What role does massage play in your recovery? With the right percussion massager, you could recover faster with greater comfort. A percussion massager is a handheld device that applies pulses of concentrated pressure deep into your muscle tissue. This form of deep-tissue massage can work knots and tension out of the muscles while improving blood flow and quickly enhancing range of motion. When used properly, a percussion massager can shorten your recovery time while relieving some of the pain, tension and soreness that comes naturally from intense .martial arts workouts.