Cupping is a therapy that involves placing a glass or plastic “cup” on the skin by creating a vacuum through suction. This technique enhances blood flow and circulation, decreases inflammation, and helps eliminate toxins. Additionally, it alleviates pain from knots, spasms, strains, and sprains, providing immediate relief from muscle tightness.
How Does Cupping Work
The vacuum suction created during cupping quickly helps release tight muscles, loosens and elevates connective tissue, breaks up stagnation, and promotes drainage in tight areas. It also boosts blood and lymph flow to the skin, muscles, and connective tissues—all of this happens remarkably quickly and effectively. Just a few minutes of cupping can yield immediate and lasting benefits.Pain often indicates poor blood flow in a specific area. When a muscle is injured, stagnation and impaired micro-circulation can occur, leading to pain, dysfunction, and stiffness. The suction generated by cupping extracts stagnant, non-circulating blood from painful regions, allowing healthy circulation to be restored.
What causes cupping marks?
In areas of pain and injury, there is often an accumulation of old blood, lymph, cellular debris, and toxins. Cupping leaves marks that indicate stagnation has been released from the area and moved to the surface layers of the tissue, where the body’s capillary system can transport it away for metabolism and excretion. The color of these marks reflects the level of stagnation present: darker colors indicate greater stagnation. Marks can vary from pink to bright red to purple and typically last from a few days to a week. If no pain or stagnation is present, only a light pink mark will appear, which fades quickly after treatment. Areas with old trauma or injury may require several cupping sessions to eliminate all stagnation. Generally, the marks become lighter with each subsequent treatment as stagnation improves.
Cupping marks are NOT bruises and are not painful or tender. While the marks may appear dramatic, the treatment feels quite pleasant, often resulting in immediate relief, increased looseness, and reduced pain and tightness.