CUPPING

Cupping therapy is used to lift & separate fascia & muscle, allowing for improved local blood flow, helping with range of motions issues, reducing pain and inflammation, easing contracted muscles, & can free up tension and congestion. It may also be used in digestive or respiratory cases.

Cupping feels like what I imagine a strong octopus hug would be like. The strength of the cups are easily adjustable, reasonably strong and pleasant. The cupping marks can vary in colour, and are often (but not always) deeper in colour where there is pain and stagnation.

It generally better suits those that use their bodies often, whether with regular training or tradie work in recovery. It can also benefit people with a history of injury (such as over old surgical scars) in getting mobility and pain back on track.

GUA SHA & JADE ROLLING

Gua Sha is a scraping technique that historically has been used for any problem featuring surface or internal blood stasis and pain. Modern day has seen its use diversified & even paired with jade-rolling to extend to the world of beauty & skin care routines.

Why is Gua Sha so great? To start, it increases surface microperfusion (surface circulation of blood), & it upregulates gene expression for the enzyme heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Its immune & anti-inflammatory effects have wide application.

A treatment including Gua Sha on the body may leave you with some red marks (petechiae). This is because blood cells have been forced out of the capillary bed, and is part of the microperfusion mentioned earlier.

Fear not, the marks won’t last forever. As blood is reabsorbed, the breakdown of hemoglobin upregulates the anti-inflammatory & cytoprotective components. Yay!