Cupping is a prehistoric form of alternative medicine, where a therapist places special types of cups on your skin for a couple of minutes to create suction while you perform active movements to enhance the effect. Individuals opt for cupping for various reasons, such as to help with pain, blood flow, inflammation, general well-being, and relaxation. Some people even consider active cupping as a deep-tissue massage.
How Is Cupping Performed?
How Is Cupping Performed?
A physical therapist places a cupping device, usually made of plastic or silicone with a vacuum pump over the areas that need to be addressed. This makes the skin rise and expands the blood vessels. In the physiotherapy setting, we often have our clients move or slide the cups along the surface of the skin, while the cups are attached to enhance their effectiveness.
Why Is Cupping Therapy Performed?
Physical therapists might use cupping as a method of tissue distraction release. This helps enhance the interfaces between the fascia, neural tissues, ligaments, skin, tendons, and muscles.
Evidence also suggests that cupping methods are effective for low back pain, shoulder pain, muscle strains, and chronic neck pain. It has even been shown to release trigger points, relax muscles, increase local circulation, release scar tissue adhesion, and enhance lymphatic flow.
Cupping therapy for athletes and sports cupping therapy is also quite popular. Several athletes from the 2016 Olympics used cupping. In fact, an athlete who suffered from iliotibial pain for a year reported immediate relief after a three-minute cupping session. After just two cupping sessions, the athlete did not experience any pain and got back to his regular running. This indicates that cupping for athletes might be more beneficial than methods focusing on compressing down soft tissues.
There’s actual science behind cupping physical therapy. For example, producing suction through negative pressure can enhance blood and hydration to body tissues, rid excess fluids, eliminate connective tissues, and ease up adhesions.
In essence, cupping is a diverse treatment that can be adapted from lymphatic drainage to deep tissue release. This technique is often used in medical massage and physical therapy.
What to Expect After Cupping?
There aren’t too many cupping side effects with non-glass cupping. The cupping therapy side effects you do experience will generally occur immediately after or during your treatment. Sometimes, the skin around the cup’s rim might get irritated or be marked in a circular pattern. Discoloration or tenderness around the cupping region sometimes occurs and may last up to week for fair-skinned clients or those who tend to bruise easily. Moreover, there’s a low rare risk of infection after cupping.
Contact Next Level Physio Today!
Contact us at Bergen County & Woodcliff Lake, NJ Center, and schedule an appointment to determine if you’re the right candidate for cupping therapy. Our skilled, experienced, and competent therapists will perform a complete evaluation of your needs and condition.
