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Cupping Like an Olympian

Everyone may soon be spotted with pancake-looking dollops.

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How many of you knew about Cupping before the Olympic Games in Rio?

In a separate report from Cleveland.com, AcupunctChi Clinic owner Leonard Melamed explained how cupping works, speaking from more than two decades of experience. The suction pulls the skin away from the muscle and draws oxygenated blood to the area.

And therapists in Southwest Florida have noticed the hype.

It turns out American athletes have embraced the ancient Chinese healing practice of cupping, in which a warmed cup is placed on sore parts of the body. The reason is an ancient medication called the cupping therapy-more popularly known as Hijama in the subcontinent and middle east region. Blakeway started slowly sliding the cups up and down my shoulders, along the sides of my spine, and my lower back.

“It really helps to optimize an athlete’s performance”, McIntyre said. The suction is created by using fire to warm the air in the cup where the particles spread out and then applying it to the skin for several minutes where the a vacuum is created when the air cools or by using a pump and physically pumping out the air. What is cupping, where did it come from and is it beneficial or unsafe?

Cupping’s endorsement from a pro-athlete like Phelps will likely give the practice more legitimacy, but does the treatment really have any proven medical benefit? So usually they will do it in their shoulders or legs depends on the sport.

The technique, though, is fairly simple, but always should be performed by a licensed therapist. These fibres, which are sensitive to heat, get activated, leading to the flow of oxygenated blood to the area, which ignites the healing process. Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston have also sported these cupping circles on the red carpet.

“You’re actually nourishing the underlying tissue so you can make it healthy again”, Marino said.

Dr. D quickly lit a match and quickly touched the first glass cups to the flame.

In the dry cupping procedure, practitioners place specialised cups on the skin. She also likes to treat bronchitis or other respiratory issues by suctioning along the lung meridian, which helps to release built up mucus. “To one person, they barely feel it and to another person it’s going to feel like someone is tugging gently on your skin and muscles underneath”. These are so-called kinesio tapes-and they have become a popular therapy among all types of athletes, including beach volleyball players.

And with the amount of training athletes do to get to the Olympics, it is no wonder that Phelps and Sonny Bill Williams use it to loosen stiff muscles. Team USA gymnast Alex Naddour was among other Olympians seen with the purple marks.

Despite its popularity, cupping re mains controversial. A NY physician spoke out this week against the practice, USA Today reports, saying a review of 135 cupping therapy studies came up with no benefits of the healing approach.

Still, McDermott said she sees the craze as a positive for Western medicine, which has traditionally relied heavily on prescriptions of pills. “The skin is sucked in, inside a chamber with no blood flow in that area”.

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“If you create a sense of relaxation, and or taking the tension out, then they feel more like they can move”.

Spot on Aidan O'Doherty undergoing 'cupping&#039 at Dr Acupuncture on Dublin’s Henry Street