What Are IlioTibial Bands?

The IlioTibial Bands (ITB) are strips of ligamentous soft tissue that extend from the hips down to the knees,

ITB Syndrome

Image Source Melbourne Sports Physiotherapy

along the outer thigh. It is relatively thin tissue that can cause quite a bit of discomfort, including outer knee pain (Iliotibial Band Syndrome). The pain can be active, particularly for runners and cyclists. That means the pain is overt and present. It can also be latent, which means that there is no overt pain on the ITB during the course of regular daily activities, but can be elicited by touching the ITB.

Most folks don’t even know that their ITB is tender until they bump up against something or a massage therapist applies pressure to the outer thigh during a session. Massage and stretching are common treatments for ITB tightness. The pain can be right between your hips and knees.

What Does This Have To Do With Massage Chairs?

Most massage chairs have air cells that compress against the outer thighs of the user. The primary purpose is to hold the hips in place so that the body doesn’t move forward when the rollers pass over the back and seat. They are basically meant to traction the hips for a deeper roller massage.

For some massage chairs, like the old Inada DreamWave and the Panasonic chairs, the hip air cells also dig into the ITB as a form of therapy. But, the hip air cells in most massage chairs are larger and more broad in their contact coverage, so they don’t really “dig” into the ITBs as much as the above-mentioned models do. They more or less serve the primary purpose of air cells, which, as mentioned previously, is to hold the hips in place for the roller massage.

If  you are looking for a massage chair that digs into the ITBs, for therapeutic benefit, you will be disappointed. There aren’t many models in the current market that provide the ITB massage.

Massage Chair ITB Hack

That’s where our customer, Rusty McKee, comes in. Rusty sent an email to me a couple of weeks ago with a tip that he figured out to massage his ITBs, using his massage chair. He used to own an Inada Dreamwave and he learned to love the ITB massage it gave him. When it was time to purchase a new chair, he found that the IRB air cells did not work the way they had in his old Inada model. His new chair had the hip air cells, but they were designed for holding the hips in place and not for ITB massage. Rusty is a runner and has had a need for ITB massage, but couldn’t get it from his new massage chair.

Reconciling his ITB massage experience with his old model with the air cells of his new model, he came up with a brilliant idea! What if could put a foam pad between the outside of each of his thighs and both hip air cells? What if the pressure from the hip air cells pushed the foam rollers against his ITBs? He ordered a long foam roll online to test it. I’ll let him tell us what he did…

I’m so excited to tell you and show you how…I solved and made the IT band pressure 10x… why?… because I can easily adjust and put even more pressure specifically where I want it.  Check this out:

-Ordered this 3-3/4” foam tube
-Cut it to around 6” long
-Cut it down the center

Then you can see in the pictures, I can make it as less intense with flat side against leg or put only the round part vertical again my leg and it can be perfectly slightly painful with great results.

ITB massage

 

 

 

 

 

Carefully notice how each picture is different and pushes against the IT band slightly different.  I love how I store it, because don’t fumble around trying to find it and it’s visually out of the way.

I also want to say that for the last dozens years with my Dreamwave, I always thought you just sit, push a button and relax.  Well, that’s true for most.  But… for sports folks and runners like me and others with life’s stress, I’ve learned to not only use all the features for adjustment, but just move my back around to get the nodules exactly where I feel I need them.  Wish I had recognized how broader the use of the chair can be. 

So, there you have! What a great idea. Rusty sent us one of the 6″ rolls and we have it at our AZ showroom to demonstrate on customers who are interested in a better ITB massage. You’d be surprised how common this ITB problem is.

I hope you found this tip helpful. I sure did!

Thanks, Rusty.

Dr. Alan Weidner

 

I spent a day on January 30th attending the Las Vegas Furniture Market. It is a twice yearly event that brings furniture distributors from all over the world to show their wares and find retailers for their furniture. My objective this year was to visit Cozzia, Infinity, and Osaki.

I visited Michael Milone at the Infinity booth and had a great visit with him and my colleague, from Massage Chair Planet, Adam Gordon. Infinity has always had a solid line up of chairs, built in a very good Chinese factory, backed up with great customer support for our customers and us, as a retailer.

infinity massage chairs  I am the short one (you’ll see that is a recurrent theme!).

