Chirp Wheel Reviews

Back pain affects a significant percentage of Americans, with over 50 million people reporting chronic pain in 2019.1 And according to the CDC, the prevalence of low back pain grows from over 35% to more than 45% from the ages of 30-60.2 Back pain has many causes, including poor posture, sedentary lifestyles, injury, and more.

You can take steps to alleviate back pain, like chiropractic treatment, posture correctors, and — in extreme cases — surgery. Opioids are a common symptom remedy, but their long-term efficacy is questionable, and they don't get to the heart of the problem.3 One of the simplest and least expensive treatment options that avoids medication is to use a device like Chirp Wheel alongside a good stretching and exercise regimen.

Chirp Wheels differentiate themselves from basic yoga wheels by better protecting your spine while offering significant relief along the majority of your spinal column. In this review, we'll look at how they work, how safe they are, and if they're right for you.

As long as you don't have a severe back injury, Chirp Wheels can offer significant relief at various points along the spine. They're easy to use once you've had a little practice, and their quality construction and added spine protection make them a superior choice to less expensive yoga wheels and foam rollers. Some of the company’s secondary products are less impressive, but the core of its lineup — the Chirp Wheel — remains a sound investment.

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service or product we review, including Chirp Wheels. Our team has dedicated nearly 100 hours to reading scientific journal articles about spinal health and posture, as well as spending time hands-on with the products in question. We’ve ordered Chirp Wheels for ourselves and used them for extended periods to be able to report back to you what the experience was like.

Our anecdotal data is tempered by those many hours of research and by conversations we had with real Chirp users. That includes an extended talk with one of the country’s leading experts in chiropractic, allowing us to give you an unbiased, expert-informed, and experience-based opinion about Chirp Wheels and its competitors. Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

Evaluating Chirp Wheels required us to get hands-on experience with the company’s products. We considered their effectiveness first, and this bore the most weight in our final judgment. We also looked at ease of use, safety, cost, and durability. To arrive at our ratings, we consider Chirp on its own merit, as well as in comparison to its competitors.

Effectiveness

Our experience with Chirp Wheels has led us to conclude that they are, indeed, effective. We also reached out to Dr. Steven G. Clark, a chiropractor with over 40 years of practice and a four-term president of the Association of New Jersey Chiropractors. Dr. Clark agrees that Chirp Wheels offer a benefit, saying he “could recommend them to select patients,” citing that they could stretch the muscles they come in contact with and also improve posture.

So, one or more of the wheels will likely alleviate some pain and discomfort in your back and may also ease other symptoms associated with poor posture and spinal alignment. However, there are some important caveats that prevent our rating from getting any higher.

First, not every wheel will be equally effective for every person or every back problem. And discovering which wheel is right for you is an inexact science. If you’re like the users we interviewed, you’ll likely want to acquire a multi-pack of some kind that offers more than just one wheel. You may find that only one or two of the wheels in that pack make a difference for you, which would lead you to own at least one Chirp Wheel you don’t use too often.

Second, some products in the Chirp catalog fail to live up to expectations, most notably the Chirp Wheel Pro. We’ll get deeper into our gripes with that particular model later on, but suffice it to say the addition of a vibration function detracted from the rolling experience more than it contributed to any additional relief in the minds of our testers.

Finally, and this will lead us into our next criterion, the learning curve isn’t terribly forgiving for new users. There are balancing issues, neck discomfort, and even some pain to overcome before you can start to enjoy what the wheels have to offer. For some users, this initiation period is too rigorous, and they will either return the products or pack them away in a closet for the foreseeable future.

Ease of use

Once you get the hang of using a Chirp Wheel, the process becomes much more enjoyable. The problem is that getting the hang of it might prove too difficult for some users to get to the promised land.

