Massage guns for muscle growth

Estimated read time 3 minutes. 

Let’s start by getting the obvious question out of the way. Do massage guns on their own build muscle? No, they don’t. The hard work it takes to do that will always be down to you.

But can they play a huge role in adapting your body for gains, and helping you train and recover between sessions? Absolutely.

Using massage guns for muscle growth

If it’s muscle growth you’re after you need to commit hard to the right training combined with the right diet. But a massage gun can give you an edge when it comes to recovery.

After exercise, a massage not only feels good, but reduces the inflammation and tenderness of the muscles. And by helping you recover faster, you can go work out harder again the next day.

Massage also increases the production of mitochondria in the body. Mitochondria are key to generating energy that cells can use, and as muscle cells adapt to resistance exercise, mitochondria levels go up.

What that means for you is more energy, and greater capacity to train. So, going back to the question of do muscle guns help muscle growth? In a way, yes.

How do massage guns help build muscle?

When you train intensively, your muscle fibres contract, and sometimes don’t fully relax again afterwards. This can cause cramps and over time your muscle tissue will lose quality, which can lead to tension, pain and limited movement.

This is where a massage gun can really help.

It lets you give yourself what’s known as a myofascial release massage. This is where you break the fibres and trigger points that form in the muscles, which increases the flow of blood and nutrients to them. All of this accelerates and optimises the muscle growth process.

What does a massage gun do for your muscles?

Here are just some of the different muscle groups that a massage gun – such as our MuscleGun Carbon massage gun can be used on, and the benefits to you:

• Traps

Increase mobility and improve coordination of your traps, which help move and stabilise the shoulder blades.

• Pectorals

A two minute warm-up before an intense chest workout will increase range of motion. A 5-10 minute post-workout massage will increase blood flow and speed up recovery.

• Biceps

Reduce the risk of bicep tendonitis by relaxing the biceps and aiding recovery.

• Shoulders

Reduce pain and increase your range of motion with just 30 seconds of massage.

• Forearms

Improve grip strength and relive pain on the forearm muscles caused by over-use.

• Wrists

Strengthen your wrists, stabilise your front rack position, increase your overall grip strength and reduce overall soreness.

• Hip flexors

Penetrate deep into your hip flexors for instant relief, pre- and post-workout.

• Glutes

Get a quick burst of muscle reactivation throughout your day and wake up the biggest muscle in your body.

• Hamstrings

Loosen and release tight hamstrings. Great for flexibility and injury prevention.

• Calves

Release knots in the calves and get pain relief in seconds.

• Knees

Increase blood flow around the knee to ease joint pain and increase range of movement.

• Quads

In just minutes, ease tight quads which can be the cause of knee pain.

 

Read next: How to use a Muscle Massage Gun - The Ultimate Guide