Bob and Brad T2 Pro Massage Gun

If you're looking to go after your sore muscles after a ride so you're ready to go the next day then the Bob And Brad T2 Pro Massage Gun is a really nice bit of kit that is ideal for working your muscles over at home. The hot/cold head is a bit gimmicky, though, so my recommendation would be the non-pro kit that costs a bit less.

What do you get? Well there's the gun itself, which is solid and well finished. There's a silicone grip and single button on the rear to turn it on and cycle through the modes, of which there are five: the fun begins at 2,000RPM and goes up 300RPM with each mode, up to a maximum of 3,200. Five LEDs on the body show you what mode you're in, and four on the handle the battery state.

There's a USB-C port to recharge the gun; the 4,000mAh battery will last for around an hour and takes about four and a half hours to charge, which seems a lot considering it's not a huge-capacity battery.

The gun has a 10mm amplitude, which is enough to get into the deep tissue a bit, and the 45lb stall force means it's pretty punchy at higher revs; I mostly used it in the slowest two modes.

Heads up

There are five heads in the good-quality canvas carry case. The general-purpose ball head is good for most stuff, and there's a pointed head for really getting into knots and deep tissue.

The forked one is designed for running down your spine, although I didn't really feel like it was all that effective. There's a damped head which is great on more sensitive areas, and I used that quite a bit. The T2 Pro manual has a couple of pages of suggested massage areas, and says you should use the ball head (below) for everything, but I tended to favour the softer head for a lot of areas.

Then there's the 'hot and cold' head – in quote marks because it's not really that hot, or that cold. Essentially, it's a flat metal plate; turn on the heat and it does actually warm up, although I don't think anyone would really describe it as 'hot'. Press the cooling button and a fan circulates air over the plate to move heat away from it. It feels cold, and it will pull some heat from your muscles, but the coldest it's ever going to be is room temperature, and I don't think it's very effective.

If you really want a hot or a cold massage then get yourself a gel pad for a few quid and do the heating or cooling first, then the massage. The hot and cold head is a bit of a gimmick really.

Effective?

I've been using the T2 Pro a fair bit over the last month and I'm pretty impressed with it. It's been useful for working on a slightly recalcitrant hip ahead of rides or indoor training, and getting some blood flow into my right arm which is currently a bit sore with tennis elbow. And it's good for working over calves and quads and hamstrings after a ride outside, and releasing all the knots in the stiff neck I get from being hunched over a laptop half the day knocking out words like these.

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Hot-and-cold head aside, it's a good kit with a head for everything you need day-to-day. If you're riding on back-to-back days then 10 minutes working on your legs with a massage gun is definitely 10 minutes well spent

At £109.99 RRP (currently £89.99) this is expensive enough that you'd want it to work, and it does. You can have it a bit cheaper as the non-pro T2 (£99.99 RRP, currently £79.99), and for me that's the better option. That extra tenner is better spent on pads that can be properly hot or cold if you need that. Overall, though, this is an effective massage gun that's up to the job.

Verdict

Good quality massage gun for working on your sore bits before and after your ride