Therapeutic Cupping Massage
Cupping is a massage modality that finds its roots in traditional Chinese medicine. The practice uses glass cups to create a vacuum seal on areas of the body. By warming the air within the cup, a vacuum is created, and when it is applied to the skin, the tissue is drawn up into the cup.
This increases the blood flow, loosens the fascia or connective tissue, and is thought to stimulate healing. It is similar to the way deep tissue massage can be used to break up scar tissue and reduce pain. Although cupping is not painful, the recipient commonly walks away with circular bruises on the areas where the cups were applied.
Since the techniques use negative pressure, rather than tissue compression, superior bodywork ranging from deep tissue work to manual lymphatic drainage is easily accomplished. The suction of the cups rapidly facilitates rigid soft tissue release by stretching it up from underlying structures, thus loosening areas of adhesion or restriction, activating muscle spindle reflexes that relax contractile tissue and retraining the myofacial structures. Further, it stimulates the nervous system reflex to the cerebral cortex, contributing to an increased rate of recovery from pain and disease.
Cupping is particularly useful for those patients who find their muscles constantly tight/tense and find it very difficult to obtain any release or long term results. Cupping has been known to treat headaches, rotator cuff injury, low back pain, pulled groin, knee pain and other conditions associate with muscles / fascia tightness.
Overall, myofascial cupping is designed to
- Stimulate the lymphatic system
- Increase blood flow to the muscles and skin
- Loosen adhesions in the myofascial tissue and muscle tissue. (The increase in circulation to the tissue allows for faster elimination of pain causing substances.)