hey everybody it's doctor jo, and today i'm going to show you how to use a
percussion massager, or a massage gun, for neck and shoulder
pain. so let's get started.
so before we get started, if you haven't already, make sure and click on the
subscribe button because it helps my channel grow.
so i'm going to use iReliev's wireless percussion massager,
but i'm going to talk about a little bit more later. so with a percussion massager,
or massage gun, a lot of times it's a lot stronger than
a traditional massager. so you really want to know that
it's got a lot of power to it. they're really nice because the
percussion actually works in a way where it goes a lot deeper into the tissue and
it makes it more fast and repetitive. so
this helps with inflammation. this helps with relieving tension. this
helps increase the circulation to the area. so it does a
really good job of getting deep down into those tissue
fibers, and some research studies actually show that it's
about up to 30 percent more effective than just a regular massage.
so it's definitely something that's interesting to try if you really want to
get that deep massage in there. so with shoulder and neck pain, the big
thing with shoulder and neck pain is a lot of these muscles are connected.
so that's why a lot of times if you have neck pain,
you also have shoulder pain, or vice versa. if you're having a lot of shoulder
pain, it might go up into the neck area so
this this percussion massager is really nice
because you can hold on to it and get a good grip
and get behind you. some of the ones that are just just straight without the
handle make it a little hard to get there by
yourself, but this does really good because it
makes it easy to get kind of on the areas you need.
some of the biggest spots like your upper trap muscles your levator scapulae
muscle, those are the ones that hold a lot of
tension in our neck and our shoulders. those are really good ones to work on.
so especially the levator scapulae because when we are
stressed out or working a lot at a desk or something, we kind of get like this.
and so you can really get down where your shoulder blade is
and then come all the way up to where that levator scapulae is.
but the biggest thing to know is there are some precautions for a percussion
massager. and one of them, which is big, when you're
using it on the neck and the shoulder is never to do it on the front of your
neck where your carotid artery is. so when you're working on it, make sure
you're staying back here and not bringing it around to the front.
there are some other precautions, so make sure you're checking those out and
getting clear by your doctor or your therapist with them.
so the iReliev wireless percussion massager, one of the
reasons i really like this is of course that it's wireless. so it makes it a lot
easier to really get in there and work on some stuff.
it also has a bunch of different massage heads,
and i'm going to show you a couple different ones in a few minutes, but it's
nice because you can easily change them out.
it has three different settings here. so i'm going to show you real quick this is
the first one. so if you can you can really kind of get
in there and hear me talk funny while it's on my neck area.
and then you can bring it up to the second one where you can see it's a
little bit faster, and then even the third one so that gets
really quick motions. this one's a lot nicer a
little bit lower in the deeper muscle tissues
where sometimes those trigger points are. so you can see right
there. and i'm gonna go back to the first one just so you can hear me a little bit
better. but it's it's it's quiet you can you know notice
that it's nice and quiet and i really like that fact
as well. also if you if you're into studies
uh some of the studies show that this is really effective in preventing
doms, which is a delayed onset of muscle soreness. and that's when you're not sore
right away, but like a day or two later, 24 to 48
hours later, you're really sore. so if you've done a heavy workout or
something, and you get a nice deep tissue massage in there, a lot of times that
will prevent that. so i wanted to show you on me as you can
see that it's you can you can massage yourself. it's definitely
something that the way you can hold on to it it works pretty well,
but you can also um if you have someone that will do the massage for you
sometimes you can get a little bit better placement if
you have someone to massage it for you, or if you're doing it on
somebody else. so i need a model.
oh look it's brian, my trusty assistant. so you can um
i just want you to be able to see on him uh ways to do it. and i'm going to talk
about a little bit that levator scapulae muscle because that's
the one that i really think is a good one to get, and then that upper trap
which is kind of over all of the area. so a lot of times you have a trigger
point here. brian might go ow yeah that's it, and
then um one up in here which is the upper trap. so that's usually where that
levator scapulae muscle comes into the shoulder blade.
so what i would do is you you don't want to push hard, the
massager is going to do what you need. so you don't have to put a lot of force
into it. and a lot of times if you have circulation issues or
sensation issues, that is a precaution as well so make sure again you're getting
cleared. you don't want to push so hard where
it's uncomfortable because it should never be painful.
so you can also kind of move it up into the neck area where those muscles are,
but you don't want to go over the spine. you don't want to go over the bony areas
because it'll start bumping really weirdly then, but you want to stay on the
muscle tissue. you want it to be that smooth motion.
you can go even up into the hairline and there, but again remember ,you don't want
to go around to the front, and you don't really want to go actually on the spine
here. and so what a cool thing is if you want
to work around the spine those muscles around the
spinous processes, they have one of the the heads here they call it the fork
head. and what's really neat about this is
it's kind of designed to go on each side here. so you're going
up and down this way, but then you're not hitting that bony process there.
so this makes it nice because you're still getting those muscles right
along the spine, but you're not bumping it on the bone which might be
uncomfortable. so you can go all the way up into here.
you can even go down into the the thoracic back a little bit as well.
and so hopefully that feels really good for
brian. yeah getting some nice massage in there.
so you can see that there's um a bunch of different ways to do it and a bunch
of different massage heads to work on it. so that's a
very nice component as well. and then you don't want to see a whole
lot of redness. it might get a little bit of redness,
but again you're not pushing into it, you're kind of letting
the massager do all the work. and again if it's uncomfortable then you're
probably pushing too hard, and you just want to do a little bit. you
don't want to do a lot. all right, well he's gone. so if you are
interested in purchasing the iReliev wireless percussion massager, make sure
and click on the link up there. and don't forget to subscribe by
clicking down there. and remember, be safe, have fun, and i hope you feel
better soon.