Authors: Therabody Scientists: Tim Roberts, MSc; Kyle Silvey, PhD; Michelle Darian, MS, MPH, RD, LDN  

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in personal health and wellness. From wearables to meditation apps to at-home therapeutics, tech is helping people gain access to and have the ability to monitor, understand, and improve their physical and mental health.  

Therabody creates innovative wellness technologies to deliver science-backed solutions that empower people to live better, longer, healthier lives. The development of these technologies is informed by rigorous testing, the latest scientific research, and direct input from consumers. Ultimately, Therabody aims to fulfill its mission of enabling health and wellness by developing and providing access to effective products grounded in data and the needs of people like you. 

Read more on what Therabody’s technology does to support health and wellness.  

What Does Wellness Mean to Therabody?  

“Wellness" can seem like a broad term. So, it’s essential to define it so we can measure and improve it. Here’s what wellness means to Therabody.  

Wellness is the active pursuit of physical, mental, and overall well-being. It involves adopting sustainable habits — or modifying existing ones — that improve quality of life. A person’s wellness is individual and dynamic — it requires ongoing effort, and everybody can take control of it with the right tools and education. While the state of being well is an end goal, wellness itself is an intentional, ongoing, and ever-evolving journey.  

Leveraging technology can help to create wellness routines that are effective, sustainable, and enjoyable. Technology can enhance total mind and body wellness and overall health and well-being.  

Therabody has developed a suite of devices that aim to achieve wellness across four key pillars: pain reduction, stress, sleep, and recovery.  

1. Reduce Pain 

Pain serves an important biological purpose as an alarm system, signaling potential injury or illness that requires care. Pain is multifaceted; it results from neural sensing and psychological factors. When you feel pain, it results from communication between the nerves sensing injury and the brain interpreting those signals. Psychosocial factors like perceived control, attention, expectation, and emotions all help to shape pain perception.  

Persistent or recurring pain can be deeply debilitating. When left unmanaged, pain impairs both physical capabilities and mental health over time. Uncontrolled pain can strain the body’s key functions depending on the source. Integrating pain relief and management strategies into everyday lifestyle is critical. Evidence-based modalities like gentle vibrations can help to reduce the sensation of pain. And proactively using other modalities like percussive therapy and heat and cold therapy can help to avoid pain snowballing into long-term issues. Addressing pain can also reduce its mental and emotional burden, build resilience, and support wellness. Wellness technology can address and help manage pain. [6, 7]  

Theragun 

Modalities offered in the Theragun are researched for their benefits on improving pain. Percussive therapy (the modality delivered by Theragun devices) can trigger the release of endorphins — the body’s natural “pain relieving chemical." So, the use of percussive therapy can stimulate short-term pain relief. After using this therapy, you may feel an immediate reduction in discomfort and easing of muscle soreness. 

Theragun devices provide targeted vibration therapy to alleviate muscle aches and pains. These massage guns can effectively reduce soreness and tension for those suffering from neck, back, or leg discomfort —whether from prolonged sitting, standing, or strenuous workouts. It relaxes tight tissues, increases blood flow, and mitigates pain signaling at the source. And as a non-invasive treatment, percussive massage offers safe and accessible relief from common causes of musculoskeletal pain. [7, 8, 9, 10, 11] 

PowerDot 

The PowerDot is a muscle stimulator system that delivers neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) from the comfort of your home. NMES stimulates muscles by creating contractions, which can reduce pain. On the other hand, TENS delivers a low-intensity voltage that blocks or reduces the perception of pain.   

2. Reduce Stress Levels 

Stress may seem inevitable, but how you manage it matters. Whether brought on by work deadlines, receiving bad news, exercise, or countless other factors, stress activates the body’s fight-or-flight response. While essential to give you immediate energy in dangerous situations, long-term stress in everyday life can impact overall physical and mental health. From increasing inflammation and weakening the immune system to raising the risks of conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and depression, unmanaged stress takes a toll. 

That’s why developing proactive, effective stress management skills is vital for health and wellness. Evidence-based stress management techniques like breathwork, meditation, calming sounds, and vibrations can all help to reduce feelings of stress and the toll it can take on your health. By increasing resilience to stress and establishing stress-preventing daily habits, you can improve your energy, mood, performance, and overall health and wellness. 

SmartGoggles 

Dedicated to empowering wellness through technological innovation, Therabody recognizes the toll that mounting stress takes across all aspects of health — and aims to create solutions.  

The SmartGoggles exemplifies this approach. Uniquely designed to deliver heat and gentle vibrations around the eyes and temples, SmartGoggles aims to combat stress and promote relaxation. A study shows that SmartGoggles meets this aim. Using SmartGoggles before sleep revealed meaningful effects on stress levels. 82% of participants reported feeling less stressed overall. 71% said they felt less anxious, and users noted a 19% boost in relaxation. Read the full study here.  

