What is myofascial cupping?

Cupping has originated from early Chinese, Egyptian and middles eastern cultures used for medicine. Over the year the techniques for cupping have been refined with many different cupping modalities, the cupping that I use is myofascial cupping.

Myo referring to the muscles and fascia referring to the connective tissue in the body, this technique targets the fascia that interconnect between the muscles.

When massaging compression is being used to press into the muscles but, cupping uses a negative force to lift the skin and muscles up whilst also using compression around the rip of the cup.

Benefits of myofascial cupping include:

• Increasing the range of movement in the muscles and joints
• Reducing or eliminating myofascial trigger points
• Reducing restrictive fascial adhesions
• Increases the hydration within the fascia and the muscles whilst maintaining function in the tissue
• Increases blood flow overall and to the area allowing the muscles to recover faster
• Increases fluid movement and can assist with swelling/oedema

Myofascial cupping during a treatment uses moving of the cups to reduce the restriction within the fascia. By applying a cream to the area this allows the cups to slide and glide along the muscles giving a gentle passive stretch and by moving the cups or the joints can increase the stretch whilst bringing blood flow to the area.

This technique also includes having the cups stationary for 90 seconds to one minute, by doing this for a shorter period reduces the likeliness of marking. When the cups are stationary Trigger point inserts can be added into the cups to press into the muscle to target the trigger point.

During the treatment the client shouldn’t feel pain, if they do the suction on the cups can be adjusted to be more comfortable to the client.