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Therabody’s versatile new massage roller helps everything from back pain to carpal tunnel syndrome

For the past week, Therabody’s new Wave Duo device has sat on my desk like a nubby black hourglass, beckoning me to ease my sore muscles.

The wireless, vibrating roller is one of the latest releases from the company behind the wildly popular Theragun personal percussive massager. A contoured 7-inch, 2-pound contraption, the Wave Duo massage roller is designed to target both exercise- and everyday-induced woes. I have been demoing it several times a day since Therabody’s director of human performance, Lissa Bankston, showed me how to use the device.

Bankston explained that Wave Duo’s unique peanut shape allows it to cradle your spine and midback. “We created it to treat muscles on either side, and then you melt into the center,” she said, demonstrating how the massager sits at the curve of your neck or low back. Still, despite its distinct shape, this compact device can also be used elsewhere on the body, cradling muscles to give users an effective, all-around massage.

The $99 Wave Duo was designed with versatility in mind: to fit bodies of all shapes and sizes, but also to serve both athletes and desk jockeys. As I discovered, the device is perfect for treating 9-to-5 ailments, such as tech neck and carpal tunnel.

To address my wrist and hand issues, Bankston prescribed a 90-second session with the Wave Duo each morning, back and forth against both sides of the forearm, followed by wrist stretches a few times a day. “Use the device to address inflammation early on, and then reduce [lactic acid] buildup throughout the day,” she explained. Carpal tunnel, which creeps up like a ticking, stiffening time bomb by Thursday afternoon, is a weekly stressor of mine, and I can usually feel the tells a few days before: painful, cracking wrists and aching, warm forearms. A few days of steady rolling sessions on the Wave Duo has kept those early signs at bay.