Michael Phelps Tried Cupping Which Is Not What It Sounds Like But Is Actually A New Therapy

By now we've all heard about the fact that American swimmer Michael Phelps is the most successful Olympian ever in history; having won a staggering 25 medals to date. However, this is not the only reason he is in the news these days. He is also in the news for Cupping. This isn’t some game invented by a child or a character in an American sitcom, it is actually an alternative therapy that many athletes have been trying out.

Are they suspicious hickeys? Are they cigarette burns? What are those circular bruise like marks that several Olympians are currently sporting… marks particularly visible on Michael Phelps’ bare torso? These are the signs of a therapy called cupping.

Alex Naddour and other members of the US gymnastics team are also seen with those telltale marks. Apparently many athletes swear by this therapy.

Cupping maybe a bit of a fad with the Olympians this time, but it is far from new. Didn’t we all see it in The Karate Kid when Jackie Chan used the therapy to help his young student quickly and miraculously recover from his injuries?

It is a complementary /alternative therapy involving cups that create suction at various points on the body to draw blood to site. It is said to help in healing and restoring physiological balance to the body. A vacuum is created using heat or suction and the cup is placed over the skin for 5 to 15 minutes. Olympian athletes say that it helps in muscle recovery and soothes aches and pains.

This is said to be an ancient Chinese therapy; however there is reason to believe that the Egyptians used cupping as far back as 3000 BC. The ancient Greeks and even the Arabs used it in ancient times.

There is dry cupping, fire cupping and wet cupping (medicinal bleeding). Currently used cupping practices use glass, plastic, silicon and other types of cups.

Now clearly the therapy works for athletes either at a real, physical level or at some psychological level rather like a placebo.

While the purported benefits of cupping are many, these are not borne out by actual research. Though there are some studies to suggest that cupping could be of some benefit, these studies have not been stringent or large enough to be reliable and may have been biased in any case. The benefits of cupping remain unconfirmed.

Taking the trend that is going on, cupping seems like worth a try. However, will it really give you benefits equivalent to these athletes? Well, you just need to figure that out for yourself.