A New Therapy Tool for Your Nervous System

Earlier this year, my brother sent me a YouTube video about a hand-held device that helps people recover their sense of smell and taste (after COVID infection).  I smiled at the synchronicity, because the device stimulates the vagus nerve, the nerve central to Polyvagal Theory, which I’d been learning about in my Somatic Anxiety course (he didn’t know).  I’ve since acquired the device, learned how to use it, began incorporating it into my work with massage clients, and recently travelled to Chicago to meet the inventor and learn more from him directly.  I’m now a certified brand ambassador for the Rezzimax Tuner because I’m extremely impressed with its effects, and I’m super excited to offer it to my clients!

Restoring sensory input is just one of many applications of the Rezzimax.  So far, personally and professionally I’m most impressed with the quick release of muscular tension and increased range of motion after the Rezzimax is used on the head, neck, shoulders, and jaw.  The device can be used head to toe and even inside the mouth, shifting your nervous system in as little as 90 seconds.  Most protocols can be completed in about 20 minutes.

So how does it work?  Sharik Peck is a physical therapist based in Utah who was searching for answers to persistent physical pain when he was inspired by the notion that vibration is healing to humans.  He couldn’t find the right tool to deliver the vibration he wanted, so he invented it.  The Rezzimax uses precisely tuned vibrations to stimulate nerves, focusing on the vagus nerve, the longest in the body.  Extending from your brain stem into your abdomen, the vagus nerve is otherwise known as CN X, cranial nerve(s) ten, among the twelve pairs of cranial nerves.

The vagus nerve is of interest to modern psychology because it’s the main communicator of the parasympathetic nervous system which, when dominant, allows us to “rest and digest,” to experience calmness, safety, and openness to intimate and joyful connection with others.  Needless to say, these days we’re too often in the other nervous system state, the sympathetic, which drives the “fight, flight, freeze, or fawn” responses.  The vagus nerve doesn’t function well when we’re in “flight or fight” mode, which means the organs and bodily processes it innervates (activates) don’t function well, either.  These include our heart rate and blood pressure, breathing, digestion, nutrient absorption, memory, mood, and even speech.  Vagus nerve stimulation is key to bringing balance to a dysregulated nervous system.

Sharik was inspired by the purr of a cat, and mechanized a 20 - 150 hertz range to produce the Rezzimax.  A cat’s purr often measures between 20 – 140/150 hertz, the lower end of which reduces inflammation and has been used to accelerate the healing of fractured bone.  Sharik also notes that cats experience far fewer cases of cancer than dogs (though there is feline leukemia).  Animals can also benefit from the Rezzimax, and protocols exist for cats, dogs, and horses.

The Rezzimax is indeed calming, but it can also be used to wake up a collapsed nervous system, known as dorsal vagal shutdown in Polyvagal Theory.  In this state, we’re unmotivated, lethargic, socially disconnected, “checked out,” and experiencing related physical symptoms such as digestive upset and a mix of sweating and chills.  Applying the device to your body can literally get you out of bed on such a morning.

The Rezzimax delivers its frequencies at different speeds or intensities and in different patterns depending on the intent of the various protocols.  It can be used to address many conditions including frozen shoulder, sciatica, autism, migraine, epilepsy, tinnitus, vertigo, and chronic pain.

Massage therapists know that one way to disrupt a pain cycle is to overwhelm the nervous system.  When a client has a muscle spasm during a massage, vibration is a remedy, because it gives the nerves too much input to process, and the spasm stops. Using the whole hand, the massage therapist vigorously shakes the belly of the muscle in spasm, or shakes the entire limb.  For a spasm on the sole of the foot, tapotement is used.  This hand-produced vibration during spasm equates to chaos, which overloads the nerves, and interrupts the spasm.  The therapist then has the opportunity to resume work on the area, to elongate the tissue and further break down a chronic pain-spasm-pain cycle.  

Similarly, the Rezzimax can be used on painful areas, only with much better outcomes, because the Rezzimax not only interrupts pain signaling, it introduces resonance to that pathway.  As Sharik says, “Activating new (neural) messaging, when the brain has only been paying attention to the pain signal, is a wonderful tool” or strategy for rewiring the brain in cases of chronic pain.  Sharik suggests this is why massage “guns” alleviate but never heal; they’re not retraining the nervous system. Having used massage guns on clients (and myself) for years, this seems likely to me.

If a client is too sensitive from pain or trauma to allow direct contact with the Rezzimax, the device can be used strategically 1) elsewhere on the body, such as the feet; 2) vicariously through the therapist’s body; 3) wrapped in a towel; or 4) nearby the client, vibrating the seat or table.  Sharik has worked for several weeks with clients sensitive from Trigeminal nerve pain (CN V, in the face), clients with seizures, and clients with autism, e.g., until their nervous systems were functioning well enough to be able to receive the vibrations of the Rezzimax directly on their bodies.  There is also a protocol to release stuck trauma from the body which I’ve witnessed in others and experienced myself.

The Rezzimax device is by far my favorite therapy tool ever, and it’s easy to learn and apply to yourself as well.  I use it in my new Calm Up session, and I also invite you to experience it prior to a massage with me.  Dozens of happy Rezzimax clients attest to its therapeutic value.  Come see for yourself! 

I wrote about nervous system states and hertz measurements of brain wave states relevant to my style of massage therapy in this prior post, a 4-minute read but for members only.  Please join for full access from the top right of the home page.