Whatever wheel or set of wheels you start with, you’ll want to use the biggest one first. Larger wheels produce less pressure and are better for learning to balance without dealing with too much pain. The sensation is somewhat disorienting, as well. You’ll feel almost as though the outer edges of the Chirp Wheels are digging into your back. This feeling intensifies when you lose your balance a bit.

If you want to ease into things before your first roll and before graduating to a smaller wheel, then try using your Chirp Wheel against a wall instead of on the floor. You’ll have much more control, and the experience will give you a sense of what to expect when you take the roll horizontal. Once you’re on the floor, you should use your hands to support you on either side until you can balance properly.

After enough attempts, you’ll feel comfortable rolling for several minutes on end. But even experienced rollers will find that their clothes can get snagged or bunch up along the lower back from friction against the wheel.

Chirp recently released an XL model that’s seven inches wide as opposed to the typical 5-inch width seen on its other models. That extra width is great for those who have the most difficulty balancing on a standard Chirp wheel. It also brings Chirp in line with Acumobility’s Ultimate Back Roller — probably the closest thing to a Chirp Wheel on the market — which also boasts a 7-inch width.

Safety

While the addition of a central channel to reduce pressure on the vertebrae makes Chirp Wheels an undeniably safer pick than typical foam rollers for back pain, their steep learning curve comes after a long, flat period of moderate difficulty. If you rush through that initiation period, it would be easy to lose your balance and hurt anything from your back to your wrists (which you’re supposed to use to support yourself in those early days).

Those two counteractive aspects force us to limit our safety rating here, even though regular use should increase the safety of these products.

There is one other hazard that we have to mention here and will likely mention throughout this review: lower back rolling. No foam roller is intended for use on the lower back — whether a Chirp Wheel, Acumobility’s Back Roller, or any generic option you may find. But depending on the clarity of your mind-body connection, it may be difficult for you to feel where your lower back truly begins with any degree of accuracy. That can lead some users to put undue pressure on their lower back while using a Chirp Wheel, potentially leading to injury.

There are techniques you can employ to help protect your lower back as you roll in its direction, and we'll detail those in our expanded safety section below, but the risk is still very real.

Cost

Comparing Chirp Wheels to other yoga wheels and foam rollers isn’t entirely fair to Chirp, as the company’s spinal channel and overall construction are specific to the brand. There are plenty of less expensive yoga wheels and foam rollers out there, but the experience they provide is not quite the same.

The product closest to Chirp Wheels in form and function that we identified is the back roller from Acumobility. It’s essentially a wheel like those from Chirp, but it features four rows of hemispherical nodes that protrude from its surface to create more pressure points in your muscles. And while Acumobility doesn’t have a dedicated spine channel the way Chirp does, the gap between its central rows of nodes creates a space for the spine to fit into comfortably.

Comparing the costs of these two products requires us to focus on either Chirp’s 10-inch or 12-inch model, as Acumobility’s back roller is only available in an 11-inch diameter.

Here’s a quick look at how they compare:

Durability

If you’ve ever used a foam roller that belonged to a gym, you’ve likely seen how significantly they degrade over time. Everything from light impacts to the sweat they encounter slowly eats away at the foam material, and they eventually need to be replaced. Yoga wheels and Chirp Wheel knock-offs boast a little more durability, but we've consistently found that Chirp Wheels boast some of the best durability on the market.

Among our testers, the longest-tenured Chirp Wheel user had been utilizing their devices for nearly three years, and while the foam had eroded slightly from daily contact with various floors, that erosion was even across the wheel and in no way presented a need for replacement. Our team hasn’t had enough time with products like the Chirp Cloud to speak to their durability, but if they come close to the staying power of the company’s central products, they should stand up to plenty of abuse.

A Chirp Wheel is a back pain relief tool — similar to a foam roller — with a specialized cutout designed to protect your spine while you use it. Chirp Wheels come in various sizes that act slightly differently on your back. Some can gently stretch the vertebrae to help elongate the spine and relieve compression, while others massage the musculature along the spinal column. The company, simply called Chirp, also sells various accessories to improve or enhance your rolling experience.

