Cupping therapy is an Ancient Chinese practice which had got a buzz in 2016 Rio Olympics when Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps was seen with purple dots on his back. Many other American athletes including Draymond Green and LaShawn Merritt were in the list of 100 USA Olympic athletes who received Cupping therapy.
Apart from athletes, other celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow have also been receiving cupping therapy since last few years. Kim Kardashian has received facial cupping and another actress Busy Philips revealed her fitness secret by posting her cupping therapy images on Instagram. And the hashtag Cupping was used almost 500,000 times. Celebrities are going for cupping therapy to reduce tension and back pain and increase body endurance and blood flow. This old practice has become a mainstream treatment to heal many ailments.
Cupping therapy is a reverse form of massage where skin tissues are lifted instead of pressing down. The therapy uses special glasses, placed on the skin to create a vacuum by heating them. The vacuum created by warm glasses lifts the skin tissue for 15 to 20 minutes. During this process, the tension of the body gets released, and endurance increases significantly.
Dr. Allison Heffron, a chiropractor, and acupuncturist at Physio Logic in Brooklyn, New York, said, “Unlike massage or chiropractic techniques, which involve soft tissue mobilization where muscles are pressed on, cupping therapy is decompressive rather than compressive.”
Heffron talked about several types of cupping therapies, but she prefers in slide cupping, where cups are moved back and forth across the skin. Another cupping she described is wet cupping where the skin is lightly cut for controlled bleeding before placing cups. These therapies have shown great effects when it comes to treating people and relieving them off the pain.
