Cupping is an ancient aspect of Chinese Medicine that was recently made famous in the United States during the 2016 Olympics as many athletes utilized its healing benefits to recover from sports related ailments. With the help of heat, glass cups form a suction on the body’s tissues creating a therapy similar to massage. However, whereas massage commonly utilizes compression therapy, cupping does the opposite by pulling the body tissue rather than pressing it. In doing so stagnant devitalized blood and body fluid is moved allowing for new more nourishing blood and fluids to enter those spaces to rejuvenate and heal. It is an especially fantastic therapy for relieving muscle tension.

Cupping is a lesser-known treatment that is also part of Oriental medicine, one that can provide an especially pleasant experience. One of the earliest documentations of cupping can be found in the work titled A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies, which was written by a Taoist herbalist by the name of Ge Hong and which dates all the way back to 300 AD. An even earlier Chinese documentation, three thousand years old, recommended cupping for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. In both Eastern and Western cultures, cupping evolved from shamanistic practices that held the belief that illnesses and infirmities can be sucked out of the body

Cupping was established as an official therapeutic practice in the 1950s across hospitals in China after research conducted by Chinese and former Soviet Union acupuncturists confirmed cupping’s effectiveness. Prior to the 1950s, cupping had also been practiced as an auxiliary method in traditional Chinese surgery. In recent years cupping has been growing in popularity, with celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, David Arquette, and athlete Michael Phelps drawing public attention to the traditional Chinese therapy technique.