For people who follow professional and amateur sports, it is difficult to avoid spotting that several athletes are sporting a series of dark ring markings across their back.
These are marks associated with myofascial decompression, better known as cupping therapy. Cupping therapy is a complementary therapy that originated in China and the Middle East but has increasingly been adopted by athletes across the world.
It reached international attention by its adoption by Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps during the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and has been cited by several major athletes as helping to relieve pain, improve mobility and help them recover faster.
The way in which it is purported to work is through the use of suction. A cup is heated and then placed onto the skin that draws the skin and muscle upwards into it, leading to the telltale red bumps and the massaging and therapeutic effect.
Proving this is the case is trickier, as research on this alternative therapy is somewhat lacking, limited to a few pilot studies with very small sample sizes.
Studies have highlighted that in a few small meta-analyses that it may be effective at reducing lower back and neck pain, but these studies had limitations caused by a lack of data.
A 2020 study suggested it was better than using a foam roller for helping with hamstring flexibility but was limited by a sample size of just seventeen athletes.
When it comes to taking care of your body, it is vital to stick to treatments you can trust, and whilst there have been few side effects associated with cupping outside of the tell-tale bruises there has also not been enough proof that it works outside of placebo and the effectiveness of massages in general.
For effective treatments you can trust from a sports therapist in Maidenhead, get in touch today.
