Hot vs. Cold Massage Heads: When to Use Each
- Feb 26
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in December 2024. For the original video, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dmyNGiLj70
Mike: If you're looking to boost your recovery or have sore, achy muscles, sometimes using heat and cold can really help.
Brad: That's right, and we're going to show how using this new hot-cold head on a massage gun can actually achieve that goal.
Mike: So, before we get into these hot-cold massage heads, we want to talk about when you would generally use cold therapy or hot therapy. So, for cold therapy, typically you're going to do it in an acute injury, meaning it happened within one to two days, because you want to minimize the amount of inflammation you're having. If you had a lot of swelling or bruising, it can also help because it constricts the amount of blood flow going to the area, which can help ease some of the inflammation and pain you are experiencing.
Brad: Exactly. On the other hand, to use heat for therapy, that's when you have tight muscles that are just being ornery. You want to heat them up, loosen them up so they relax, as well as increase circulation because of the vasodilation effect of the heat. It's really a nice soothing method.
Mike: And some people actually use a combination of heat and cold. This is called contrast therapy, which can be used at times, but that's more for a muscle recovery standpoint.
Brad: Right, it's one of those things they always have to come up with something new. All right, so we're bringing this up. We actually have five Bob and Brad Massage Guns that do come with the heat and cold head.
Mike: So when you want to use the cold head, you simply press the button on here that looks like a snowflake. You press it twice. There are two different cold settings.
Mike: If you want to use heat, you just press the heat setting. Again, there are two different temperature options there.
Mike: Now, you can feel it through your clothes, but you're going to feel it a lot more directly on the skin when you're using it. And this is cold right now. I can really feel it.
Brad: They really work well. I was completely surprised. I thought if it was cold after using it on your warm body for 30 seconds or so, it would warm up, but it does not. It continues to maintain cold, and the heat maintains its heat. They're really built well.
Mike: So if you happen to work out and your muscles are a little sore or tender afterwards, you could use the cold setting on the massage gun. Going for one to two minutes over the area that's a little sore can help recover your inflammation and make you heal quicker, feeling better sooner.
Brad: That's right, and you can see on this one right now, the red is showing. That means it's got the hot on the hottest setting, and I'm working these forearm muscles as if I were sore from an aggressive workout on those muscles.
Mike: Now, when it comes to heat, you could switch it to the heat setting before you're going to work out. Maybe you want to warm up the muscles in the area, maybe they're a little sore from the day before. You can do the calves, hamstrings, whatever region you want. And sometimes that heat can help get those muscles warmed up, relaxed, and you'll have a better workout. You could typically do it one to three minutes before you're going to start.
Brad: That's right, now you might be interested, "How do these work?" There is a battery in those. You do plug them in with what is it, the UB?
Mike: USB.
Brad: USB part. It only takes a couple of hours, I think, to charge it, and it lasts for up to 30 minutes or an hour, depending on what level you have it at.
Mike: Yeah, so the same charger that comes with each massage gun to charge, the massage gun will also charge the head. They are both rechargeable.
Brad: And fear not, this is not the only head they come with. They do come with the other four heads: the air head, the round head, the field goal head, and the bullet head. So they all come with that, plus the nice hot-cold head.
Mike: And they all come with a convenient carrying case and a user manual as well.
Brad: There you go, so Christmastime is all of a sudden made easy. We've got all kinds of nice little things you can buy for your active loved ones.
Mike: If you'd like to check out more videos on massage guns specifically, watch "Massage Gun Tips: Dos & Don'ts." It's areas to use a massage gun and areas not to use it.
Brad: Yeah, it is important that you don't use it all over the place. That video is very clear on that.
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