Cupping has been a favorite form of treatment for athletes for the longest time. We have actually discussed cupping in general in a past blog post!
For this entry, we want to get more specific and talk about different types of cupping and how it may benefit you or what you may think is the best type of cupping for your treatment plan.
Let’s first discuss DRY CUPPING:
What is dry cupping? This is where cups are placed on you with no lubrication and are generally static. You will most likely have the classic round cupping marks.
Different Types of Dry Cupping:
FLASH CUPPING
Only uses 1 large or medium cup with no lubrication and the goal is to get a light suction from the cup.
How it works:
- Cup will be placed lightly, then pulled off of the body right away
- Then your practitioner will immediately replace the cup on the skin over and over the area you want to cup (it will go red but not mark)
Benefits:
- Brings blood flow to the skin
- Stretches the skin
- Brings fluid to the area
FAST CUPPING
Your practitioner will be using 3-4 cups and then create a path over the desired area. Once they are in a line the cups will leap-frog over the area. There should be no marks after this type of cupping.
Benefits:
- Brings fluid from the tissues to the superficial skin where the main goal is for the lymphatic system to take
- Stretch the skin and tissues underneath
BLANKET CUPPING
Covering a large area entirely with a lot of cups which will likely leave marks on your body.
Benefits:
- Lots of neurological stimulus to the area
Now we can talk about DYNAMIC Cupping
Typically known as Massage cupping and now the cups have lubrication and are usually moved around the body.
The cup can be used to massage the tissues and can be lifted up to create a suction to ultimately decompress the desired area.
The marks from Dynamic cupping are small dots or bruises.
MYOFASCIAL/WALKING CUPPING
How it works:
- One or more cups are used
- Edges of the vacuum cup can be used to manipulate the tissue on top of the effect of the cupping
Benefits:
- Very similar to soft tissue treatment but the cups have an added benefit of decompressing the tissue
- Pulls the blood to the local area
Cupping is not an essential rehabilitation tool in order to improve performance. People ask or seek out cupping for multiple reasons such as, it feels good, helps them become more aware of their muscles (increase proprioception) or it helps them recover faster. No matter what your goals are, there may be benefits to adding cupping into your treatment plan.
Speak to one of our practitioners about adding it into yours today!
