Celebrity models might earn a pretty penny, but it comes with the price of countless hours of fitness training, strict dieting, an exhausting and hectic travel schedule and the emotionally draining stress of looking beautiful 24/7.
Add on the physical demand a model’s body takes holding a plethora of statuesque poses, it’s no surprise they suffer from chronic back pain.
Well, after sharing pictures of her mottled and marked up back on Instagram, the secret’s out that celebrity lingerie model Hilary Rhoda uses cupping as one of the preferred methods to treat her back pain. In her post, she wrote the captions, “the cure to this chronic back/neck pain?! Please let it be!#cupping#acupuncture#massage.”
So apparently, Victoria’s Real Secret For Back Pain is Cupping.
Why Cupping?
In my massage practice, using silicone cups as an extension of my hands allows me to decompress and create negative pressure, which seamlessly lifts and loosens restricted muscle adhesions versus performing the classic compression of massage.
The strong suction of Cupping is similar to the skin rolling of a deep tissue massage, but without the pain.
By adding cupping to my massage sessions, I’ve noticed great results for my clients with back pain, which would be close to impossible by using the human hand alone. The lifting action of the cups rapidly increases blood flow, instantly loosens and frees up any muscle tightness and facial restrictions.
“After vigorous yard work and cleaning out my shed, my lower back was in trouble! I couldn’t turn to brush my teeth or lower myself to the sink the next morning…I was in spasm. Just 30 minutes of intense massage and cupping I was able to move and turn without pain! It loosened and has been fine since…I am so glad Morgan had an opening that day! This has happened before; back, shoulder, headache…Morgan is so well trained. He knows exactly what to do the last 15+ years! ”
-Nancy M.
What Do These Cupping Marks Mean?
Cupping can leave marks, which simply means that the stagnation has been moved from the deeper tissue layers to the skin surface, allowing freshly oxygenated blood to nourish and heal the underlying areas.
When a cup is left long enough in one place, not only will it loosen up any muscular tension, but it will also pull up to the skin surface any local build-up of waste products such as dead, static blood, lymph, cellular debris, and toxins.
The most common misunderstandings concerning cupping is the misinterpretations of the marks that sometimes result. These marks are NOT Bruises!
Bruising is caused by impact trauma with the breakage of capillaries and a reactionary rush of fluids to the damaged location from the tissue injury. With properly performed cupping, there’s no compression involved, only decompression.
In Hilary’s case, she had a lot of issues in her tissues, which resulted in the mottled appearance of her back.
Now, she probably went to an acupuncturist who most likely used the fire cupping method with glass jars which involves 3 steps:
(1) Lighting an alcohol-drenched cotton ball on fire
(2) Rapidly placing it into a glass jar with forceps (which removes all the oxygen)
(3) Then quickly placing the cup on the problem area (or acupuncture point) for 10-30 minutes.
Dragging a glass cup can leave pretty nasty marks and there’s always a chance of burning the skin.
How long do these marks last?