There are four diameters of Chirp Wheel, each with benefits and drawbacks. The intensity of pressure on your back increases as the size of the wheels gets smaller:

• 12-inch: Best place to begin. It stretches the spine, but you may grow out of it quickly.
• 10-inch: Gentle combination of stretch and massage, but not enough of either for some. This diameter is also available in a 7-inch-wide model for added stability.
• 8-inch: This diameter offers less stretch and more massage pressure than larger wheels, and it’s only available with the vibrating Chirp Wheel Pro.
• 6-inch: Deep tissue massager. It doesn't stretch the spine much. Not for beginners.
• 4-inch: Extremely intense on the back, but can gently massage and elongate the neck.

Chirp Wheels are great for mild-to-moderate back pain, especially in the mid-back and upper back. They're also easier to use if you're at least relatively active and have good balance. Balancing on Chirp Wheels is pretty challenging at first. Even though it gets easier quickly, those with poor balance and coordination might have difficulty adjusting.

Chirp Wheels are designed to alleviate back pain, but the specific ways in which they do this differ from one wheel to the next, depending mostly on their various sizes. To make the most sense of the way Chirp Wheels work, let’s look at a few potential back problems and how you might want to address them. This will also give you a good sense of who could benefit from which particular wheels.

As we said, anyone dealing with the above-mentioned back-related issues can benefit from using a Chirp Wheel. That said, even those with good posture and no discernable back pain can still reap benefits from using them. There is evidence that foam rolling in general is an effective training tool for increased performance and decreased recovery time in athletes.9

However, there are some risks associated with using Chirp Wheels, and there are plenty of instances where you’d want to avoid them unless specifically advised to use them by a physician. People who have suffered severe spinal injuries are the most obvious group that should probably avoid Chirp Wheels. As are those who have significant difficulty balancing, including people with vertigo.

Dr. Clark also points out that patients with osteoporosis may not be ideal candidates for Chirp Wheel use. He also advises patients with obesity to be careful. This isn’t due to a lack of stability in the Chirp Wheels (which can support up to 500 lbs.) — it’s more to do with how the body may not conform properly to the wheel in the presence of too much adipose tissue.

If you suffer from chronic migraine, Chirp Wheels may be a hit or a miss, depending on the nature of your triggers. For some migraine sufferers, massage and acupressure are helpful tools in mitigating attack frequency and intensity. For others, that pressure contributes to attacks. If you’re not sure how your migraine will respond to using Chirp Wheels, it would probably be safer to start with a larger model, which applies less pressure.

And while not specific to Chirp Wheels, there is evidence that chiropractic care can help alleviate symptoms of various disorders, including high blood pressure and anxiety.10 Of course, Chirp Wheels don’t offer comprehensive chiropractic care, but the process is rather relaxing, and you might discover a greater degree of comfort and relaxation in your back than you thought you could achieve. Our testers routinely reported feeling relaxed and energized after use.

Chirp Wheels are designed to be safer than other back rollers on the market. They achieve this distinction thanks to a dip carved into the center of the wheel that prevents your spine from compressing as you roll.

That said, Chirp Wheels share some of the same dangers as other rollers. Specifically, tipping risk from losing your balance, neck strains, and the lack of musculoskeletal support around the lower vertebrae make rolling along the lowest portion of your back somewhat dangerous.

Balance

Your first experiments with a Chirp Wheel on the floor should include your arms with your hands planted on the floor for support. This will limit the amount you can roll forward or backward, but it’s imperative to help you learn to balance properly.

There’s also no shame in reaching for the ground if you feel your balance slipping. The first sign of this is often a sharpening of the pressure on one side of the wheel where it meets your back. This occurs when one side of your back digs into the corner of the wheel instead of resting on its flat surface. If you feel that change in pressure, place your arms down to regain your balance.

