How to help that “BACK” swing!! Ancient secrets the celebrities use.
CUPPING…can lead your way to fast pain relief.
Cupping has made its way to fame, on the back of Gwyneth Paltrow. At a movie premiere she was seen in a black strapless top with big, dark, circular, hickey marks across her back. “She had been cupped.” What is this cupping you ask?
Cupping is a Chinese technique (thousands of years old… of course) performed by acupuncturists to treat everything from lower-back pain and arthritis to common colds.
Think of it as an intense, vigorous massage — with a whole lot of suction cup action.
The procedure requires the inside of a glass jar to be warmed, placed on the skin, and left there from 5-30 minutes. If there is with oil on the skin, the cups can be slid around on the back like a massage. The heat depressurizes the air inside the cup, creating a vacuum, and the skin and underlying tissue is "sucked" up into the cup. The marks on the skin come from blood rushing to the area of the cup, and darkening.
Cupping doesn't hurt. It feels like a gentle squeezing, or tightening of the skin. Another way to visualize the sensation is to imagine a vacuum cleaner stuck to your skin. The pain relief experienced is quite immediate, as it increases blood flow to the stiff and tight muscles, and the muscles relax quickly.
Cupping is beneficial for people with muscle tension and aches, especially in the back, low back and shoulders. It is helpful for relieving severe muscle pain.
When you try cupping, expect that the procedure will leave marks, which typically disappear after three to six days. Cupping is usually done in conjunction with acupuncture.
Many athletes get acupuncture regularly to recover from their injuries. They use it to reduce pain, recuperate from injuries faster, and to enhance their performance. Athletes know that acupuncture helps them stay in top form. But, acupuncture is not just for athletes, it is for you too. Like your favourite sport icons, acupuncture will help you decrease aches and pains or to speed up your recovery.
Needling specific acupuncture points helps to stimulate the nervous system to release chemicals which decrease pain in the muscles, tendons, and myofascial tissue, while stimulating your energy, immune and other healing systems.
Low back pain is a primary ailment in the United States and Canada, "second to the common cold." Back pain is often inexplicable, and can quickly become chronic. In Chinese Medicine, low back problems are thought to be caused by low kidney energy. If there is a lack of energy and blood flowing to the back, this is thought to cause stiffness and pain. Other low kidney energy symptoms you may experience are: knee pain, fatigue, dark eye circles, coldness, and urinary troubles.
Your spine is beautifully designed for function yet, can be exasperatingly unpredictable. At some time you may have or will suffer from back pain. X-Rays and MRI’s (although very specific, and informative) will not always provide a guarantee to solve the origin of your back pain. There are many cases of back pain that go undiagnosed, and are dismissed with painkillers and 3 weeks of rest.
We've come to the point where we have to think out of the box for our own health. Acupuncture and Cupping can keep chronic back pain away, and assist the repair of current acute pain. So if you have any back pains left over from this last season of golf, or any other sport, consider these ancient therapies, and enter join the celebrities.