Then I visited the Cozzia/Ogawa booth and spent some time with John Cribbs, Cozzia VP of national sales. He went over the new Ogawa Master Drive DUO, announced the week before. This model is the first split track offering from the Ogawa company and factory. I spent some time sitting on it, experiencing it’s feature set, with guidance from John. It offers a great massage with smooth rollers and a quiet overall massage. John will be my next guest on Massage Chair Relief LIVE! stream on February 15th at 3:00 pm ET. We will have him talk about the new DUO model and other things. Please feel free to attend and ask any questions or submit any comments. It can be viewed at youtube.com/massagechairrelief and facebook.com/massage.chair.relief/.

As an aside, the Cozzia name also covers Ogawa, JPMedics, Brookstone, and Ergotec massage chair lines.

I had lunch with Cathy Lou and Dale Shepherd from Human Touch. As you recall, they were our guests on our January edition of the Massage Chair Relief LIVE! stream. In that broadcast, they talked about their new Super Novo X. In my video from CES, I sat in that new model for a demo and was quite impressed with it. During lunch we chatted some more about the X. It should be available at the end of this quarter. It is an innovative chairs in a couple of very convenient ways, i.e. opening arm rests for easy access to the chair, as well as interchangeable side panels and chair pads so that you can change the primary colors of your chair anytime you wish. I am very curious to see how the new options are received.

My last visit was to the Osaki booth. I didn’t get much of an opportunity to talk to the rep there because from the minute I walked in, I ended up talking shop with other chair retailers, who also happened to be visiting the Osaki booth at the same time. Most of the models that Osaki had on display were models we were already quite familiar with, like the Admiral, the DuoMax, and the Solis, so I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything new.

I met Joanne Walters, from Wish Rock Relaxation out of Colorado, as well as Giovanni Alba from Relax in Comfort in Florida, Nick Wayda from Relax in Comfort in Utah, and Gokhan Guvener of Massage Chairs and More in the Bay Area. Lots of massage chair knowledge and representation in that group of folks.

Again, the short one!
It was a very busy day, as I flew to Las Vegas and back home to Utah in the same day. We will notify you if and when we get the Ogawa Master Drive DUO and Human Touch Super Novo X in our showroom.

Dr. Alan Weidner

Massage Chair Relief

Lots of massage chair news! It was an exciting time at CES in Las Vegas last week. Not only did I get to visit some of my current distributors, but I also was able to check out some other companies. What I found quite exciting was the number of new models coming out this year…so far!

Human Touch Massage Chairs

Human Touch Super Novo x

Human Touch Super Novo X

Of course, we have discussed the Human Touch Super Novo 2.0 and the Super Novo X. I finally was able to sit in the Super Novo X and it was quite impressive. This is the 3rd chair that has movable arm rests to allow for a user to enter the chair from the side of the chair. This is a great option for older folks and back pain sufferers who find it difficult to plop into a chair from the front.

The roller massage was quite strong and the stretch, thanks to the split track technology that Human Touch has now adopted in one of their models, was quite impressive as well. The calf massage, which includes kneading airbags (aka oscillating airbags) and calf rollers, is very strong and helps contribute to the impressive stretch.

This model also has a new audio system from JBL speakers (an upgrade to the previous Altech Lansing speakers, which were already better than anything else in the massage chair market!). It will also have an app for your devices, from which to operate the chair. It weight whopping 455 lbs and is solidly built!

One of the innovative features is the color options for the arm rest side panels and the back pad set. The base of the chair is black for every color, but the arm rest panels and back pad sets come with multiple interchangeable colors. For example, you can pop off the panels of the arm rests and replace the back pads to accommodate a color theme change in your room at home. Arm rest color options are black, espresso, gray, tan, red, gray metallic, and wood-grain. The back pads come in black, espresso, cream, gray, and tan colors.

Below is the video of Victoria Lladoc, Human Touch Director of Marketing, explaining the features of the new Super Novo X with me, as I sat in the chair to experience those features.

