Recently I purchased the TimTam Power Massager V1.5. I thought I would give a review of it since foam rolling, massage, soreness, and muscle aches are a major part of martial arts. To summarize what it does, the ball retracts and pushes forward at a rapid rate. This is not your drug store class massage tool. It hits you hard enough that it pulls on body hair, but because of that it also can get extremely deep into the muscle for an effective massage. I purchased the item due to chronic tension issues that cause poor posture and because I'm setting out to work out again to get in good enough shape to maybe start doing some BJJ again. I have chronic neck/shoulder issues that occur from tensing up my neck, shoulders, and back due to anxiety I experience from PTSD. Unfortunately for me this is my body's reactionary defense mechanism to the anxiety, and it is a continuous battle to maintain correct posture and work the muscles out correctly when they get really bad. The tension can be bad enough to cause debilitating tension headaches that last for days, and if it's really bad can cause migraines that last a few days as well. One of the major issues that are a signal for the tension being bad is a reduction in mobility of my head. It becomes hard to look left or right. Recently, augmented by sleeping in a terrible position a few nights ago, I have been unable to look to my right and have had to implement physical therapy techniques I've learned as well as hitting tension points with a knobbed massage device (non moving). It has been progressively getting better. I have used the TimTam twice on my neck and back without the assistance of another person and after using it I pretty much gain full mobility for a short time after use. Devices like this don't fix the underlying issue, but they can be effective in creating enough mobility that you can address the issue more thoroughly which transfers into healing faster. This device is definitely one of the ones that can assist effectively. I have not yet used the device for recovery from working out, although I'm pretty familiar with techniques to help muscle soreness recovery and how massage devices can help and I'm confident this device will hit the mark in contributing massively towards recovery. It also just feels dang good being used to massage when you're not even sore! The price is a bit hefty, coming in at $400.00 but it's significantly cheaper than its competitors. Anywho, just thought I would throw this out there for anyone interested along with a review of it being effective. If anyone has used a device like this, would be interested in hearing your experience as well.
I'm considering saving for one. It looks way easier than a foam roller and a lot more pressure. What's it like with someone to help for back and stuff? Does your one come with different tips?
I had my girlfriend do my back, and it was great. There's no real strength needed. However I can hit most of my back on my own too. Sometimes it's difficult to find a position on your own where you're able to relax the muscle you're working on, but other than that there seems to be a self application position for everywhere. You have to buy the tips separately. I'll let you know how those work when I get them! Will be a couple weeks though due to backorders because of the Rogan podcast -_-
I prefer these over foam rollers any day because most people can't use foam rollers properly. I think they're good for maintenance of soft tissue quality and general wellbeing in healthy people, but someone with suspected underlying issues should go see a hands-on therapist. No tool can replace the manual palpation skills of another human being.
I was just wondering about PTSD as you brought it up: I've been reading passing lying lately about LSD doing a great job of helping with PTSD. Something about reseting the brain or some such. Is that something you would consider? EDIT: an article about trials. PRESS RELEASE: FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Designation for MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD, Agrees on Special Protocol Assessment for Phase 3 Trials
Just to clarify, the underlying issues for me involve near involuntary muscle tension from anxiety which creates bad posture and the issues I have stem from that. These issues are corrected via three different movements and about ten different exercises to those movements through physical therapy. Massage only assists in alleviating some symptoms, and loosening up the muscles a bit to do the exercises better. An actual massage therapist would probably be way more beneficial, but due to money/time constraints I'm pretty happy with the results from the TimTam. I wouldn't recommend getting the device to fix a problem where you don't know the reason you have it, and the corrective measures to take to fix it.
Hell no, lol. So, not all PTSD stems from exactly the same thing, and because of that people have to focus on some aspects of therapy helping with PTSD more than others. My PTSD stems more from the feeling of not having any control over myself and my well-being. When I got a concussion that caused me to be bed ridden (on top of a concussion I was still having symptoms from due to an IED blast) I lost even the internal sense of control of myself and it caused my PTSD to spiral out of control. Due to this, the potential of taking mind altering substances and the paranoia it causes for me (based on past experiences prior to injury) probably has the potential to make my PTSD worse rather than better. I might be wrong, but I'm not willing to try when I already have methods that work for me : P.
