What is Fire Cupping Therapy?

Fire Cupping (also referred to as “cupping”) is a type of bodywork used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Cupping works like a massage in reverse. That is what you see going on in the picture on top of this page. 

Here’s how fire cupping works:

To begin, a vacuum is drawn into small glass cups that are placed on your body. 

Then, the vacuum creates suction to gently lift your skin away from your muscles.

Therefore, cupping creates space for blood to flow between your skin and muscles. 

Because cupping increases blood flow, the suction used in cupping relieves muscle pain. Interestingly, increased blood flow into the muscles carries nutrients into the muscles to promote healing.

It also improves circulation and reduces muscle tension. Cupping has been shown to reduce inflammation in the muscles, too.

Massage, by contrast, uses pressure to push into the muscles. Pushing into the muscles compresses them to break up muscle tension. These two approaches are different from each other, and both have different effects on your muscle tension and pain.

Fire Cupping is used to relieve the following:

• Tight neck, and shoulders
• Mid-back tension
• Lower back stiffness and pain
• Tight hamstrings
• IT Band tension
• Tensor Fasciae Latae (TFL) Imbalances
• Tight Calf Muscles

Most likely, you have seen cupping marks left on famous athletes, like Michael Phelps (shown here undergoing cupping with a hand-held suction device).  In this case, Michael Phelps is using cupping to relieve leg and back tension.

How Does Fire Cupping Work?

The purpose of cupping therapy is to create a vacuum, or suction, when the cups are placed on localized areas of the body.

Next, the suction created on the surface of the skin draws new blood into the muscle tissue.

This in turn flushes stagnant blood and fluids out of that area, and promotes healing. 

You could say that the “new blood” into the tissues flushes out the “old blood”. 

For many people, cupping is a great treatment to use alongside acupuncture.

That is what I mostly do in my clinic: combine acupuncture and cupping together.

Specifically, I use this combination to relieve muscle tension, improve circulation, reduce inflammation and relieve pain. 

Most commonly, I use fire cupping when working with tight muscles along the spine and shoulder blades.

Additionally, I use cupping for the lower back and upper back, near the neck.  

You may find that you experience superficial bruising on the skin, where the suction ruptures small capillaries or blood vessels.

It should be pointed out that the bruises left from cupping do not hurt. However, you may feel a little sore from cupping the next day.

The bruising that cupping leaves behind is cosmetic and will fade away within a few days or so. 

Generally speaking, the areas on your body with the most tension will also stronger react to cupping.

This means that you may expect to see purplish discoloration in these areas. 

Despite this temporary discoloration and light bruising, the cupping treatments do not hurt.

Interestingly, as you continue with regular cupping therapy, these areas will react less and less.

Additionally, you will notice that you have less pain and discomfort where you used to hold tension.

Why Is It Called “Fire Cupping”?

Fire cupping refers to using fire to create the vacuum inside of the cup.  

For fire cupping, an alcohol soaked cotton ball is held by a hemostat or similar device.  Once this cotton ball is set on fire, then it is inserted into the open end of the cup being used.

The cotton ball is quickly removed from the cup, after the fire consumes all the oxygen that was in the cup. This creates the suction (vacuum) you feel when a cup is placed on your skin.

The fire is inserted into and withdrawn from the cup quickly, so that the cup does not get hot to the touch.  Also, the cup does not feel hot when it is placed on the skin. 

Is Fire Cupping Therapy Safe?

To insure your safety, the flaming cotton ball is held away from your body during this procedure. Similarly, the cup is held away from your body, too.  Because this process happens so quickly, you will not even realize that a flame is involved in the process. 

Using fire was the only way to draw a vacuum into a vessel in bygone eras. Today, we can use cups that have built in plungers to create the suction. Personally, I prefer to use the fire cupping method.  

Fire cupping is fun to watch. Generally, people enjoy the unique flair it brings to their treatments.

People love the results and relaxation they feel from cupping therapy.  If you have back, neck and shoulder tension, then I am sure you will enjoy this tension-relieving therapy. 

Other Types of Cupping Therapy

Ultimately, in my practice, I use fire cupping. 

To be fair, one can find products on the market that let you create suction in the cups, by sucking the air out of them through one-way valves, using a type of pump that draws out the air. This method does not use an open flame.

While you can use valve-type cupping, I find fire cupping gives better clinical results. Therefore, this is the method I will recommend to you.

Frequently Asked Fire Cupping Questions (FAQ)