Cupping

What is cupping?

Cupping has two primary actions: it lifts muscles to draw fresh, oxygenated blood into the areas that have been stagnant or stuck, and removes stagnant blood to relieve tired or tight muscles.

People who have received cupping often ask for it again, having found it very beneficial; it is a fantastic way of relieving tired and tight muscles.

Dry cupping is suction or vacuum cupping. I normally leave static cups on areas of pain for 5-10 minutes to enable them to have their full effects. There are methods for using cupping techniques to draw blood from the body; I do not practise this style of cupping.

Sliding cupping is applying oil to the area to be cupped; once the cup is applied with sufficient suction, we slide the cup up and down to lift the muscles over a wide area. It has a similar effect to static cupping, but for covering a wider area and being generally more of a moving technique.

Cupping may create marks on the skin under the area the cups are applied to. These marks can vary from pink or red, to purple or black, depending on the level of stagnation in a muscle. They look like a bruise, but they don’t feel like one. Cup marks normally disappear after a few days, depending on how much stagnation they have cleared; the affected area should still feel freer immediately.