Good Vibes: The Best Percussion Massagers of 2022

For a lot of people, recovering from a workout should be relaxing. But it’s hard to relax when you have the aural equivalent of a power saw right next to your ear. Which is why we’re such big fans of Triggerpoint’s Impact percussion massager. Triggerpoint is already well known for its recovery devices. The Impact is its first foray into the percussion massager market, and it’s a strong entry.

It comes with three speeds, with the highest at 3,300 ppm and a unique top-weighted design. But what really makes the Impact stand out is how quiet it is. The lowest setting is powerful enough to help ease soreness, but it’s exceptionally quiet. I’ve been using the Netflix test: if I can watch Netflix without subtitles while using the massager, it passes the test. And the Impact is one of the few that passes muster here. Predictably, the higher settings are louder, but even at the highest setting, it’s still on the lower end of the noise spectrum.

Between an extremely quiet motor, high ppm, and great price point, Triggerpoint is off to an excellent start with the Impact.  It only comes with one head attachment and no carrying case, so if multiple heads are a deal-breaker, you’ll want to look somewhere else. If that’s not an issue, though, this muscle recovery tool is a great buy. Read the in-depth review here.

Theragun was one of the first companies to make percussion massagers for consumer use, so it’s had plenty of time to fine-tune its design. The newest iteration is the fourth-generation Theragun G4 PRO. The unit sports a QX150 brushless motor that packs up to 60 pounds of force and is quieter than other massagers with similar power.

The PRO comes with a variety of options, from the rotating arm to the ergonomic multigrip (which gives it more of a laser blaster look than the usual gun vibe). The speed ranges between 1,750 and 2,400 percussions per minute (ppm). All of this means you can hit up just about any part of your body with ease. In addition, the package comes with seven head attachments, a sturdy carrying case, and two rechargeable batteries. Each battery provides about 2.5 hours of run time.

We’ve been testing this for about six months, and it definitely packs a punch. The rotating head does make it easy to hit every part of your body, even the notoriously hard-to-reach scapular region. The durability is without a doubt as well. It’s been the massager of choice at my gym, easily putting in hundreds of hours of work on dozens of athletes. And it’s still as tight and solid as when it came out of the box.

The only issue we’ve found is that while quieter than other high-powered massagers, it’s still on the loud side. You’ll definitely want to put subtitles on. Read the in-depth review here.

If you’re looking to get the most gun for the lowest price possible, check out Vybe’s Percussion Massage Gun Pro. This beast can apply over 30 pounds of pressure for deep tissue massage. And with nine speed options, users can crank the percussion up to 3,400 ppm. The Vybe can also go down to 1,800 ppm for a less intense massage. Besides the power, the variety of head attachments makes the Vybe stand out. With eight different options, you’ll be free to pick the attachment that’ll be perfect for whatever ails you.

The Vybe massage tool is no lightweight – at 4.5 pounds, this thing is a heavyweight. That heft might make it difficult to massage yourself for 10-15 minutes at a time, but it does carry the benefits of power and variety. If you want a good amount of power without taking a bite out of your bank account, the Vybe Percussion Massage Gun Pro is a solid choice.

If a percussion massager isn’t working effectively, the likeliest reason is that you’re using it wrong. Addaday decided to address this by creating the BioZoom Edge, which connects to the Addaday app to create a personalized program specifically for you. After you download the app, enter your workout data (or upload it from a tracker) and whatever symptoms you have, you then select a routine. The app sends the routine to the BioZoom Edge and gives you a step-by-step guide for speeding up your recovery.

The massager has twenty different power levels, which lets you dial in the strength of your massage. The five different heads offer a range of pressure points (the smiley face one cracks me up), and the bright digital display clearly shows you pertinent details like battery life and power level. Smart details like swappable batteries and a rubberized texture all over for a good grip show the care that went into the design.

For traveling and out-of-town competitions, the Mini+ portable massager from Power Plate is a great option. This tiny massager is half the size and weight of Power Plate’s Pulse massager, but it still packs a punch. The four power settings range from suitably low to baby extremely tender muscles, to a shockingly fast setting for deep digging. It comes with two attachments: a foam ball attachment and a hard plastic attachment that mimics a thumb. If you need more, it also works with the other attachments in the Power Plate line.

The Mini+ lives up to Power Plate’s reputation as an extremely quiet massager, and the battery lasts a whopping five hours on a single charge. The rubberized grip lets you hang on to it with sweaty hands, and the carry bag lets you keep everything together while you travel.

It’s actually not a percussion massager since it uses vibration to massage muscles, but wearable tech brand Myovolt definitely deserves a mention. Initially designed to help Olympic athletes recover, Myovolt’s wearable massagers take the form of wraps that secure the massager to specific parts of your body. Three different massage settings help you recover from your last workout or warm up for your next one.

Each version (Leg, Arm, Shoulder, and Back) is specialized to fit a specific body part, which does limit the application for each one. And at $150 per unit, getting a full-body massage won’t be cheap. But if you are a specialized athlete, like, say, a runner, this could be just the thing for you.