Therabody’s ThermaBack LED Offers Back Pain Relief With 4 Therapies
Therabody's new ThermaBack LED offers a multi-therapy solution for lower back pain and stiffness, a common ailment affecting nearly two-thirds of British people, according to company research. Many delay treatment due to a lack of convenient, on-the-go options. This belt-like device addresses that need, integrating vibration, heat, LED, and far-infrared light therapies. Founder Dr. Jason Wersland, who sought drug-free pain relief after an accident, created Therabody to make advanced wellness accessible. The ThermaBack LED features app-customizable settings, a recommended 20-minute treatment, and a three-hour battery, priced at $329.99, continuing Therabody's mission to bring professional-grade relief to everyday users.
Therabody’s ThermaBack LED looks like a hefty weightlifter’s belt, but it’s designed to offer four different therapies to offer lower back relief and freedom from stiffness.
The research, carried out by Therabody, claims that almost two thirds of British people regularly experience backache or stiffness, which would make it the country’s most common physical complaint, it’s claimed.
Dr. Jason Wersland is the founder of wellness company Therabody. He came to the company after a freeway accident in 2006 when he was on his motorcycle, he told me.
“I was splitting traffic one day on the freeway on my motorcycle, and a car came out of nowhere," he said "I T-boned the side of this car. I ended up having severe neck issues and pain. It was the first time in my life that I was a patient."
His reluctance to take opioids or other drugs for the excruciating pain led to him experimenting to find a different solution. He was a chiropractor with a practice in Los Angeles and tried to find relief through a vibrating table, but the pain came back quickly.
"Vibration never leaves the body," Wersland said, the body accommodates to it, so the pain returns. "What if I had something that was doing that, but came off the body and back on the body?,” he asked.
After experimenting with a reciprocating saw with a towel around the bent blade, he found that, “as I’m running it around my body, I’m fascinated by the fact that my pain’s not coming back."
That moment launched an eight-year research and development journey with five increasingly sophisticated iterations of the device that eventually became the company’s first product, the Theragun G1.
The percussive therapy market has grown hugely and it expanded with lower-cost competitors. "Competition makes you better. It makes you sharp," Wersland said. The company kept its edge in different ways, establishing Therabody University, for instance, an educational division that trains athletes, physical therapists, and everyday users on proper movement and recovery protocols.
Since those days, there have been scores of new products from the company, with the ThermaBack LED one of the more recent ones.
Therabody expanded beyond percussive massage into broader wellness categories, incorporating red light therapy, thermal contrast, pneumatic compression, and microcurrents.
In the ThermaBack LED, as well as vibration, the therapy Wersland first fastened on, is accompanied by heat as well as LED and far-infrared light. It is designed not just to relieve lower-back discomfort but to increase blood flow to the treatment area and thus speed recovery.
Velcro straps and an elastic compression strap hold the belt in place and it is designed to be worn under or over clothing. As with other Therabody devices, a smartphone app lets you customize the settings. You can customize the three heat and vibration levels accordingly.
Though solid, the ThermaBack LED is not heavy when worn and it is designed to be worn whether you’re sitting quietly or continuing your chores.
The built-in battery lasts up to three hours between charges. Therabody says that the best treatment dose is 20 minutes and it shuts off automatically. If you want to use it for longer, the company recommends using the low heat setting only.
The ThermaBack LED costs $329.99 from therabody.com or £249 from therabody.co.uk (where it’s currently on sale for £209).
This product is continuing the journey Dr. Wersland said he was on. “Do we have technologies that we can apply in modalities that make it easier for the everyday person? We can make some really cool things that would be really amazing in the physio room for ourselves. But how do we take that and translate that to the everyday person? That’s really the challenge,” he explained.