Cupping
Cupping is a therapy in which a glass or plastic “cup” is attached to the skin by creating a vacuum with suction. This technique promotes blood flow and circulation, reduces inflammation, and clears toxins. It also relieves pain from knots, spasms, strains, and sprains and reduces muscled tightnesss immediately.
How does cupping work?
The vacuum/suction action of cupping rapidly facilitates the release of rigid muscles, it loosens and lifts connective tissue, breaks up and drains stagnation and tight muscles, and it increases blood and lymph flow to skin, muscles, and connective tissues. And it does all of this incredibly rapidly and effectively. Just a few minutes of cupping can have immediate and lasting effects.
Pain implies poor blood-flow in an area. When an injury occurs in a muscle, stagnation and impaired micro-circulation can occur – resulting in pain, dysfunction, and stiffness. The suction formed by cupping draws out the old non-circulating stagnant blood from painful areas, so that healthy free circulation can be restored to the area.
What causes cupping marks?
In areas where there is pain and injury, there is often old blood, lymph, cellular debris, and toxins that have been accumulated. Cupping will leave marks which indicate that the stagnation has been released from that area and moved to the surface layers of the tissue, where the body’s capillary system can carry it away to be metabolized and excreted. The color of the marks depends on the level of stagnation in the area. The darker the color, the more stagnation. Marks range from pink to bright red to purple, and usually last from a couple days to a week. If there is no pain or stagnation present, there will be only a light pink mark that disappears quickly after treatment. Areas where there is old trauma or injury may require multiple cupping treatments to clear all stagnation. Generally the marks are less and less with each subsequent treatment as the stagnation improves.