Cupping therapy is an ancient form of alternative medicine in which a therapist puts special cups on your skin for a few minutes to create suction. People get it for many purposes, including to help with pain, inflammation, blood flow, relaxation and well-being, and as a type of deep-tissue massage.
Traditional cupping, with use of heated cups, also has some similarity to moxa therapy.Heating of the cups was the methods used to obtain suction: the hot air in the cups has a low density and,as the cups cool with the opening sealed by the skin, the pressure within the cups declines, sucking the skin into it. In this case the cups are hot and have a stimulating effect something like that of burning moxa wool.
Suction causes congestion of qi and blood in the local area. Once the suction is released. the body responds by clearing the local congestion and brings fresh qi and blood rich in nutritional value to the area, thereby removing qi and blood stagnation.
Cupping treatment has some relation to certain massage techniques, such as the rapid skin pinching along the back that is an important aspect of Tuina ((pronounced “twee naw”- which literally means “pinch and pull,” refers to a wide range of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) therapeutic massage and body work). Cupping is applied i certain acupuncture points, as well as to regions of the body that are affected by pain(where the pain is deeper than the tissues to be pulled). A certain amount of bruising is expected both from fixed position cupping (especially at the site of the cup rim) and with movement of the cups.