Already far and away the most decorated Olympian of all time, the 31-year-old Phelps showed that he had lost none of his speed or killer instincts after coming out of a brief retirement to provide Team USA with its first win in the event since Beijing, narrowly holding off France and Australia.
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American swimmer Ryan Held turned on the waterworks after winning gold together with Michael Phelps, Caeleb Dressel and Nathan Adrian in the 4x100m freestyle relay on Monday (NZ time), prompting a bout of swooning over him on social media.
“What’s with the bruises all over Michael Phelps?” wrote one user on Twitter.
“It’s like asking a chef about the garnish and missing the main meal”, Phelps’ personal trainer Keenan Robinson cautioned.
“Mike’s walking around looking like a dalmatian, but it’s just another recovery modality”. “There’s nothing really particularly special about it”.
During the therapy cups are placed on the section of the body in need of fix to create suction. “According to them, vacuum-based massage improves circulation and overall well being, suggesting that muscle fix happens faster after physical exertion”.
But even with the support of athletes like Michael Phelps and National Football League player DeMarcus Ware (to name a few), the science behind cupping is still largely unproven.
However, thanks to Michael Phelps and other celebrities, cupping is experiencing a resurgence in popularity.
Sports performance expert Ralph Reiff explained the process to USA Today’s Josh Peter.
“Think of a traditional suction cup that you might put on a wet window, ” Reiff told Peter. “It creates a vacuum and lifts the skin up in that space and therefore creates a lift of all the soft tissue”.
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Cupping is when little glass jars are suctioned to your skin to increase blood flow and help relieve pain. “So that’s why you see the discoloration”, Reiff told Peter.