Synca & Fujiiryoki Massage Chairs

I also had the opportunity to visit with Nicholas Beese of Synca Wellness chairs. I love visiting with Nick because of his insights into and knowledge of the massage chair industry. He also had some exciting news from his neck of the woods.

Synca is a subsidiary of Johnson Wellness Tech, which is a very large international company. A couple of years ago, Johnson Wellness Tech purchased the factory in Japan that makes the Fujiiryoki massage chairs. I believe it is called Mt. Fuji Medical. Well, they are coming out with a new line of chairs that are made in that factory in Japan. The chair line/brand will be Fujiiryoki.

fujiiryoki massage chairsNicholas tells me that Fujiiryoki will have 3 new models coming from that factory…all 3 models are literally made in Japan. I say literally, because some models claim to be made in Japan but are only assembled, tested, and programmed there. Their components are primarily made in China. However, the new Fujiiryoki models will be predominantly Japanese-made. Of course, some components will be imported from other countries, but the bulk of the chairs will be made in Japan.

Synca will also be coming out with 2 more models (made in China). From what I understand, all of these new models will be out during the first half of this year. Nicholas will be our guest on Massage Chair Relief LIVE! in March of this year. He said that 1-2 of those models will be here in the USA as prototypes. We will be discussing those new models in our live stream in March (date and time still to be determined).

Daiwa Massage Chairs

I visited the Daiwa booth and tried out the upcoming new Daiwa Supreme Hybrid X. That model should be out in the beginning of the 2nd quarter 2024. It will look and feel like the original Supreme Hybrid, since it has the same split track & roller technology, but with longer leg extension for folks with longer legs, an aromatherapy module, and 24 auto programs, instead of 12.

A number of months ago, Daiwa introduced the Pegasus Smart Hybrid, which also offers a split track, like their Hybrid, but with 4 rollers on the top roller track, rather than 2, like the Hybrid. I still have not experienced that chair yet, but it will probably find it’s way to our showrooms sometime this year.

Etcetera…

While I was at CES, I also saw the BodyFriend booth. BodyFriend is a company that has been the #1 massage chair retailer in the far east, but has not done as well here in the USA. But, they have chairs that are made in a great factory (same factory that makes Infinity, Daiwa, Human Touch, and some Osaki Titan chairs) and that have innovative features. There are a couple of models that have right and left leg and foot massagers that move independently of each other. We have been invited by BodyFriend in the past to become a retailer for them, but they do things different from all the other major name brands, in terms of support, warranty, and supply. We will be visiting with them next month in their offices near my SoCal showroom. Will keep you posted!

OSIM is a large wellness company from Singapore. A number of years they purchased the Brookstone chain of stores and introduced their own OSIM line of massage chairs. Back then, they were known as run-of-the-mill Chinese-made massage chairs. The feedback we got from customers was that they had a failure rate similar to other middle of the road priced Chinese-made chairs, but that their customer support for fixing them in the USA was lacking. They have since sold the Brookstone stores and their chairs became virtually obsolete in the US market, since they now had no representation. They have since opened a few stores in the US, primarily in NorCal, SoCal, and New York. I sat in a chair called the uLove3, which I liked. It had a great neck and shoulder massage plus individual massage “pockets” for each finger. They also have an office chair that offers more massage features than I have ever seen in an office chair.  Not sure how their support is now, but time will tell.

New Massage Chair Friends From Germany…

Michael Roedeske & Manuela Radu

Michael & Manuela

Well, that’s about it for CES. I met Michael Roedeske and his wife, Manuela, who own a number of massage chair stores in Germany (www.massagesesselwelt.de). They ship all over Europe. It was fun to talk to an owner of massage chair stores in another country. We will have Michael & Manuela as guests on our Massage Chair Relief LIVE! stream later this year. Things are a bit different in Europe than they are here in the USA. I think you will find their information and experience very interesting.

I hope you found this information helpful. As the new models are introduced, we will let you know about them, including any and all of the information about each model.

Dr. Alan Weidner

P.S. Give us a “Like” or “Share” and leave me a comment or question below to share what you learned or ask any questions, so other folks can benefit from this material.

