The Theragun Pro Plus takes an all-in-one approach to recovery technology - CNN Underscored

[massage]

If there’s such a thing as a “luxury massage gun,” the Theragun Pro Plus is it. The latest offering from Therabody rings up at the same price as the brand’s previous top-of-the-line model, but it’s packed with significantly more technology.

Of course you’re still getting percussive therapy — which uses rapid, concentrated pulses or vibrations to provide DIY deep tissue massage — but the Theragun Pro Plus also delivers near infrared light therapy, vibration therapy, heat therapy, cold therapy and breathwork in a single device. All of these treatment types have been shown to positively affect recovery, so that’s a lot of bang for your $599, right?

After running two marathons in a month, I needed one of the best and most powerful devices on the markets to help my muscles recover. Here’s what I learned about the Theragun Pro Plus over the three weeks between and after both races.

Therabody Theragun Pro Plus (6th Gen)​

Theragun

The Theragun Pro Plus massage gun adds infrared light therapy, vibration therapy, heat therapy, cold therapy and breathwork in a single device.

$599 at Therabody $599 at Best Buy $599 at Amazon

What we liked about it​

All the attachments​

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Therabody recently harnessed the power of hot and cold therapy in the RecoveryTherm Cube, which you could wear or hold, and now they’ve added that tech to the Theragun Pro Plus. It comes with five familiar attachments (a dampener, standard ball, thumb, micro-point and wedge), plus a heated attachment that warms up to three temperature levels — 113 degrees F, 122 degrees Fahrenheit, and 131 degrees Fahrenheit — in less than 10 seconds. For another $89, you can order the cold attachment, which doesn’t pulse but cools down to 59 degrees Fahrenheit, 50 degrees Fahrenheit and 4 degrees Fahrenheit in the same amount of time. A vibrating attachment with three speeds (47, 50 and 53 Hz) is also included; this head provides a massage that’s a little less powerful than percussion therapy, but we found it helpful for especially sore areas, like our calves post-race. Depending on which attachment you’re using, the Pro Plus has about 150 minutes of juice.

The additional of near-infrared light therapy​

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Near-infrared light therapy has also been shown in studies to improve muscle recovery and reduce pain and inflammation. It’s kind of a no-brainer for a tool designed to help you bounce back from your workouts. In this case, the light therapy is delivered via 13 LED lights built into the bottom of the handle, just next to the head of the massage gun. It’s essentially there to enhance the recovery benefits of percussive therapy; the light, which you can’t feel, penetrates under the skin to stimulate circulation and cellular repair. You can also easily turn it off during any session, but there’s really no reason to — why wouldn’t you want two recovery modalities targeting your muscles at once?

What we didn’t like about it​

The price​

We said this about the fifth-generation Theragun Pro, too: $599 is incredibly expensive for a massage gun. You can find plenty of great massage guns for a fraction of that cost: We love the Roll Recovery R1, which is just $129, and the Hyperice Hypervolt 2, which is $329. The Pro Plus’s price is somewhat understandable considering that you’re getting six treatment options in a single device (as long as you also pay the additional $89 for the cold head), but the price tag still puts this particular device out of reach for most casual users.

The biometric sensor​

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This is the second Theragun we’ve tested with the new built-in biometric sensor (see: the Theragun Sense), and, honestly, it’s just not doing anything for us. When you hold your index finger over the sensor, it will record your heart rate — but it doesn’t show your heart rate at the start of a breathwork routine nor does it display it in real-time. It took us several tries to get a heart rate reading at the end of a routine, and we were no more comfortable cradling the massage gun — which, for the record, weighs 3.63 pounds without attachments — to our chest while practicing breathwork than we were while testing the Sense. This is a feature we could easily lose, especially if it would drop the price a bit.

How it compares​

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The Theragun Pro Plus is really in a league of its own. The Hyperice Hypervolt 2 is probably the Theragun’s closest competitor and it’s almost half the price, but while its percussive technology is comparable, it lacks the bells and whistles the Pro Plus offers. There are heated massage guns, like the Gravity Relax, and ones that have hot and cold capabilities, like the RENPHO Thermacool, but neither has the power of the Theragun, which penetrates 16 millimeters into the muscle compared to 8 and 10 millimeters, respectively. If the Pro Plus gives you sticker shock, you might be interested in the Theragun Sense, which doesn’t provide light therapy, vibration or hot/cold attachments, but does include a biometric sensor and breathwork routines for $300 less.

Bottom line​

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Clearly, the Theragun Pro Plus isn’t meant for massage gun novices, casual users, or anyone on a budget. But if you’re willing to splurge, you can’t do any better than Therabody’s latest high-end massage gun. Between the number of therapies available in a relatively compact package and the powerful punch you’re guaranteed from a Therabody device, you are, for the most part, getting your money’s worth.

Ashley Mateo/CNN Underscored

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