Cupping is a type of alternative therapy that originated in China. It involves placing cups on the skin to create suction. This simply means that we are working on the connective tissue that surrounds your muscles and lies between your muscles and skin. By using the cups, we are lifting that layer of fascia up off of your muscles, helping to create more movement and less pain in restricted areas. Fascia restriction can often come with chronic injuries such as an old whiplash or sports injury. Athletes find relief from cupping as well. It is important to know that you may have some marking from the cups that can last a few days, this is normal. Some people don’t experience much colour at all while others can get dark purple spots. If you tend to bruise easily, you will be more likely to have darker spots from the cupping. The spots don’t hurt like a true bruise since no blood vessels are damaged.