 

Key Takeaways: The Truth About Consumer Reports

Online consumer reports about the “best” massage chairs should be approached with caution, as many are driven by affiliate marketing interests, potentially compromising their objectivity and the accuracy of their recommendations

Download our free booklet ‘Buyer Beware’ to make an informed choice and avoid falling for misleading consumer reports

best massage chair

One of my greatest pet peeves in our industry is the advent of those “Top # Massage Chairs” or “Best Massage Chairs” consumer reports you see floating around online. A lot of you have seen these reports and taken them quite seriously – I know this because I get phone calls all the time from folks about the models in those reports! I’m not saying that there aren’t some good recommendations in there, but for the most part, the chairs that are listed in the reports are cheap chairs, poorly made chairs, obsolete chairs, over-priced chairs, or generally unheard-of chairs.

“Best Massage Chairs” Consumer Reports – The Real Story

To know why these reports are, for the most part, bogus, you have to understand who is writing them: affiliates. What is an affiliate, you may ask? An affiliate is a person who pitches a product on their website for a product distributor and in return receives a percentage of the sale price or the profit margin. The affiliate fills their report full of links that lead you to the sales page of the distributor. If you hover over a link in that report, you will see the URL
and identity of the actual seller of the product (most often, it’s Amazon). If you click on one of the links and end up purchasing a massage chair from the distributor’s webpage, that affiliate gets paid a commission for the sale. Sophisticated software keeps track of who clicks a link in the report and who ultimately buys from the distributor’s webpage.

The promotion of massage chairs and the receiving of a commission paymentaffiliate commission is not in itself a bad thing. That is what sales and marketing is all about! The problem arises because an affiliate will often:

• Write a report touting “x” number of top massage chairs with no real idea of their quality, thereby leaving a misleading choice for #1 (that just happens to also pay the highest commission), or
• Fill a report with chairs that are not so great at all, but pay out an affiliate commission, regardless of whether they rank it #1, #5, or #10.

An affiliate will, for the most part, pitch any product that provides a good commission. So, if sales of chair “A” pay the highest commission for a massage chair, guess what chair is ranked #1 in the affiliate’s report?! They are most likely NOT experts. I will even bet that the writer of the report has NEVER even sat on any of the chairs in their report! Just because they write a fancy looking report that regurgitates whatever information the actual seller gives them, does not make them an authority in our field. But how are you supposed to know? I think it’s easy to see how this is a true conflict of interest. As a consumer just beginning your due diligence into massage chairs, you have no idea what is considered a good chair or a bad chair, and can easily be misled.

So, please be wary of those reports. There are quite a few out there, but I have not seen one yet that is a legitimate contributor to the buying process. If you would like to know more about things you should be wary of before purchasing a massage chair, check out my free booklet “Buyer Beware”. You can download it from the link below and learn what the real scoop is in our industry…

Free Educational Downloads

I have recorded a video demonstrating how these free reports can be misleading…

Dr. Alan Weidner

P.S. Give us a “Like” or “Share” and leave me a comment or question below to share what you learned or ask any questions, so other folks can benefit from this material.

Key considerations when deciding to purchase new, refurbished or used massage chairs:

Use our helpful Massage Chair Finder tool to find the perfect massage chair to meet your needs!

 

Although the vast majority of sales we make at Massage Chair Relief are new massage chairs, we do have a Pre-Owned Directory on our website that is visited quite regularly. In that directory we list all the floor models of massage chairs for sale on our site  from our brick-and-mortar showrooms. We also list all of the massage chairs that are returned to us.

All new massage chairs come with a factory warranty of anywhere from 1-5 years of labor coverage, and anywhere from 2-5 years of parts coverage. Because we are an authorized dealer for the chair brands we sell, we can transfer the remaining warranty to the customers who purchase a used massage chair from us.

Used Massage Chairs

There is a large market of people looking for used massage chairs for sale r iand many chairs are sold through private sale venues, like Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp, just to name a couple.  You may even have a neighbor, work associate, friend, or family member who is selling their massage chair.

The most important thing to know when considering a used massage chair purchase is that, other than from an authorized dealer, like Massage Chair Relief, you will not have any warranty on that chair…at all. When you purchase a pre-owned chair, you will be solely responsible for the cost of parts and the hiring of a massage chair technician, should a problem ever arise with your chair.

