Cupping Massage Therapy

If you tune into any sports game, you may notice your favorite athletes dotted with round red circles on their backs and shoulders. This look results from a cupping massage — a popular technique among professional athletes and celebrities to increase blood circulation and ease muscle pain.

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What Is Cupping Massage Therapy?

Cupping massage therapy involves using heat and cups to create a vacuum suction on the skin. While you may see it a lot more now, cupping comes from an ancient practice tracing back to Egyptian, Middle Eastern and Chinese cultures.

This practice was initially thought to improve an individual's flow of energy and healing, restoring balance in the body. Today, several studies have shown positive results for the treatment of musculoskeletal pain and muscular tension. Additionally, cupping has benefited localized ailments — like headaches, back pain, knee pain and neck pain — and chronic illnesses like arthritis, diabetes and hypertension.

How a Cupping Massage Works

Over the years, cupping has seen an advancement in the type of cup used for the practice. Traditionally, ancient cultures used animal horns before moving on to bamboo cups. From there, bamboo cups transitioned to ceramic and then to the glass cups we use today.

While cupping can have different methods, it is most commonly done with a suction-only approach known as dry cupping. This method uses bell-shaped glass cups heated with fire and applied to the skin. As the cups cool, skin is drawn inside, creating suction.

The suction created in this therapy draws fluid into the targeted area, expanding and breaking blood vessels — or capillaries — under the skin. Your body will treat these areas as an injury and send more blood to activate the natural healing process.

What to Expect Following a Cupping Session

Because of capillary expansion, your skin will have bruise-like spots where the cups were placed — exactly like the ones you have seen on television. These marks should fade in a week or two as your body heals. Mild soreness is normal, as the suction can create a buildup of lactic acid in the muscle tissue.

Body Cupping Therapy at MyoDynamic Health

MyoDynamic Health has a dedicated team of registered massage therapists to help you reach your treatment goals. Please contact us if you have any questions or want more information on our cupping technique. We look forward to serving you at either our Barrie or Innisfil, ON, clinic!

Cupping involves placing glass, bamboo or plastic jars on the skin and creating a vacuum by suctioning out the air. The underlying tissue is raised, or sucked, partway into the cup. The purpose of cupping is to enhance circulation, help relieve pain, remove "heat" and pull out the toxins that linger in your body's tissues.

You usually will feel a tight sensation in the area of the cup. Often, this sensation is relaxing and soothing. Depending on your comfort and your practitioner's assessment of the problem, cups may be moved around or left in place. They may remain on your body briefly or for longer amounts of time. Each treatment is unique to you on that particular day. One very common area to be cupped is the back, although cups work well on other areas, too - particularly on fleshy sections of the body.

Cupping causes the skin to temporarily turn red, blue or purple, especially if there is an injury or energetic blockage under the area that was cupped. The skin discoloration can last anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks, but is rarely painful. Once the marks have cleared, the procedure can be repeated until the condition or ailment is resolved.

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