Cupping

WHAT IS CUPPING?

Cupping in its most basic form is one of the oldest and most universally practiced medical treatments in the world. Cupping is used widely in the world for many different reasons and the origins of cupping can be dated back to at least 3,500 years ago.

WHY use CUPPING?

Cupping has a vast array of benefits for many patients and can help many different conditions such as but not limited to: poor circulation, edema, sports injuries of many types, foot and ankle pain, headaches, fibromyalgia and other forms of muscle pain. We also use dynamic cupping to improve the range of motion of many joints like ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, and elbows.

WHAT DOES cupping do?

When we use cupping as a part of a treatment plan we do so for several reasons. Cupping allows us to decompress tissue by creating a negative pressure above the surface of the skin. Other soft tissue techniques tend to be compressive in nature where we use our hands or other instruments to push on the tissue and compress it in order to treat a patient.

The negative pressure from cupping pulls tissue up and away from other structures and loosens areas of adhesion and restrictions. As a result of cupping tight contracted tissues will soften and blood vessels dilate allowing us to direct blood flow into painful areas that are ischemic or lack good blood flow.