指圧 Shiatsu — finger pressure
Acupressure Mat Set
Twenty minutes flat on your back, with nothing to plug in.
$44.00
A spiked mat, a bolster and a bag. Ten to twenty minutes lying on your back on the floor.
- Mat about 68 × 42 cm, bolster about 37 × 15 cm
- Hundreds of small spiked discs
- Drawstring carry bag included
- Lie on it for ten to twenty minutes
How it works
Three steps, ten minutes
Lay it down
On the floor, or on a bed if the floor is too firm to start with. Bolster at the top for your neck.
Lie back slowly
Do not drop onto it. Keep a t-shirt on for the first few sessions — almost everybody does.
Ten to twenty minutes
The sharpness fades after about a minute. If it does not, get up; this is not a thing to endure.
指圧 Shiatsu — finger pressure
Where it comes from
Tsubo — the points
The idea of specific points on the body worth pressing is old and Chinese in origin, set down in the Huangdi Neijing two thousand years ago. It travelled to Japan, where the points are called tsubo and where pressing them with the fingers became shiatsu. A mat is the blunt version: hundreds of points at once, chosen by where you happen to lie rather than by anyone's judgement. It is the cheapest way to find out whether this sort of thing suits you.
About this one
What it is
A foam mat covered in hundreds of small spiked discs, with a matching bolster for the neck and a drawstring bag to keep them in. You lie back on it on the floor, or on a bed if the floor is too much, for ten to twenty minutes.
The first minute is sharp and then it is not. Keep a t-shirt on to begin with.
Specifications
- Mat
- About 68 × 42 cm
- Bolster
- About 37 × 15 cm
- Material
- Cotton cover, foam, plastic discs
- Power
- None required
In the box
- 1 × Acupressure mat
- 1 × Bolster pillow
- 1 × Drawstring bag
How to use it
Care and storage
Shipping
Returns
Background
What the research says about massage
We would rather show you the evidence than describe it. Four studies on massage as a practice, summarised without the parts that would suit us better.
Meta-analysis · 37 trials · 2004
Strongest on anxiety, not on cortisol
Across 37 randomised studies, a course of massage showed its largest effects on long-term anxiety and low mood. A single session lowered blood pressure and heart rate, but did not significantly lower cortisol.
Moyer, Rounds & Hannum. Psychological Bulletin, 2004.Randomised trial · 40 completed · 2016
Swedish massage beat light touch
Twice a week for six weeks, against a light-touch control. The massage group fell 11.67 points on the Hamilton anxiety scale; the control group fell 8.41.
Rapaport et al. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2016.Review · 23 trials · 2,400 people · 2021
Acupressure, with the caveat included
Acupressure did better than usual care on lower back pain and function. The authors then downgraded their own confidence, because the underlying trials were of mixed quality.
Li et al. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2021.Randomised trial · 30 men · 2025
Percussion beat stretching after exercise
Forty-eight hours after hard eccentric exercise, the long percussion group scored better on soreness, knee range and jump height than the group that stretched. Thirty men, ten per arm.
Li et al. Frontiers in Public Health, 2025.The caveat, which we put here ourselves: every one of these studies is about massage given by human hands, in clinical settings, to small numbers of participants. They say the category is worth taking seriously. They say nothing about any particular device, and nothing at all about this one. Our tools are massagers for relaxation and the temporary relief of minor muscle aches — not medical devices, and not a treatment for anything.
The shop
Twelve things we can describe honestly
Noovaria is a small US shop selling massage tools for the home, built on the Japanese anma idea that massage is upkeep rather than treatment. Everything we list has to do one job, live within arm's reach, and be describable in plain numbers. If the only thing a supplier can tell us about a product is how it makes you feel, we pass.
About Noovaria
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