ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE AND CUPPING
Cups have been used for years in sports training and rehabilitation. The intense physical exertions during training and competitive events require a higher level of performance from muscles, which in turn can produce an increase in the volume of heat and metabolic waste, such as lactic acid. Some of the most important benefits of cupping involve muscle recovery, manipulation, and forced hydration into these overexerted muscles.
Athletes are used to having their bodies manipulated and receiving all sorts of bodywork to keep them performing at their best, so cupping can be easily introduced into their training regimen. Using cups on a regular basis can help maintain healthier muscles, which in turn can aid in preventing injury. Many trainers already employ cupping, a technique they often refer to as myofascial decompression, or MFD.
Muscle Activity in Athletes
What happens inside the muscle tissue of an athlete is more intense than that of the average person, mainly the process of energy production. Whether using aerobic or anaerobic metabolism to access energy, athletes make higher demands of their muscles and, in doing so, create more waste. Waste products like heat and lactic acid, as well as other cellular by-products like protons - the "garbage" from the broken-down adenosine triphosphate (ATP) - all, occur in great quantities within athletes' muscles. Muscles naturally try to expel these wastes via lymph drainage, but disposal is often challenged because of the athlete's tight and toned muscles.
DID YOU KNOW
There are a few important variables that make treating athletes' bodies different, including:
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Muscle activity and recovery
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Repetitive motion injuries
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Hydration
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Pre-and post-event therapy requirements
Athletes' Muscle Recovery
Considering that these strongly developed muscles must be continually ready to train and perform, a quick recovery time is very important. Muscles need to usher out waste products quickly and allow healthy blood and oxygen to return, over and over again. Various methods of physical therapy and bodywork can facilitate this process.
Muscle Recovery and Cupping
Cupping can amplify the process of general waste removal required for faster muscle recovery. Cups stimulate the internal flushing mechanism within muscle tissue -- a sort of suction pump -- thereby accelerating the return of lactate into circulation and welcoming more oxygen into the muscle, which promotes an overall healthier muscle tissue environment. The enhanced exchange of fluids allows for a higher output of energy without exhausting the muscle, yet allows the body more time to recover naturally. Equally beneficial, the negative pressure vacuum of cups draws out metabolic waste, stagnant blood, and heat from within the layers of muscle tissue and brings them up to the lymphatic system on the surface for disposal. Allowing heat to escape protects the tissue from getting too hot, which could otherwise create internal inflammation and related damages.
Repetitive Motion Injuries and Athletes
Repetitive motion injuries can happen to anyone who practices activities with repetitive motions, such as hairstylists or golfers. In sports, repetitive motion injuries are very common and can easily inhibit performance. Cupping not only helps facilitate a speedy recovery, but it also potentially prevents these injuries from happening.
When a group of muscles performs the same movements over and over, such as pitching a baseball, it tends to get incredibly tight and restricted. The heat generated as waste can make muscles -- such as the rotator cuff, if we stick to the baseball example -- more likely to dehydrate and stick together, forming adhesions. These adhesions can bury themselves deeper and deeper onto the body if left untreated. While the body will find a way to continue functioning, its performance may diminish -- full muscle usage, range of motion and function will be affected. IF left untreated, these now drier muscle tissue will continue this vicious cycle of dehydration and adhesions, and potentially tear.
Cupping to Prevent Repetitive Motion Injury
Providing a continuously healthy muscle environment can prevent injuries before they start. Cups force hydration into these much-used tissues while simultaneously dispelling the trapped heat -- out with the bad, in with the good. This timely exchange enables the muscles to remain softer, more flexible, and able to go on with high-performance.
Let's continue with the example of baseball pitchers. They use one arm, countlessly repeating intensely exertive movements that require the same muscles and tendons to throw the ball at intense speeds at a specific target. This high-velocity friction in the muscles causes an excess of heat in the tissue and, if not expelled, can cause inflammation and dry out the tissue at the deepest levels, especially in the small space of the shoulder joint. Over time, this continuous lowgrade inflammation can settle deep into muscles, maybe even down to the bone, and contribute to a wide range of dysfunction, such as frozen shoulder or rotator cuff muscle damage.
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Hydration
Hydration is a vital component of cupping therapy. Cups pull fluids into layers of tissue that were previously dehydrated, fused, or inflamed. This supply of fluids comes from the surrounding cellular spaces and deeper hydrated tissues, leaving the body dehydrated. For this reason, the body needs to be replenished. Drinking plenty of water is essential with cupping treatments.
I LOVE CUPS! These wonderful tools have truly been the greatest addition to my professional practice and have been exceptionally rewarding in my own life.
Pre - and Post-event Therapies
There is a big difference between the type of therapies used before and after a sporting event or competition. Cupping can provide excellent benefits at either time but should be done with grave consideration for what cups are doing to the body. The closer to an event, the less invasive any therapy should be, cups or otherwise.
Pre-Event Therapies
When working with an athlete before their sporting event, how cups should be used varies with the treatment's intent and desired results. If the intention is to stretch and warm up the tissue before exertion, cups can be used to help stretch the tissue from the inside out. Cupping uses the body's own blood flow to hydrate and increases pliability, which allows for easier lift and stretch of the fascia and connective tissue, providing a better stretch of the tissue than manual stretching alone. When vacuum therapy is done before an event, the athlete will notice the ease of movement and less restriction.
The style of application and duration of treatment should also be considered. Do not use very slow and relaxing applications, nor should you use long cupping durations, since you don't want to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and relax the body. Pre-event cupping should be limited in time -- less time for any stationary cups (consider 1 minute rather than 3 minutes maximum) or less overall session time -- and far enough in advance of the event so that muscles can be fully adjusted and ready for action.
Knowing your athlete and how they respond to vacuum therapy work is also vital when working on them before an event. This means you do not introduce this therapy for the first time before any event; incorporate it into their training routine and allow the body time to feel the differences and adjust to it before any pre-event usage.
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Post-event Therapies
Using cups on an athlete after a sporting event can enhance the removal of metabolic waste and heat that have built up during physical exertion. At the same time, it is bringing oxygen-rich blood and hydration to further nourish the tissue and aid in the recovery process. Using cups in combination with manual therapy (for example, sports massage or passive stretching applications) on an athlete after their events is an opportunity to eradicate any potential muscle issues that may have occurred. In other words, it can stop the onset of injury before it starts.
Following a sporting event or competition and when the body has cooled down, the following applications can be used:
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A cupping application to address the lymphatic drainage pathways using long, soothing applications either as a full-body treatment or focused on more fatigued areas of the body where there is some discomfort. For example, a marathon runner's lower body may be sorest and require more attention. Because the upper body is also pumping repeatedly during the event, it could also be addressed to a lesser degree.
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Soothing and comfortable stationary cups can offer localized decompression over areas of discomfort or soreness. Be mindful not to use too strong a suction pressure, though, as this could cramp the recently dehydrated muscles or cause spasms when applied too quickly after their repetitive contractions. Allow the body to cool down and rehydrate, and then approach the body with cups. Post-event applications can be for longer periods than pre-event, and moving cups should be used at a slower pace, thereby sedating the nervous system and allowing it to welcome the sensations of recovery.
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General Cupping for Athletes
When used regularly, cupping can help prevent injuries. Cumulative work helps maintain healthy muscle tissue from one event to the next, and the more this work is done, the greater the potential for overall muscle health, strength, and recovery, Whether it be the same day or within a few days of any event, it is recommended to receive these types of vacuum therapies sooner rather than later -- once the athlete has rehydrated and cooled down -- so as to keep the cycle of muscle rejuvenation going.
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