Neck support

Once you get your arms up off the floor and achieve a good balance, you may want to use them to support your neck. Several of our testers found that using their necks to support the weight of their heads in a horizontal position got uncomfortable quickly. For some, that strain caused them to stop individual rolling sessions faster than any discomfort in the back.

You may wish to roll with your hands supporting your head, similarly to how you’d hold them while doing sit-ups. Our testers found that this position made accessing the upper back more difficult, especially as you get closer to the neck. You can change the position of your elbows in this position (from pointed out to the sides to pointed toward the ceiling) to adjust the protrusion of your shoulder blades and make rolling with neck support more effective.

Lower back safety

Your lower back is most vulnerable after the point where your rib cage ends. When you're in position on the wheel with it roughly at mid-back, feel along your rib cage to where it stops. Then roll down to that point to feel where you should stop for safety's sake.

Certain breathing techniques can extend the safe range of your roll by expanding your diaphragm.11 A simple way to learn this type of breathing requires a second person. Have them place one hand on your shoulder and another on your side just above your hips. As you breathe deeply, concentrate on keeping the hand on your shoulder from moving while feeling your side press into the hand down there. This can help train you to pull air deep into your lungs, where the increased air pressure and the expansion of your diaphragm can help cushion the vertebrae of the lower back. However, even with this technique, you still can't go all the way down, and you should limit your attempts to do so as much as possible.

If you still have lower back pain that a Chirp Wheel can’t reach safely, you can try a gentle vertical roll with the wheel between your back and a wall. This will give you much more control over the amount of pressure the wheel applies to your lower back. It still requires care on your part, but the risk is lower.

Remember, all of these risks are present in any foam rolling situation, though the balancing risk is less of a factor on wider wheels like the Acumobility Back Roller or the Chirp Wheel XL.

Before you ever try to use a Chirp Wheel on the floor, we highly recommend you take the company's advice and use the largest wheel you ordered in a doorway or against a wall. By getting used to the wheel against your back while in a standing position, you have a lot more control over the intensity of the pressure against your back.

When you eventually transition to the floor, Here are the steps you should follow:

1. Sit against the wheel without rising up on it at first.
2. Slowly raise your hips and move backward with your hands on the floor to aid in balance and support your weight.
3. Gradually remove your hands from the floor, but don't begin to roll.
4. Get used to the feeling of your body weight against the wheel.
5. Rock gently to feel how moving will affect your balance.
6. With your hands close to the floor to catch you, begin rolling up and down your spine.
7. Adjust the speed and placement of your roll to target any areas of tension.
8. Repeat steps 1-7 whenever you upgrade to a smaller, more intense wheel.

Chirp Wheels are available individually or in sets. Buying in sets can save you money, and some combinations include extra products that can help with posture and back pain. Chirp’s bundling options are notably distinct from Acumobility’s here, as Acumobility only has the one wheel to offer; its bundles include other products like acupressure balls and exercise bands, but only Chirp Bundles get you multiple wheels.

Here's a breakdown of available Chirp Wheels alone and in combination:

In previous years, the three-pack from Chirp included the 6-, 10-, and 12-inch wheels. Our testers found this to be a superior trio to the current 4-, 6-, and 10-inch combination. The 10-inch wheel may be a Goldilocks wheel for some; it’s neither too easy on the back nor too intense. But our testers found this to make it less of a perfect balance and more of a milquetoast letdown. You can really feel the stretch you get from the 12-inch model, and you can definitely feel the intense pressure the 6-inch model provides. But the 10-inch doesn’t provide enough of either, in our opinion. And the 4-inch offers only targeted use for the neck and small areas, making it less globally useful along the back than other wheels.

So, the old three-pack got you what we consider the company’s two best wheels in the 12- and 6-inch models, along with a 10-inch model that serves as an important transition as you get comfortable enough with the process to try the intense 6-inch model. That’s two out of three wheels you’ll use regularly and one you’ll probably only use to transition. But the new three-pack gives you one wheel you’ll use regularly in the 6-inch model and two you’ll use sporadically. That makes it an inferior deal.

