You may remember a few years ago when Michael Phelps showed up to one of his Olympic events sporting these strange red bruises on his back and shoulders. This single event sparked a huge new trend of static cupping. With all of the hype behind this therapy, you may have questions. Questions like “What is cupping?” and “How does it work?” or maybe even “Could I benefit from cupping?”. Let’s discuss this and why I stand by this modality in my professional career.

What Is Cupping?

Cupping therapy is an eastern therapy thought to have originated in China. This therapy uses cups suctioned to the skin. This suction is achieved in many different ways with varying degrees of suction. You can think of cupping as a type of massage or trigger point release as a quick explanation. We will go more into how it works, different methods, and different uses (because it is so much more than a simple massage).

Cupping Methods

Static cupping is the most common and simple way to administer this modality. Many different types of cups may be used. In static cupping, the cups are placed on the skin and create a suction. The practitioner will leave the cups on for a period of time. However, they will be monitoring the whole time. This is a very passive type of modality but yields excellent results.

Fire cupping is possibly the oldest method of cupping. It is performed using a flaming cotton ball to create a vacuum within a glass cup. This cup is then placed on the skin and will suction the body. The benefits of fire cupping are the same as static cupping while also providing the heat of the cups.

This is a hazardous form of cupping and should not be performed by anyone without the proper training. It is very easy to overheat the glass and burn the patient, shatter the glass due to the heat, or drop the flaming cotton ball on the patient. I’m not bringing these points up to scare you into not doing fire cupping but for you to be aware of the complications that may happen. A simple google search will provide plenty of articles and pictures of burn victims due to improper use of fire cupping. However, when done by a professional, these risk factors will significantly decrease.

Massage cupping is using the cups to give an area of the body a massage. Instead of pushing in on the trigger points or knots in order to relieve the facial build up, the cups will perform a suction to pull them up and apart. A nice feature of this method is that I do not need to leave you with any marks on your back in order to see results. This is more of a massage however, and does not offer some of the big benefits of the other forms of cupping.

Wet cupping is a form of static cupping in which the skin is lacerated or scarified before the cup is placed on the skin. The cup will draw blood and may only be performed by certain professionals in the U.S. The bloodletting is thought to release toxins and pull extra blood and healing properties to the area.

I do not practice wet cupping, nor will I ever. This is a personal choice and does not have anything to do with a professional opinion because I have not looked further into it. I would need to get higher licensing than my D.C., it is much harder to keep sanitary, and it will take more time than I am willing to commit because I am a busy man.

What is it done for/how does it work?

Cupping, in general, has a lot of great uses. Many practitioners use it to help calm spasms and trigger points instead of traditional massage. Practitioners often use cupping for pain relief or control and reducing inflammation. A clinician may use this instead of or even in conjunction with acupuncture needling. Finally, there are claims that it helps remove toxins from the body, but this topic is controversial according to some.

When cupping, instead of pushing in to pull apart a trigger point like a typical massage, a cup will pull up on it. The theory is that this pulls the skin and facial layer up and allows the muscle room to do its thing. Simultaneously, the suction from the cup may trigger an acupuncture point, adding to the benefit. The suction will also help allow inflammation or lactic acid to flow from that area of the body and pull blood into the area.

As this blood is drawn in, the impure blood in the area is pulled out, bringing along the chemicals and toxins in the area. It pulls the toxins up towards the skin to a level that is often patrolled for toxins so the body can get rid of them. Cupping also stimulates the nervous system.

Simplifying the physiology, you can think of the pain receptors as a large group and a small group. Both use the same path to get back to the brain, but only one can use the pathway at a time. When in chronic pain, the small group receptors are continually firing. As they fire, inflammation constantly happens in the area, causing more small receptors to fire, creating a chronic inflammatory and painful state. When cup therapy is applied to the chronic area, the large pain receptors are triggered, causing the pathway to be blocked for the small receptors for a period of time. Your body can start to clear out the inflammation during this time, allowing for a healing process.

I could go on, but I think it is very apparent that cupping is a fantastic modality to use in conjunction with other professional treatments. If you have questions or would like to receive cupping therapy feel free to email me.

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Quick video of cupping being done