Massage Guns: Deep Tissue Therapy

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Over the last couple of months, there have been a number of posts about massage guns, and requests for recommendations, but in general I had ignored them, rolling my eyes – “Just another gimmick and fad for Lipedema”, I thought.  And just another thing to spend money on. As if this condition weren’t expensive enough!

When Debby Pellitier of Vibration Guide had the opportunity to hook up my FaceBook Lipedema & Food Sensitivities: Take Control of Your Lipedema group with Fitness Brands Testing for a 250 gun giveaway, I continued to be skeptical. I WAS intrigued, however, that a fitness expert like Deb was supportive of the device.  Since the gun was free in exchange for an honest opinion of the gun, I decided to try it.

(Fitness Brands Testing will have various fitness products available to try in exchange for an honest opinion review of the products they are testing – click the link to get signed up for this program!)

The guns from Fitness Brands Testing can vary.  The one I received was the Sonic from LifePro, and it was the first gun I ever tried.  I don’t have any other experience to compare to, other than comparing to additional fascia/ fibrosis manipulation therapies that are used for similar end results.

Being my first gun, and so many people in the Lipedema community talking about guns – obviously I’m not the first to try them. But I’ve been so impressed with the Sonic by LifePro, that I have to share my experience.

From the moment I opened the Amazon box, I was impressed.   The massage gun case was in a shrink wrapped box.  The case itself was impressive.  Looks heavy duty and long lasting.   A comfortable handle and easy zipper. The case was lightweight to carry even with it packed with the gun and attachments.

I read through the instruction booklet, and was again impressed by the quality and impressed by the commitment of the company.  There’s even training and exercise videos available!  Checking out the “Unboxing video” – she immediately begins speaking about fascia!  My gosh – they just have my heart!

If you remember, Dr Herbst mentioned the need to work on deep levels of our lipedema fat and the need to improve our fascia ALL through the levels.  Perhaps it was her comments that had also gotten me thinking that I needed to find a way of working deeper into my tissue

Although I had improved the upper layers of my lipedema areas (they are no longer cold to the touch, hair has returned to some areas – especially my lower legs — and I now sweat), I “knew” I had thick dense fat under those layers.  I had been able to achieve this “upper layer” success by using primarily cupping (I had gone to a therapist), and trying to do some fascia-blasting and gua sha.

But these therapies are difficult to do on your own.  Much of the cupping work was done on my back, actually.  It is difficult to place cups on your back by yourself!  The fascia-blasting and the gua sha were difficult for me to reach my lipedema areas and to move the device….  My grip strength has deteriorated, and it’s difficult for me to even grip these smaller tools and apply the needed pressure.  The treatments are also exhausting.  Exhausting to both the arms and the whole body.

The tools are to be used on bare skin, and usually with oil.  So for those of us with Lipedema – that means getting out of our compression.  

For me….  That alone is a deterrent!  Getting in and out of compression is a nightmare!  I need to gauge whether I will have the energy to get out of and back into my compression AND have the energy to complete the therapy as well!  And as I said – my grip strength is failing, so the LESS I need to struggle with those garments, the better for me. 

But guess what?

The massage gun is recommended to be used over clothing!  That alone is such a time (and pain) saver!  It is SO convenient, that it’s easy to pick up and use MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY!  I can’t remember a day when I considered engaging in one of the other therapies multiple times a day!  Some weeks, I can barely manage other therapies multiple times in the week!

The gun comes with 5 attachments – and I went directly to the one that said “similates deep tissue massage”.  I figured if Dr Herbst recommended Quadrivaris deep tissue massage – then perhaps this would be similar, and yield similar results.

I started on the inside of my thigh, working from just above the knee upwards and outwards.  When I got to the edge of my definitely Lippy thigh area, I had an immediate pain.  Nothing horrible, but it was VERY striking to me that there was SUCH a difference in reaction between the inside and outside of my leg.  I moved upward onto the hip – and the gun awakened a deep pain in the hips area.  A pain that I “knew” was there but just tended not to provoke.  

That’s another comparison I’d like to stress.  With the other therapies, it’s VERY difficult to induce pain on yourself.  And Lipedema is a painful condition, and the only way to improve is to work through the pain.  But with the awkwardness of the angle to hold the other devices, and the pain that is induced – again, it’s very difficult to commit to working those therapies into one’s schedule.  I had to hire a therapist to do the cupping and fascia blasting on me since it was so painful to begin with!

But with the gun, it is so easy to hold, and to get to the thigh, hip and buttocks areas, AND you don’t need to apply a lot of pressure – so the gun just does it’s magic.  You can change the speed – but just holding the gun in the area – the gun does ALL of the work.

On both sides of my body in the same area, I have that deep pain, deep in the tissues – there’s a line between my thigh and hip area, and a spot on each buttocks.  I knew it was there if I pressed on those areas…. 

But why would I press there?  

It’s painful.  

I wouldn’t do that.  

Even though it was difficult to keep the gun in those areas due to the pain – I could tell that it was a “working out the pain” type pain – not a “this is really bad and we need to stop NOW!” type pain.  

At the time that I’m writing this, I’m now 7 days in, and have used the gun one or two times each day.  The pain in those areas has been reduced BY AT LEAST 50%!!   I can only interpret this as improvement in the tissues in these areas.

Oh!  Did I also mention that they also have a free vibrating “massage ball”? After you have the gun for 7 days, you can provide a review and obtain a free product!  I LOVE the gun so much – I just can’t wait to try the ball!