Because of this change in the product lineup, we recommend most users opt for the 4-pack instead. You still get saddles with the 10-inch wheel, but you’ll acquire the 12-, 6-, and 4-inch wheels for about $16 less than you’d spend to buy those three individually. And if you fall in love with the 10-inch one for some reason or another, that’s an added bonus.

A word about the Chirp Wheel Pro

Our testing team has enjoyed using Chirp Wheels immensely. So, when the company came out with the Chirp Wheel Pro, we were excited to try it. The idea seemed sound: an 8-inch wheel with a vibration function that could help relax the muscles around the spine to offer a deeper massage and stretch. And, in Chirp’s defense, none of its competitors offer such a product. But there are some problems:

Some of these issues are things that Chirp can undoubtedly address in future iterations of the Pro, though the storage issue is likely here to stay. For now, you may want to steer clear of it.

Accessories

Chirp offers a handful of other products, as well, some of which support the use of the wheels themselves, while others support different aspects of back health. These include:

Chirp’s closest competitor, Acumobility, also offers a slew of products outside of its back roller, including:

• Yoga wedges
• Resistance bands
• Foam rollers
• Exercise mats
• Heavy soft tissue mobilization tools
• Acupressure balls

The most interesting of these to our team are the acupressure balls and the soft tissue mobilizers. Several of our testers have experience with soft tissue mobilization as a form of physical therapy, but in lighter-weight, more acute applications than Acumobility’s tools — which it calls BoomSticks — have to offer. And the acupressure balls have stabilized bases that allow you to rest however much body weight you like on them without concern for any unwanted movement.

Pricing among Acumobility’s products is extremely similar to Chirp’s, though Acumobility tends to be the less expensive of the two. You might do well to acquire Chirp Wheels but use them on an Acumobility mat.

Acumobility also offers a 21-day online mobility program, a product Chirp has yet to match.

Chirp offers a 15% discount for certain groups, including:

• Military: active duty, veterans, and dependents
• First responders: police, fire, and EMTs
• Medical workers: Nurses, doctors, and other medical personnel
• Teachers: Pre-K, K-12, and professors

Acumobility offers no such discount program.

Payment, shipping, and returns

Chirp accepts payment from major credit cards, Amazon Pay, and PayPal. Shipping is free on all orders over $75. This is another area in which Acumobility has a slight advantage, as its free shipping threshold is only $55.

Are Chirp Wheels covered by insurance?

At this time, we’re unaware of any insurance company that would cover any or all of the cost of Chirp products. That said, the company has become eligible for HSA/FSA reimbursement. It stresses that everyone’s plan may be different and to talk to your provider before making a purchase. But this is a step in the right direction for this kind of care. From what we could tell, Acumobility does not have FSA or HSA eligibility.

60-day money-back guarantee

Chirp has a 60-day money-back guarantee that will refund you your entire purchase price if you're not satisfied with your Chirp Wheels after two months. That’s a full 30 days longer than Acumobility’s return policy. Both companies’ policies exclude any shipping charges from their refunds.

For most back pain sufferers, Chirp Wheels are very much worth it. This is especially true when you compare their cost to an average chiropractor's visit. And since so few insurance plans offer much (or any) chiropractic coverage, being able to put your care in your own hands is a big plus.

Our testers almost uniformly found a moment in the early stages of using a Chirp Wheel where they felt they’d never be able to balance properly. However, every tester was perfectly comfortable balancing on the 12-inch wheel within three sessions, and most moved on to the 10-inch wheel in under a week.

While we think that Chirp Wheels are a great choice for most people, there are other approaches to back problems that are also entirely valid. Fortunately, none of these conflict with Chirp Wheel use, so you can mix and match them all until you start to experience relief. Let’s take a quick look at some of the alternatives: