If you are looking for pain relief or looking for an amazing gift to help someone you love, look no further! These products have been my saving grace for several years now. 3 out of 5 of them have been gifts from my fiancé who knows that the best gift, is the ability to feel good! The items on this list range from $8.99 to $275.00 so there is a wide variety of options to fit into your budget.
*This article contains affiliate links. The author receives a small commission for every item purchased through the link but is not sponsored by any of these companies/products.
*Please consult your doctor before using any of these products. Using them is at your own risk.
About My Pain History
Back pain has been a part of my life since I was 16 years old. I remember sneezing and throwing my back out and having my dad help me get out of my car because I couldn’t stand up.
I’ve been diagnosed with minor scoliosis and an anterior pelvic tilt. It has taken a lot of work to minimize my pain. Working closely with a massage therapist and an acupuncturist has been beneficial but pain relief at home is essential. After years of this and using these products, my pain has become very manageable.
I can now have month long stretches without pain. I attribute this to daily yoga, strength training and a lot of these products that I use for preventative and active care. Alongside my health care professionals, I have managed my way out of daily pain.
I will also cover my favorite tool that gets me through painful endometriosis periods.
5. Gua Sha for Facial, Neck and Back Pain Relief
Oftentimes, I wake up with a clenched jaw. This usually happens on nights that my back hurts and I tighten up everywhere. This tool works wonders on relieving facial tension and I love using it when I get a headache.
Gua sha can be used for a multitude of reasons and has many functions. It is great for tension, muscle pain, inflammation and there are some beauty boosting benefits as well.
I use my tool on my face, but my massage therapist and my acupuncturist use it on my back and neck using the scraping technique. Practitioners use scraping to reduce inflammation and release tightness in the muscles. It often feels like not much is happening, but I always notice the difference when gua sha is used in a session or not. It releases so much tension in the fascia. Scraping leaves very red marks! I only use it on my face at home and never experience the redness.
Find a practitioner near you for more in depth usage or follow along with an online tutorial on how to use this to help your specific pain. The tool itself isn’t very expensive either and the rose quartz on this tool is incredibly cooling.
4. Percussion Massage Gun
My fiancé bought me this for my birthday and it is by far the best massage gun I’ve had. I typically find a lot of massage guns make me tense up or that they weirdly tickle. But with the percussion rhythm, it penetrates deeper into your muscles and maximizes pain relief.
This particular massage gun comes with different head attachments, allowing you to better target your pain. Each head will give you more control of the hard to massage places. It will also help you pinpoint the amount of pressure you want. You’ll find that the ball head is going to be your most used for all around use. You can also adjust the speed of the machine as well.
This tool is great for the athletes in your life. It can ease muscle tension, break up lactic acid build up, increase blood flow, and help break up any knots.
There are far more expensive options with this style of massage gun, but I find that this one does the trick at a fraction of the cost. I can use this on my own, on my legs and low back but anything else requires a partner due to the weight of the machine and positioning needed to target midback areas.
3. Pixie Tens Unit for Period Related Pain Relief
I have a mild case of endometriosis so when my period hits, I am stuck in bed for a day with crippling pain that shoots into my back, down my knees and it feels like a knife slicing through my uterus.
The Pixie Tens Unit has been such a blessing during that time of the month.
This is great for people who have endometriosis, PCOS or painful periods. It is portable, quiet, you can wear it under your clothes, and it is a great drug free pain reliever.
For those unfamiliar with tens units, here is how it works:
TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) Units are typically used for nerve pain. The electric pulses help stop pain signals from being sent to your brain. The pulses move from your skin, through your nerves to help ease pain and help signal to your brain to release endorphins to aide in pain relief.
For this particular TENS unit, you stick the two pulse pads on either side of your abdomen. Then turn it on to the intensity that you desire, it will start off very low. Clip the device to your waist band and go about your day.
It is light weight, you can’t see it under your clothes, and it is very quiet.
This has helped me gain my life back on the days where the pain feels so unbearable.
2. Silicone cups
Cupping is my favorite way to relieve pain! My acupuncturist and my massage therapist have both worked wonders on my back with cups. They use professional grade cups that penetrate way deeper than this silicon set. But I like these cups for home knowing that I can’t overdo it and still get the same level of pain relief.
This set comes with 4 different sizes, which I prefer because you can target different areas of your body with them. I purchased 2 sets so that I can line them up on either side of my spine for full back relief.
Cups gently lift and increase blood flow to the affected area allowing for increased circulation to relieve pain. You will most likely experience what looks like a bruise after cupping. It is painless and will disappear in a few days. But be conscious of this before use, if you have a big event or something and don’t want visible marks, don’t use these.
Cupping isn’t a painful experience, but you may experience discomfort in tighter spots. On my hips, for example, the cups will hurt for the first 20-30 seconds because they are very tight. With deep breathing, the pain goes away, and the pain relief kicks. You can control the suction level by hand by releasing some of the suction by squeezing the cup and letting some air in if you ever feel it is too tight or painful.
1. Pranamat
This is my saving grace. I use this mat daily either first thing in the morning to set myself up for the day, or at the end of the day to help relieve the day’s tension. It all depends on my schedule and what I can fit in.
This acupressure mat is the best on the market, and I know there are less expensive alternatives but this is the item you will want to invest in. When it comes to plastics, you want to be using as natural of a product as you can and the Pranamat brand is as natural as it gets and is sustainably made. Don’t be fooled by the alternatives just to save a couple bucks. Invest in your health. I will always tell you when you can get a better deal out there, but this mat is WORTH IT.
The Pranamat has 10,000+ pointed spines that penetrate deeply into your muscles to increase blood and lymph flow, and release muscle tension.
You don’t have back pain? That’s okay. Here is what else the Pranamat can help you with:
- Migraines
- Insomnia
- Fatigue
- Fibromyalgia
- Leg Pain
- Foot Pain
- Tension and Stress
- Cellulite
An acupressure mat is not for the faint of heart. This is a painful tool, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Ads love to say that it isn’t painful. It is uncomfortable at the start and takes time to get used to. You can build up a tolerance, but it took me weeks of daily use to be able to put my bare skin on this.
After a while, you will be able to put your bare skin onto the mat. You will get very red, and the area warms but you get such a deep pain relief, and the sensation actually becomes soothing. I know it doesn’t sound appealing with being honest on how it feels at the start, but it is the most powerful pain reliever I’ve had. It is equivalent to the pain relief I get from massage.
The mat comes in a multitude of colors, and they all have the lotus shaped acupoints and embroidered detail on the back. You can also get different options in your set. I opted for the mat and the pillow. The pillow is great for headaches. It is also nice to place the pillow on your stomach to help with abdominal pain.
My Pranamat is the first thing I put into my suitcase when I am traveling. I have had many of my friends and family try the mat and they always buy one after because they are shocked at how good it feels. Let me give you some guidance on how to ease into Pranamat sessions.
Tips on How to Start:
Wear a thin cotton shirt. This will help create a barrier between your skin and the mat but will still allow you to experience relief. This is an easy way to become comfortable on the mat.
Slowly expose bits of skin at a time. I would lift a few inches of my shirt and let my bare skin touch for a couple minutes at a time. Or I’d wear a tank top exposing my shoulders to the mat.
Start with just 5 minutes of time and increase slowly when you feel more comfortable.
I’m sure I’ve made it sound scary, but it is by far the pain-relieving product I advocate for the most in my daily life and when I talk to people who need pain relief.
If you do use any of these products, I hope you find relief from your pain! I am here, wishing you good health and happiness. Let me know if you have tried any of these!
