We’re sure that you’ve felt the need for a good leg massage at some point. In fact, we’re confident that, if there are aliens, and they have legs, they like leg massages too. It’s a universal truth that leg massages feel great.
And there is good reason for that feeling: the value of massage therapy on tired and recuperating muscles is widely supported by the experience of professional athletes, therapists, and medical practitioners.
Pulseroll’s Massage Gun is a revolutionary tool for self-therapy that offers benefits similar to those of traditional massages in a very affordable and convenient format. In this article, we will focus on how to use one of our massage guns on leg muscles for optimal results.
In this article, we will cover:
- The benefits of massage gun therapy
- Massage gun therapy on leg muscles
- How to use a massage gun on your legs
The benefits of massage gun therapy
Pulseroll’s Massage Gun works by percussive therapy, using oscillating movement, backward and forward, to reach deep into the tissues. Its effects can be felt at multiple levels. Here’s an overview: (1)
- It relieves stress and relaxes the muscles.
- It reduces muscle pain and soreness.
- It helps to increase tissue metabolism.
- It stimulates circulation and increases the afflux of blood, allowing more nutrients and oxygen to reach the tissues.
- It stimulates lymphatic circulation. Lymph is a fluid that, like blood, circulates throughout the body and has many functions, including nutrient transportation, removal of cellular waste, and immune protection.
- It may help to clear out the accumulation of lactic acid that results from physical exercise.
- It is an important tool for injury rehabilitation, widely used and recommended by professional therapists and health practitioners, to aid in the recovery and healing process.
- It may help performance by improving muscle contraction and flexibility. This is also relevant for injury prevention, as it contributes positively to the muscles’ range of motion.
- It helps with muscle spasms and stiff muscles.
- It can be used to treat scar tissue.
Massage gun therapy on leg muscles
In this article, we are more specifically interested in the use of massage guns on leg muscles.
One of the main purposes of any massage is to relax the muscles. This is a simple but multilevel benefit, supporting post-exercise recovery, improving mobility, and relieving pain, tightness, and strains. Also, like a traditional massage, a massage gun increases blood and lymph circulation in the area, helping to drain fluids and toxins, decreasing inflammation, and allowing more nutrients to reach the tissues.
All this contributes to an improved and faster recovery and repair, relief of muscle fatigue and soreness, and increased flexibility and range of motion.
These benefits are very pertinent in the case of leg muscles. Besides playing a fundamental part in many types of exercise and physical activity, our legs take on the role of supporting our entire body throughout the day. The type of muscle fibre that is prevalent in the lower body reflects that fact: slow-twitch fibres dominate, whereas in our upper bodies fast-twitch fibres are more important. (2) The muscles in our lower bodies are, in fact, notoriously arduous to train and prone to soreness, which is the reason for the infamous “leg day skip” that is the temptation of fitness fans everywhere.
Pulseroll’s Massage Gun is, however, a tool at everyone’s disposal, meant not only for athletes, but for anyone whose legs could use the special attention. A massage gun is a fantastic tool to have at hand after a busy day, even if you were at a desk all day.
The benefits of leg massages are widely supported by therapists and other professionals. In terms of scientific research, however, there is still much that is unknown and unexplored in this field, and its effects and underlying mechanisms are still not well understood. (3)
How to use a massage gun on your legs
These are our recommendations for the best way to use a massage gun on your legs.
Choose the power setting and the attachment head that feel most comfortable to you. Experiment with the different options.
After that:
Lower Leg
The muscles in the calf and shin are a very typical (and often neglected) focus of tension.
- Cross one of your legs over the other
- Move the Massage Gun slowly backward and forward over the calf and Achilles tendon in the direction of the muscle fibres, that is, along the leg, from the knee to the foot.
- Do the same for the shin bone and shin muscle.
Upper Leg
We recommend different techniques for the upper leg, depending on whether you intend to activate the muscles before a workout, or to treat tired or sore legs, as therapy.
- Pre-workout:
- Stand on your feet
- Apply the massage gun back and forth across the muscle fibres (that is, along the width of the leg) on the top part of your thigh, near the waist
- Do the same on the lower part, just above the knee.
- Then apply the massage gun along the muscle fibres (up and down the thigh) at different spots.
- Do this for about 10 seconds for each step (giving a total of 30 seconds).
- To recover and relax:
- To use the massage gun for leg pain and tired muscles, we recommend simply moving the device freely on your thigh, experimenting with different kinds of movement, both along and across muscle fibres, and exploring what feels best to you. The main purpose is to hit as many fibres as possible.
- Do this for a minimum of 2 minutes.
Conclusion
The therapeutic value of a leg massage is well known by athletes and professional therapists of all kinds, relaxing the muscles, relieving tension and pain, and promoting recovery.
Pulseroll’s Massage Gun is a device that uses percussive therapy to offer you deep tissue massage in the comfort of your own home.
Try the power of this formidable and increasingly popular tool for yourself, and your legs will be pleased with the results!
Find out how you can also use a massage gun to improve ankle mobility!
References
1 - https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/massage
2 - https://www.healthline.com/health/slow-twitch-muscle-fibers
3 - Rodrigues, L.M., Rocha, C., Ferreira, H.T., and Silva, H.N. Lower limb massage in humans increases local perfusion and impacts systemic hemodynamics. Journal of applied physiology. 2020. Vol. 128, No. 5. Pp. 1217-1226
