Unlocking Healing: Exploring the Benefits of Cupping Therapy

Curious about cupping? Read more below to get familiar, I can’t wait to throw some cups on you!

My first time receiving cupping was L I F E - C H A N G I N G! I felt a lot of tension release during the treatment and I was surprised to experience such a dramatic reduction in back pain with improved mobility and range of motion. I’ve played around with cups before but I wanted to better understand how they work, what makes them so effective in treating muscle pain and tension and how to better use them to incorporate them in my massages. Last week I completed a 16 hour myofascial cupping training at McKinnon Body Therapy Center! Here’s what I’ve learned about how it works, what the benefits are and what to expect during a session with me.

What is it and how does it work?

Cupping therapy, also known as myofascial cupping or simply cupping, is an ancient healing practice that dates back thousands of years, with roots in Chinese, Egyptian and Middle Eastern cultures. It involves placing cups on the skin to create suction, which is believed to promote healing and relieve pain.

There are two ways to use cups. Static cupping involves placing cups on specific points of the body and leaving them in place for a set period, typically a few minutes at a time. Slide cupping uses lighter pressure and involves applying oil to the skin and moving the cups in a gliding motion along the muscles.

During cupping, the cups create negative pressure through suction, leading to localized decompression of the tissues where the cups are placed. It lifts the skin, fascia and muscle layers, increases circulation, and releases tension.

When a muscle and fascia get stuck in an adhesion, they move together as one and aren’t able to act independently as they’re meant to, which can cause limited range of motion and pain. Cupping helps separate the stuck muscle and fascia, breaks down the adhesions and helps with scar tissue reduction. As blood rises through the tissues with the negative pressure, it brings up cellular waste, toxins and lymph to the surface to help the lymphatic system process it.

Why you should add it to your session?

The main benefits of cupping therapy include pain relief, improved circulation, reduced inflammation, tension release and scar tissue reduction. It also promotes mobility and range of motion.

Cupping desensitizes pain patterns by sending the nervous system non painful signals when placed in a usually painful area, which makes this modality highly effective in addressing deep tension and adhesions. Incorporating cupping into my massages allows me to break adhesions faster by letting the cups do some of the deep work for me.

If you like deep therapeutic work, I’d love to throw some cups on you and provide you with some pain relief and adhesion melting.

What to expect?

I will likely use a combination of static and slide cupping, depending on what I feel will benefit you best each session.

Cupping can feel slightly uncomfortable at first, but shouldn’t hurt. I like to start with light suction for short periods of time and as your body gets familiar to the feeling, I slowly increase suction and the length of time cups are left on. You should initially feel a pulling sensation as your skin is lifted by the cup. After a few moments you won’t be able to tell exactly where the cup is, or even how many there are on. If there is any pain, just let me know and I can easily adjust the suction.

After cupping, it is common to see temporary marks on the skin, ranging from light pink to dark purple. These marks, known as "cupping marks" or "sha," are caused by the rupture of small blood vessels under the skin and are not painful. They usually fade within a few days to a week. You can mark in some places and not in others, more or less marking doesn’t mean the session was more or less effective.  The more often you receive cupping for the same issue, the lighter the marks will be.

Want to try it? Just click the “+ Cupping” add-on option when you book your next Swedish or Deep Tissue massage.

Stay healthy!