Not one massage chair company that we represent, let alone every other massage chair distributor in the USA, allows for the transfer of their chair’s warranty to a new private buyer of a used massage chair. I have, personally, seen ads and been told by massage chair buyers that  people selling their massage chair privately, claim that the remaining warranty of their chair will be included for the new owner when they buy their pre-owned massage chair. Not true! Buyer Beware! Below is a screenshot of a used massage chair for sale on Facebook Marketplace. Notice that the ad mentions that “It has warranty on it…”.

Used Massage Chairs vs. Refurbished Massage Chairs

When you purchase a pre-owned chair, you just might get a chair that will never break down, and you’ll be free of the hassle of ever having to deal with repairs. But, for the most part, you have no idea what the chair went through in the home of the previous owner. Did they have animals…especially those that shed? Did some mice set up their home under the massage and compromise the wiring and other electronics of the chair? We have actually heard from our massage chair techs about mice nests! Did the previous owners use the chair multiple hours each day of the week? Has the previous owner disclosed any issues with the chair? Does the chair look beat up?

You might also want to consider if parts are still available for the used massage chair you are interested in buying. Is that distributor even still in business? Has that chair model been discontinued for quite some time? How expensive are the available parts of the chair? A call to the distributor of the chair might be helpful to answer some of those questions.

Now, if you find a chair that is working just fine and the owner is selling it for a very, very low price, then the concerns I’ve listed may not deter you as much, when deciding to purchase a pre-owned chair. If it is cheap enough, and it is in decent working order when you check it out, you could probably just scrap it when it dies and get another one to replace it at the same or similar price point.

If you are going to purchase a pre-owned massage chair, I would definitely encourage you to buy locally so that you can try out the chair before buying it. If you see a chair listing that is out of your area, you will have to deal with complete unknowns as well as working out shipping arrangements to get the chair to your home. That can be quite expensive!

Refurbished Massage Chair

Some of our distributors sell refurbished massage chairs , as well as their own pre-owned chairs (either returned or chairs that were used in trade shows). Warranty will be offered on those chairs but, depending on the distributor, the warranty may not be the remaining warranty on the chair, but something less. Some distributors group their refurbished and used massage  chairs together and call them “certified pre-owned”, taking a tip from the auto industry.

Refurbished massage chairs are chairs that have been “cleaned up”, meaning they have literally cleaned the chair and/or they have had any damaged parts replaced so that the chair is fully functional. A refurbished massage chair almost always comes with a lesser factory warranty time period. Instead of 1-5 years of parts and/or labor, they may just offer 90 days to 1 year of labor coverage, more for parts. That is not uncommon at all in our industry. But, at least you get a factory warranty and the peace of mind that comes with it. Some refurbished massage chairs for sale  may come with a full factory warranty, depending on the company.

The distributor may do the same for pre-owned chairs they are trying to sell. You might get a very limited warranty, like the refurbished massage chairs, or the remainder of the factory warranty. As with refurbished chairs, you might even get a full factory warranty on a used massage  chair. It all depends on the distributor.

Some distributors will grade their refurbished and/or used  massage chairs. For example, Infinity assigns an A, B, or C grade to a certified pre-owned massage chair. Grade A means it is in very good condition. Grade B usually means that there is some very minor scuffing on the chair’s upholstery or plastic pieces, and grade C usually means that the chair has some very obvious and more significant blemishes to the chair body and upholstery. Having said that, they will not sell the chair if it is not functioning correctly. The grade A-C is assigned primarily based on the condition of the chair body exterior.  See below for an example of a graded pre-owned chair…

Infinity Evo Max Used Massage Chair

 

In Summary

Here is what you need to consider and be wary of when deciding to purchase either a new, refurbished or used full body massage chair.  In a nutshell:

Dr. Alan Weidner

P.S. Call us at 888-259-5380 if you need clarification of anything I have written in this article or if you have any questions about a pre-owned chair you are considering.

P.P.S. Give us a “Like” or “Share” and leave me a comment or question below to share what you learned, or ask any questions, so other folks can benefit from this material.

 

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