradation in the foam all via that time.
Tag and Value
One insist both Reinold and Dorworth emphasized in testing recovery devices is to be careful of merchandise that are gimmicky or are making claims that right aren’t right—especially these that declare to “switch fascia, lengthen tissue, or flush depraved things from your body,” says Reinold. Additionally they existing to bear in mind a product’s price especially in contrast with something you may per chance salvage for worthy more cost-effective (ie, a tennis ball).
Theragun Elite’s well-known declare is subjective: “to soften away tension and start soreness,” basically based on its product description on its online online page. After testing it fastidiously for a week, I salvage that declare to be criminal (for me, anyway), since I felt esteem it helped me movement greater and stave off soreness/discomfort in the personal of a traditional-for-me running scenario.
As for its rate, properly, it is costly: At $399, it’s extra costly than opponents esteem the TimTam All-New Energy Massager ($250, timtam.tech) or the Hypervolt ($299, hyperice.com), plus various percussive treatment devices on Amazon. But it be price noting that percussive treatment instruments enact something that may now not be without issues replicated with extra rate efficient household objects.
Noise Stage
While this was as soon as my first time the usage of a Theragun product myself, I was as soon as in the office when a previous version was as soon as being tested. Let me let you know, it was as soon as loud. So even even though the Theragun Elite promised to be 75% quieter than its previous generation, I was as soon as barely of concerned I was as soon as going to blast out my neighbors after I became it on.
No worries—the Theragun sounds barely innocuous, so worthy in articulate that I was as soon as even in a blueprint to movement looking out TV (raising the volume barely of bit) while the usage of it. After I tested it on my Sound Meter app, the Theragun Elite measured at 79 decibels, or, as the app urged me, the equal of busy traffic. That was as soon as three decibels above my air conditioner—which also measured as “busy traffic”—and 11 decibels below my budge back and forth hair dryer (which was as soon as labeled the noise equal of a producing unit floor).
So while I will’t confirm or utter that the Theragun Elite in actuality is 75% quieter than its predecessor, I will confidently state that its noise stage didn’t bother me one bit.
Strain Control
The tool is terribly intuitive and permits for tension lend a hand an eye on (something that our experts acknowledged was as soon as notable): You flip it on, and it merely begins its vibration. And likewise you may per chance maybe personal a superb deal of lend a hand an eye on over that tension, something Reinold deems very notable. The tool defaults to 1750 percussions per minute (PPM)—you most likely can alter the PPM to at least one in all 5 settings by pressing the plus label to personal bigger it (it goes as much as 2400 PPM) or the minus label to diminish it. After I bought started, I basically kept the PPM at 1750, even though increased, less-sore muscle groups (esteem my quads) may handle as much as 2200 PPM.
Battery Life
Out of the sector, the Theragun Elite was as soon as easy to discipline up, and charging it to chubby most productive took about half an hour. All over my testing period, where I used the Elite after six workout durations, the battery didn’t will personal to be recharged. After my testing period (which lasted about a week), the Elite’s battery life was as soon as tranquil at half-chubby.
Total Effectiveness and Efficiency
I started testing the Theragun Elite with pre-existing soreness, stiffness, and impeded mobility: My hamstrings and glutes had been already sore due to the a decrease-body strength workout two days prior that was as soon as heavy on the eccentric strikes (unhurried-lowering, single-leg deadlifts, anyone?) and a unhurried ramping up of my running mileage. That morning, I done a 9-mile bustle—my longest since last summer. So yeah, I wasn’t walking big after I used it for the first time later that afternoon.
I used the Theragun Elite on my perfect side, allowing the app to manual me via glute, hamstring, quad, calf, and shin durations (I used a foam curler on the left side for comparability). It felt astonishing on my quads, however barely of discouraged on the areas that had been already sore. Nonetheless, right now after I carried out the session, I noticed I was as soon as transferring loads greater on my perfect side—I right felt looser—than my left, even even though I was as soon as tranquil sore.
I noticed this sample persevered all via my testing period: I felt greatly greater right now after a Theragun session, especially concerning mobility and stiffness. It’s bright to insist, however after every Theragun session, my body right felt big gentle and my muscular tissues soft. I even used it on my toes, which helped wait on tension I didn’t even know I had.
While it never felt big it the moment on areas that had been already sore, I feel esteem my body did originate to come by used to the tension as the durations went on. By the stop of the week, the tool felt loads extra overjoyed, even on my delicate glutes. It didn’t fully ease up my soreness—especially in my hamstrings—however it helped me movement greater. I noticed barely connected outcomes whether or now not I used it earlier than or after a workout, even though I enact think the usage of it earlier than a bustle helped give a enhance to the stiffness that on the total takes a half mile or in an effort to shake off.
Presumably the most frightening efficacy revenue popped up with the unilateral testing. After I originate ramping up my running, the first put I feel it tends to be in the muscular tissues alongside the facets at the bottom of my shins. After I went out for a short shakeout bustle the morning after my 9-miler, I felt that every-too-acquainted discomfort rear up yet again—however most productive on my left side (the foam-rolling side). I secure that’s since the dampener attachment of the Theragun Elite allowed me to attain that limited dwelling in one way that a clear foam curler can’t. The side-of-shin discomfort persevered on my left side all via the testing period, while it never surfaced on the Theragun side.
The percussive treatment tool also got right here in handy for non-workout things. It helped knead out knots in my shoulders and traps from hunching over a computer all day. My most productive desire? I would personal liked to utilize it on my back, however I’m now not barely versatile ample to hit the coolest spots, even when playing around with the numerous grips on the tool.
The Backside Line
The Theragun Elite is barely worthy creep-and-play, and due to the its guided recovery durations on the app, it offers a easy-to-note guidebook on what precisely you may per chance personal to enact to come by greater. It makes it so easy, of direction, that I noticed I barely worthy had no reason now not to utilize it, both earlier than or after a workout, even after my testing period was as soon as over.
And it in actuality did personal me feel greater. While I didn’t alleviate all my soreness—it’s now not going any tool may wait on soreness 100%, Dorworth jogged my memory—it positively diminished tightness and helped me movement greater. Presumably the most intriguing revenue, I secure, was as soon as how it staved off muscle tightness in my decrease leg dwelling, which in any other case can motive ample discomfort to personal running sophisticated—and may even personal me decrease it short.
But it also introduced a notable psychological revenue: By encouraging me to select in put up-workout recovery, the Theragun Elite gave me a psychological “stop” to my workout—a firm demarcation of time, which is even extra notable now as a superb deal of us salvage time melding collectively as we work, workout, cook dinner, exquisite, relax, and enact barely worthy all the pieces at dwelling due to the the fresh coronavirus pandemic. After the usage of the Theragun, I felt calmer, extra centered, and less pressured—mentally as well to physically.
That’s why I’m giving the Theragun Elite a 7 out of 10: It delivers on lowering stiffness and embellishing mobility, allowing me to continue figuring out at the frequency and depth that I enact. It’s a gigantic product, and I secure the soreness-lowering advantages will continue to come by greater with it as I come by extra overjoyed with how it feels.
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