Massage Cupping: The Positives of Negative Pressure

mtwadmin - Fri, January 28, 2011

Our therapist, Buki Papillon, is happy to announce that she will now be offering a new service to our clients: Cupping.

“What is Cupping?” rhetoric might ask.  Massage Cupping is a bodywork technique adapted from traditional Chinese fire cupping, which uses suction and negative pressure to loosen and release muscles and draw out toxins.  Only unlike fire cupping, Massage Cupping doesn’t leave dark purple marks, and doesn’t use fire.

Massage Cupping uses cups made of soft rubber or plastic.  Like these:

They are suctioned onto the skin so the tissue and fascia are drawn up inside, like this:

The result is negative pressure, as opposed to the positive pressure of pushing into the muscles.  Cupping allows the muscles to open, let go, and relax literally by opening up space that wasn’t there before.  “The only other technique that can work as deeply as this is intense Deep Tissue,” says Buki, “but Cupping works just as deeply with out the associated discomfort.  Some people find deep tissue very painful.  But cupping creates the space for the muscle to stretch out and relax.  It says, someone else is in charge now, you can rest.”

After the cups are placed, they can either be left stationary, or moved along a muscle or meridian. Waiting allows the space to open, while gliding produces a similar effect to traditional massage, only with the added benefits of negative pressure. 

“I believe negative pressure goes beyond Deep Tissue to achieve long-lasting results,” Buki says. 

Also a published fiction-writer, Buki came to massage after receiving a treatment from a chiropractor. At a winter writing retreat, she “started thinking about thinking about people like chiropractors and bodyworkers, how they spent all day making people feel better.  I wanted to do that.  As I writer I spend so much time being introspective.  I wanted another job that was external, that helped people, and that would take me out of myself a little bit.” 

During her time studying massage at Cortiva, Buki found skin rolling (picking up the skin and rolling it like dough) very effective at releasing back pain.  It can be uncomfortable, but, like Cupping, it creates negative pressure and opens up space. 

She became very interested in negative pressure, and her research eventually led her to Massage Cupping.  She soon signed up for an intensive cupping workshop that led to certification in therapuetic cupping methods.

Buki has also experienced the benefits of cupping firsthand.  “I busted my right knee years ago, which causes me a lot of issues with my leg,” she says.  I was blown away by the effects cupping had on me.  It was like I had a different leg.  It was months before I felt the effects start to fade.

“This technique is very effective on chronic pain that nothing else seems to help.  I’ve seen so many clients with chronic conditions that are not responding to anything so far.  For these clients, knowing I have something that has a very good chance of helping them feels wonderful.”