Theragun 

Theragun models like Theragun Sense and Theragun PRO Plus combine percussive massage therapy with calming breathwork. The combination of percussive therapy and guided breathing exercises can help to reduce stress, relieve aches and pains, ease soreness, and support restful sleep. By incorporating breathing exercises into everyday technology, devices promote mind-body relaxation.  

3. Devices Can Enhance Sleep Quality 

Getting adequate sleep can be challenging for many people. Many regularly fail to get enough sleep because of work demands, stress, family needs, and more. While pulling near all-nighters may seem like the only option at times, sleep deprivation impacts both mind and body health. A lack of sleep can impact numerous critical processes throughout the body, from impairing the immune system to negatively influencing metabolic health.  

Optimizing sleep quality and time spent asleep is vital for overall wellness. Evidence-based lifestyle habits like sticking to consistent bedtimes, limiting screentime before bed, and gentle vibrations can all help improve sleep. You can enhance energy levels, concentration, performance, and longevity by implementing positive sleep hygiene habits and increasing resilience to periodic sleep disruptions. So, making sleep health an ongoing priority is important for both short and long-term wellness. And the recent surge in wellness technology that targets sleep can help you to build healthy, sleep-promoting habits. 

SmartGoggles  

A study analyzing the effects of using Therabody SmartGoggles before bed demonstrates measurable improvements in sleep metrics. Participants spent 4% more time asleep, spent 10% longer in restorative deep sleep, woke up fewer times throughout the night, and self-reported getting better sleep quality.   

Consistent use of the SmartGoggles technology translated to better sleep quality and quantity within weeks. Sleep is foundational to overall wellness and performance, and these findings showcase SmartGoggles’ efficacy in improving it.   

Theragun 

The Theragun is often considered a device to help alleviate soreness after a tough workout. However, a recent study shows that the device’s percussive therapy can also help improve sleep outcomes. The five-week study found significant improvements across multiple metrics: 

Despite the short Theragun intervention period (two weeks), sleep quality and duration improved. The Theragun offers wide-ranging performance and wellness benefits by optimizing sleep, an integral component of health. 

4. Technology Helps To Maximize Recovery  

The human body has an incredible capacity to recover and bounce back stronger after physical exertion or stressful experiences. Maximizing this recovery process is vital to overall wellness. Just as wellness is an ongoing and dynamic process, recovery is an active process, meaning it’s within one’s control to improve. 

Effective recovery helps boost physical and mental performance, reduce injury risk, build muscle, and strengthen mental health. Recovery modalities aid the body’s natural healing abilities. Therabody’s technology leverages modalities like percussive therapy, compression, vibration, light therapy, heat/cold therapy to accelerate recovery. 

By regularly using Therabody’s recovery technologies, people can tap into the body’s resilience, address pain and soreness, maintain an active lifestyle, and reduce the risk of overuse injuries. These accessible, multi-modal devices empower people to enhance mobility, boost health, and return to balance stronger. Ultimately, Therabody provides the tools to optimize recovery and harness the body’s natural healing abilities. 

Theragun 

The Theragun device delivers percussive therapy for recovery benefits. Percussive therapy enhances circulation, muscle tension release, and neuromuscular system activation. These effects explain why people often feel relief, relaxation, and increased range of motion after using the treatment. The deep vibrations of percussive therapy help to increase blood flow, treat connective tissue, and stimulate the muscles and nerves. These benefits help maximize recovery. 

Independent studies validate the recovery benefits of Theragun devices. A comparison study found that just two minutes of using a Theragun provided equivalent recovery benefits to fifteen minutes of traditional massage therapy. [1] Additional research indicates that Theragun treatments can delay the onset of fatigue during exercise and enhance muscular power output. [2]  Separate investigations also demonstrate an improved range of motion following Theragun percussion therapy use. [3] With a growing body of evidence backing its effects, Theragun technology offers an efficient and effective way to expedite recovery, improve performance, and deliver wellness. 

RecoveryAir 

Therabody’s RecoveryAir uses pneumatic compression technology to deliver recovery benefits. Pneumatic compression uses mechanical inflation and deflation to mimic the body’s natural circulatory processes. This cyclic compression and release action enhances blood flow by strategically moving blood back toward the heart. [4] The blood circulation aids recovery from and reduces muscle soreness. 

Clinical studies demonstrate that RecoveryAir devices enhance both muscular and cardiovascular recovery. For example, it decreases post-workout muscle soreness and fatigue, accelerating recovery from intense training. RecoveryAir can also alleviate stiffness resulting from both overworked or underused muscles. Additionally, research found using RecoveryAir improved key cardiovascular markers like heart rate variability after strenuous exercise, aiding the body’s cardiovascular recovery. [5] With evidence-based impacts on muscle repair, circulation, and recovery, RecoveryAir therapy supports whole-body wellness. 

Key Takeaways 

References