Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from MassageChairRelief.com, and today we’re going to talk about how massage chairs can help with calf pain.

Most people who shop for a massage chair are dealing with back pain, headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, or maybe foot discomfort. But many don’t think about calf pain as something a massage chair can help with. In fact, it can—and massage chairs have come a long way since I first started in the business.

When I started back in 2005, chairs had calf airbags that pressed against the calves, but there were no foot rollers or foot massage features at all. Today, the technology has advanced significantly, especially in the calf area. There are now three main ways massage chairs can work on the calf muscles, so let’s go through them.

First, you have airbags on either side of the calves. Most chairs inflate these like balloons to compress the muscles. Some models go a step further and actually knead the calves, rubbing them as the airbags move up and down.

Second, some chairs include a small pocket where you can insert rubber nodules—usually two or three attached together. When the airbags inflate, they press these nodules into the anterior tibialis muscle (the muscle along the front of your shin, commonly associated with shin splints). If you have tenderness there, it may feel a bit uncomfortable at first, but afterward it often feels fantastic. So with this setup, you get compression along the sides of the calves and targeted pressure along the shin area.

Examples of chairs with this feature include the X-Chair X77 and the Positive Posture Brio Sport.

Third, some chairs have rollers or nodules positioned behind the calves that press directly into the belly of the gastrocnemius muscle. The chair I’m demonstrating—the Daiwa Decorus—uses rollers. We’re seeing more chairs add calf rollers, such as the Daiwa Pegasus and the Infinity Genesis Max. These provide dynamic rolling movement behind the calves. Other models instead use stationary nodules. In those designs, airbags push your legs into the nodules so they press into the muscle.

So depending on the chair, you may get massage from:

• the sides (airbags),

• the front (insertable nodules), and

• the back (rollers or nodules).

If you’re a runner, cyclist, someone who walks all day, or you stand a lot at work, your calf muscles can easily become fatigued. Your feet and calves often take the biggest toll from that kind of lifestyle, whether it’s from exercise, work, or daily activity. A massage chair can really help relieve that tension.

I hope you found this video helpful. If you did, please give it a thumbs up, like our YouTube channel, and share this video—or any of our videos—with your friends and family on social media.

Right now, we have four massage chair showrooms across the western United States, and we’d love to have you visit and try the chairs in person.

I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from MassageChairRelief.com, and I’ll see you in the next video. Bye-bye.