I think this will become an issue if these therapies become more popular. I think you have to be a special kind of person to lead someone through that kind of experience, and if it becomes a case of ticking boxes I think it could harm a lot of people. I saw Michael Pollan on Joe Rogan, who has just published a book about this, and he said there were some sketchy people offering psychedelic counselling that he just had no trust in.
Interesting to see a review of this device. I don't think that they have really shown up that much in the UK but I could be wrong. here's video of a well known US physio talking about using it. There are a couple of other similar brands - theragun and hypervolt . Interestingly you see all sorts of people making their own versions using a ball of some sort and and a sabre saw :' S. I guess that the $400-$600 price tag throws a few people. It is interesting to see this new 'fad'? develop. I'm not sure what percentage of people will find this effective. Great to see Ero-Sennin give us a review that is (apparently ;' ) unbiased and might help us all to gain a perspective on these devices. Interest the variety of price, accessories, battery life etc. Will be interesting to see what happens when these get more exposure in the UK. :' ) LFD
I saw the TimTam on a few adverts on youtube, then saw it on the Rogan podcast and decided to give it a go. The TimTam is a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the competitors, and I think they're going to end up driving the price of this kind of product way down. I actually purchased a package deal for the massage gun that came with all the attachments and lube, what is essentially a car buffer tool, and their electro massage thing. The package deal for the massage gun was about 600.00, and with everything else it was about 1,000.00 dollars. However, and I was completely flabbergasted by this, they offered a 40% discount for veterans. I ended up spending less than what I would have buying everything I did with the discount than I would have just buying the package deal without it. I got to splurge a bit. The accessories just came in! One is a pointed tip, the other a hammer tip. The tips you can freeze or heat up I have not used yet but are essentially the same as the plastic ball tip that comes with the gun. Generally the plastic tip hits a large area, and it feels like a whole muscle or muscle group is getting massaged. After using it for a few days now, it has loosened me up each time and I would go as far as saying that it feels like the muscle is "warmed up" like you would do prior to exercise. Mobility increases, and there's definitely some relaxation which allows me to do my physical therapy exercises more efficiently. The hammer tip just hits a larger area. This is not something you would want to use on your neck or back. Glutes and legs seem to be the target for this attachment. The pointed tip I got to use today and it actually hurts a lot less than the plastic ball, however, it gets into areas more like a knobbed massage tool to hit trigger points. I've been using the device mostly on my neck, and the plastic ball loosens everything up but it hasn't really reached my trigger points. The pointed metal attachment however hits it with no problem. Battery life: longer than you need for one body part, not long enough to do your entire body thoroughly. I would say roughly 25 to 45 minutes depending on how much you keep the trigger pulled.
Update! This device allows me to be lazy and not work on my actual issues in a consistent manner. If my neck/upperback/shoulders start getting really bad I do some 15-20 minute sessions with it before I go to bed and it allows me to function without severe tension headaches. I usually do my physical therapy exercises for a few days to loosen things up to a tolerable level with out massage assistance and can function for a few days before I have to do it all over again. Due to its use I haven't experience migraines over the last month which is new for me as my neck has gotten bad enough a few times where migraines would occur even with trying to intervene using my physical therapy exercises (which are too little, too late by the time I would start doing them). I've also been using the massage gun on the bottom of my feet after long days where I'm standing and moving all day, and it helps loosen them up and get blood flowing in the area enough to where I'm not hobbling around like I have peg legs for the first 15 minutes upon waking up in the morning. I have also started working on CoC grippers regularly and the use of the massage gun prior to working sets helps warm my hands up significantly enough that the first few sets aren't as painful as they generally are (if you've worked on your grip seriously, I'm sure that would interest you since the first few sets usually really suck : P) Overall I'm pretty darn happy with the purchase. I'm thinking about maybe getting in touch with the company around November to see if I can get a deal on an order of about 8 of them. I think they might be a great christmas present for our workers who are always dealing with the aches and pains construction work involves.
You can try other alternatives of TimTam Massage Gun. Visit Relief Massager to know more about massage gun that really works.
Theirs a lot of Chinese copies on ebay/Amazon now, I might pick up one soon and see what the fuss is about. Note: don't look for these whilst at work, searching "massage gun" brings up a lot of "massage wands" too!
I showed the same to my wife, I just showed the video of the item without an explanation and asked if we should get one of these I waiting for a rection before explaining that it was for massage.
