Cupping- What you need to know
What is Cupping? People have used this healing modality for centuries. Here’s how it works.
At the 2016 Olympics, swimmer Michael Phelps showed up with his back covered in round, purple bruises. They were the result of a recent cupping treatment, a traditional healing technique using heated cups or suction cups on the skin to increase circulation and remove toxins from the tissues below.
Media were all over Phelps’s use of “alternative” medicine, but today an athlete bearing the same telltale round bruises doesn’t cause as much of a ripple.
Professional athletes celebrate cupping for its range of benefits, especially in improving recovery time, but they’re not the only enthusiasts. Today you’ll see cupping as an add-on service in many spas and body work studios (as you do at Soul Healing and Wellness), where the practice produces bruises as vivid as those sported by Phelps. These marks fade in a week or so, but any bodywork modality involving mild disfigurement deserves some examination.
TRADITION AND TODAY
Cupping has been practiced for more than 5,000 years. Today it’s often used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as a complement to acupuncture. In this context, the practitioner develops a treatment plan based on the client’s current complaints. The goal can be as general as increasing energy or as precise as healing a persistent cough.
Cupping works directly on connective tissue, so it can feel especially good on sore muscles. It is helpful for breaking up adhesions in the tissue, dredging and elimination of toxins, and increasing circulation of qi (energy) and blood. The power of cupping can reach up to 4” into the body. Giving access to the lungs for respiratory issues. Some clinics across the US have reported ease in symptoms for rheumatoid arthritis, back pain, headaches, and high blood pressure.
The process typically involves a practitioner placing a set of cups on the back, chest, and limbs. They’re affixed with a vacuum action, crafting a slight pulling sensation. This suction draws blood to the skin’s surface, ushering it to or from a specific part of the body. The practitioner may slide the cups around to increase sensation, then leave them for 20 minutes or less.
If you’re seeing a TCM practitioner, they may set the cups near acupoints or meridians. If you’re seeing someone without, they may set the cups on muscles that feel tight. Either way, the sensation can be somewhat intense for some and comforting for others. Some clients have noted feeling like the cups help get blood flow into areas that have been frozen for a long time. Cupping can help get new energy and blood flow into areas of the body that have been tight or immobile.
The common theme and reaction is that cupping tends to grant a sense of relief and release to the client.
A note to the reader, do not confuse cupping for a relaxing spa treatment. Though it may be comforting and find ease in the body, the process itself can be intense. The broader effects of cupping can take time, but the relief will come.
