Legiral Le3 Massage Gun review

The best massage guns, like the Legiral Le3, have a few big advantages: they’re powerful, portable, and deliver relief to almost any tight spot on your body. Thanks to the percussive pressure through various attachment heads, massage guns can help promote blood flow, release tension, improve range of motion, and even prevent potential injury — all without having to gracelessly contort yourself on a foam roller.

The biggest disadvantage to massage guns is their cost — a good one can run you $300, $400, or even $600. For those who don’t want to take out a line of credit for a recovery tool, you’re in luck — you can easily find the Legiral Le3 Massage Gun for under a hundred bucks. But at such an astonishingly low price, can you expect the Legiral Le3 to be a decent massage gun? Would saving the money be worth it, or would you be better off paying more for a higher quality product? Read our full Legiral Le3 Massage Gun review below. 

Legiral Le3 Massage Gun review: Price and availability

The Legiral Le3 Massage Gun retails at a relatively mid-range $179.99. However, you’re almost certain to find it for a much lower cost: Legiral’s site currently lists the Le3 at $89.99, Amazon has it for $68.99, and Wal-Mart sells it for a jaw-dropping $61.99. 

At those prices, the Le3 is the most affordable massage gun by a long shot, coming in several hundred dollars below the Theragun Pro, the Theragun Elite, and the Hyperice Hypervolt 2 Pro. It’s highly likely you'll pay less for the Le3 than even the budget-friendly Sportneer Elite D9 Massage Gun ($129.99)

Legiral Le3 Massage Gun review: Design

There’s nothing too unique about the Legiral Le3’s design — a T-shape construction with a vertical handle and horizontally affixed motor, shaft, and attachment. In fact, the Le3 looks almost identical to several popular massage guns including the Hyperice Hypervolt 2 Pro, the Sportneer Elite D9, and the Lifepro Fusion X. It’s a common configuration, as it should be — for the most part, the Le3’s shape allows for easy treatment of the body’s tight spots. 

Like the Hypervolt 2 Pro and Elite D9, the Le3 is on the heavier side, and its 2.5 pound weight makes it difficult to hold for too long without giving your wrists and forearms a challenge. Grabbing higher up on the handle can help, but you’ll inevitably lose some force with that angle. While we’re on the subject of handles — the Le3’s silicone-coated handle is an average size and diameter, although it did get a little awkward for me to grip at times.

Powering on the Legiral Le3 is done by flipping a switch on the base of the gun, which illuminates two digital displays that indicate current speed and remaining battery life. “Plus” and “minus” buttons underneath the displays allow you to cycle through the Le3’s twenty speeds, ranging from 1200 to 3200 percussions per minute (PPM). This is the widest speed range of any gun on our list, with the most available speeds second only to the Theragun Pro and Elite (when connected to the Therabody App). Considering the Le3’s extremely inexpensive price tag, these are some pretty unbelievable specs.

The Legiral Le3 comes housed inside a hard-shell zippered carrying case, with dedicated partitions for the gun, its six attachments, and charging block. There’s also a mesh pocket for storing any accessories (though it should be noted that the pocket is very loose, so don’t expect what you place inside to stay put). 

The case itself feels flimsy and a little cheap when compared to Theragun or Sportneer’s cases, but it should still keep your gun protected from the elements. On a positive note — it’s smaller and less cumbersome than the Theragun cases, so you shouldn’t have too many issues throwing it in a gym bag or carry-on. 

While the Le3 can’t be connected to any high-tech apps like the Theragun or Hyperice models, Legiral does include an extensive anatomy lesson in its user manual. 

If you ever wondered where your quadratus lumborum is and the length of time you should massage it, the user manual will answer your questions. It’s a helpful guide, and a really nice touch for a gun I’d expect to be bare bones. 

Legiral Le3 Massage Gun review: Attachments

Six attachments are included with the Le3: a “big ball” head for use on large muscles in the glutes, legs, and abdomen; a “flat” head for use on the chest and other larger muscle groups; a “u-shaped” head for shoulder and cervical spine areas; a “bullet” head for hands, feet, and areas that need pinpoint treatment; a “small ball” head for smaller muscles in the shoulder, neck, and leg; and a “shovel” head for the lats (latissimus dorsi, large muscles in your back), upper shoulder, and back.

As is standard with most guns in the Le3’s price range, all of the attachments (with the exception of both the big and small ball) are made from a hard plastic. This isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker, although it can make treatments rather painful at times. This is especially true if you’re targeting tender areas or excessively tight muscle groups. 

Because the Le3 can be used at much slower speeds than most massage guns, the hard plastic attachments aren’t quite as intimidating. I was actually able to treat the soles of my feet with the bullet on the slowest setting — a feat I’ve never achieved with other massage guns. Once I started to increase the speed however, my tolerance began to plummet: the shovel attachment became unbearable on my lats at a medium speed, and I couldn’t use the U-shaped attachment anywhere past the third or fourth speed setting. I did get some use out of the flat head attachment on my glutes and hips, and was able to bump up the speed considerably without too much wincing. 

I ended up using both the big and small ball the most, as the denser foam of the attachments allowed for effective (and bearable) use on almost all sections of the body. The small ball was especially useful for digging into my pecs after a very push-up centric workout, the big ball came in handy for my troublesome TFL (a muscle in the outer hip), and I used both attachments on my characteristically tight quads for some considerable relief. 

Legiral Le3 Massage Gun review: Performance

The Legiral Le3 boasts a 16mm amplitude (the distance the shaft and attachment travel away from the gun and into your muscle), the same as you’d find on the much pricier Theragun Pro and Theragun Elite. While this is impressive considering its low price, I have to admit that the Le3 didn’t pack quite as powerful a punch as the Theragun models — I had to apply a lot more pressure to get an equivalent massage. For most of us, I’d assume having to use more force is worth saving hundreds of dollars.

When utilized in its slower speed ranges, it doesn’t take much to stall the Le3 — I’d estimate around 20-30 pounds of pressure. That’s around 15 pounds less than it takes to stall a Hypervolt 2 Pro, and a third of the force it takes to stall a Theragun Pro. Stalls and recoils happened a few times during usage at those slower speeds, especially when treating bonier, more sensitive areas. However, when used at a medium or fast PPM, stalling occurred far less frequently. 

According to Legiral, battery life on the Le3 can range anywhere from two to six hours depending on the speed. I got a solid three and a half hours out of the Le3, which is comparable to the Hypervolt 2 Pro. And since there’s a very clear battery life indicator on the display, it’s not likely the Le3 will die on you unexpectedly. Charging the gun to full power took about an hour and a half. All in all, the Le3’s battery is excellent. 

Legiral also claims that the Le3 operates at a very quiet 35 decibels, but that wasn’t my experience. At its slowest setting, the Le3 registered around 50 decibels, and at its fastest, around 65. This isn’t super loud by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not as whisper quiet as advertised. That being said, the noise level certainly wouldn’t keep me from purchasing it.  

Legiral Le3 Massage Gun review: Verdict

For a gun that costs under $100, you’d expect the Legiral Le3 to lack a lot of the high-quality properties of its more expensive competitors. But with a well above-average amplitude, lengthy battery life, an incredibly wide PPM range, and twenty different speed settings, the Le3 holds its own among the more well known brands. 

However, there are a few aspects that reveal why the Le3 is priced the way it is — namely, a less powerful motor and very light stall force threshold. If you’re a professional or recreational athlete, these weaknesses may be pretty glaring. Even a CrossFit devotee or amatuer powerlifter would probably be happier with one of the Theragun or Hyperice models.

But for the majority of those in the market for a massage gun, the Legiral Le3 is a great choice that ultimately saves you more than a few bucks.