Theragun Pro (5th Gen) Review – an incredible but pricy massage gun - Connect the Watts

[massage]

The Theragun Pro (5th Gen) has pretty much everything you could ever want in a massage gun. It comes with six high-quality attachments, an unmatched 16mm amplitude, and the strongest stall force I have ever tested.

Table of contents​

Theragun Pro (5th Generation) video review​

Theragun Pro, the total package​

Let’s begin with an overview of everything the Theragun Pro comes with, because the package itself is pretty impressive:

• Massage Gun
• Pouches for gun and attachments:
  A very nice, soft case for the gun is big enough to fit the attachments’ pouch. There are separate areas to place each of the attachments, so they are organized and easy to find.
• UBC-C Cable:
  Includes velcro strap and brick adapter.
• 1 Lithium-ion Battery:
  Lasts around 150 minutes.
• Six attachment heads:
  More variety and a lot higher quality than you’ll see on most other massage guns.

Theragun Pro 5th Gen attachments​

The six attachments are:

• Standard ball
  Good all-arounder for both large and small muscle groups.
• Dampener
  Similar to the standard ball, but softer for more sensitive or sore areas.
• Thumb
  As the name suggests, designed to mimic a thumb. Helps focus on trigger points or dig into the lower back.
• Wedge
  Longer, thinner surface area, good for getting in-between shoulder blades or working around the IT Band. I also like this for my calves.
• Supersoft
  Very, very soft, you can literally use it on your face without an issue. Perfect when working through ultra sensitive areas or injuries.
• Micro-Point
  This new attachment replaces the previous cone. Looks intimidating, but the idea is that the points are used to increase stimulation in an area. I actually quite like it, especially for pre-workout routines. It doesn’t feel as scary as it looks.

The new Micro Point attachment doesn’t feel as scary as it looks!

Theragun stall force​

Stall force is how much pressure you can apply before the massage gun is forced to stop. Here is where the Theragun Pro excels above all others.

Even with both hands pushing down, as hard as my quad can bear, I could not get this thing to stall out. On the ground, I can get it to stall out, but only with both hands with what I feel like is a 100 pounds of pressure. That’s a lot, and I’ve never seen a massage gun with this much stall force.

I could not get the Theragun Pro to stall out on my leg not matter how hard I tried!

Theragun Pro 5th Gen amplitude and PPM​

Amplitude is basically a measurement of the distance the head of the gun goes back and forth. This Theragun Pro has an amplitude of 16mm, which is the same as most of the Theragun line up, outside of the mini which is 12mm amplitude.

16mm is actually a wide distance when compared to competition, like even the Hyperice Pro 2 only has an amplitude of 14mm. A longer amplitude will feel more punchy versus a gun with a lower amplitude which will feel more like a vibration.

How much punch you like is sort of a personal preference, and for me, I like the more punchy feel that a 14mm-16mm massage gun gives over those that only have 12mm or less.

With the bigger amplitude, you don’t need as fast of a PPM (percussions per minute), so you will see the PPM range on the Theragun Pro, being 1750-2400 PPM, is lower than most other guns. This isn’t a bad thing because you really wouldn’t want a faster PPM with the 16mm amplitude.

There are five preset PPM speeds: 1750,1900, 2100, 2200, and 2400. The majority of the time, I prefer to keep the Theragun Pro on the lowest two PPM settings.

Theragun Pro1 16″ Amplitude

Therabody app​

Using the Therabody app, you can actually get really nitpicky by setting whatever custom speed you want. The app connects to your gun via bluetooth.

I haven’t found a way to save a custom PPM or change any of the presets, so you’d have to use the app to set your custom speed every time. I feel pretty much no one will do this since it’s so much easier to use the gun without the app. There are very few use cases where you’d actually need or want to use a PPM outside of the five preset.

Also on the Therabody app are routines to follow along. These are really nice, especially when you are just getting started and want to learn how to move through a recovery routine. You can save some of the routines onto the gun itself and be visually guided through on the OLED screen. This is a nice alternative to connecting to the app.

There are 18 preset routines you can upload from the app to the Theragun Pro.

Theragun Pro 5th Gen preset routines​

Currently, there are 18 preset routines to choose from on the Therabody app. Four can be saved on to the Theragun Pro itself. When you select them on the gun, you’re guided by being shown which head to use, where you should be holding the massage gun, and what area you should be using it on. There will also be a countdown timer per area.

On the app, you can slightly customize the presets by turning on and customizing breaks between steps. I suggest you do this, even if it’s just adding one second long breaks, because while the routines notify you to change areas, it won’t notify you between changing from left to right. So if you turn on the break, you’ll know it’s time to switch when the Theragun Pro stops during that pause.

Selecting a preset routine on the Theragun Pro

While I really like this preset system, I can’t help but wish it was just a little more customizable. Like I wish I could adjust the times for each of the areas, so I could really dial in each routine to best fit my needs.

Even better would be if there were a way to fully create your own preset routines – that would be ideal. Knowing what I want to do or work on, I still prefer having a program to follow to remind me how long to spend on each area and just sort of guide me through it.

Hopefully more customizations are something they can add in the future, because it would take this whole visually guided preset idea and make it infinitely better.

The preset routine guides you where and for how long to spend on each area

The Theragun Pro gun itself​

The attachments on the Theragun Pro can be swapped in and out with ease – same is true of the battery, which pops right out when firmly pressing the button above it.

The battery lasts around two and a half hours and the small disappointment for this fifth generation Theragun Pro is that it only comes with one battery. The previous fourth generation came with two. Of course, you can order an additional battery if you need it, but to be fair, the majority of people not using this professionally, won’t need two batteries.

Above the battery is a button you can press to adjust the head of the Theragun Pro to one of four directions. This can make it easier to work on areas from different angles.

The OLED display has a visual pressure gauge and timer. The timer runs whenever you have the massage gun going to give you an overall session time. I found this useful.

The Theragun Pro 5th generation is also supposedly 20% quieter than the 4th generation, which is great because as you can imagine this being of the most powerful massage guns, it definitely isn’t the most quiet, but this 5th generation the noise isn’t too bad.

The Theragun Pro can be adjusted to one of 4 angles.

Final thoughts​

Overall, this is definitely the reigning king of massage guns with an unbelievable amount of stall force, great amplitude, solid construction, and is easy-to-use with its display and the preset options.

Priced at $599, it’s a lot for a massage gun. The Theragun Pro fifth generation is probably more powerful than 90% of people would ever need, but that’s kind of the nice thing about Theragun. The company has a lot of different options.

For $200 less you can get the Theragun Elite which has the same amplitude, but less stall force, smaller battery, less attachments, and no visually guided preset routines. Or you can get the Theragun Prime, which costs half the price of the Pro with again, less stall force, even less attachments, an LED (instead of OLED) display, and no presets. Or, lastly, the Theragun Mini, which costs under $200, but has a much smaller amplitude at 12mm and a lot less power than the other versions.

By Theragun Pro (5th Gen) here.

Suggested articles:

---

Subscribe on YouTube for more Connected Fitness Tech News, Updates, Tips and Guides: