An Up Close Look: Cupping Therapy

Posted November 9, 2018 by Prairie Wife -

I’m all about trying new things, and if you read our dermaplaning post you know I’m ready and willing to share all the honest details of my experiences with you.

When I learned Stirling Skin Care has a Massage Therapist on staff I was SO excited…but really…how could I justify getting a Massage and talking about it? After all, I’ve probably had a dozen or so Massages before. They feel great, some are better than others, and I always leave feeling more relaxed. Seems to me like there isn’t much to share.

Except, it turns out that when you find the right massage therapist, one that truly has a love and understanding of what she does, not to mention a no-nonsense attitude about telling you what you need to be doing better to take care of yourself…well that makes your Massage an experience to remember!

Paola Sanchez is the Massage guru, anything you want to know she can tell you…and when she mentioned that she offers cupping therapy my ears perked up.

I’ve read a few articles about the benefits but didn’t realize that there was anyone in Casper that offered it. I told her I was all about trying it out, and scheduled my appointment. Unlike TallGirlJ who did a bunch of research before her Massage (see her thoughts below), I just knew cupping therapy would take your Massage to another level of zen and de toxifying.

If you want to read more about the benefits of cupping therapy you can find information here.

You can see by this picture that cupping involves using a glass or rubber “cup” to pull parts of your muscle into a vacuum created by heat or a pump. Your Massage Therapist may move the cups around a bit. I know it looks like it hurts but it doesn’t.

Not even a little bit.

Paola told me I would be left with red or deep purple marks depending on how many toxins were “pulled” out. These toxins are what causes tight stiff muscles. She recommended drinking tons of water to help flush all these out and warned me that some people feel a bit nauseated or have a headache because of everything that is released into your system during the session. 

When Paola removed the cups you can see by the varying degrees of red where my back is tightest. Deeper red means the muscles were tenser. The next day the circles on the bottom of my back were gone and the circles by my shoulders were deep purple (see TallGirlJ’s pics below). The circles were all completely gone by day 5 which helped me to truly believe they weren’t bruises…which would have lasted weeks on me!

Cupping therapy helps take the relaxing and detoxifying benefits of a massage to the next level. I would 100% recommend trying this service out, especially if you have certain areas of your back that are notoriously tense.

Here are TallGirlJ’s thoughts after her experience.

Here is some truth… I am kind of a massage snob… While I rarely get massages ( we are talking 1 a year on a good year 🤣 ) I do know what I like!

After experiencing a really good deep tissue massage for the first time, you will begin to have high expectations too!

When Prairie Wife told me she was trying cupping I was intrigued. Per usual, I went straight to google to read about it.

If I’m being honest, some of the pictures on Google did not make me want to try it! I read tons of information about how it helps with circulation, heals muscles and detoxifies  your body…I found this really fascinating. 

Stirling’s Massage Therapist Paola will not disappoint.

She knows SO much about the body and muscles, and really knows how to help heal you if you take the time to let her know what’s bothering you.

I haven’t gone this many weeks with no back pain in a long time. You can see by my pics that Paola used a bit of a different method on me than Prairie Wife. Rather than keeping my cups in a line, she took the cup and glided it around my back to create tension. Then she would let it sit for a few moments and then move the cup some more, continuously working the blood flow and muscles.

When I got home my husband was a bit shocked and kept calling the marks bruises!

Rest assured, they definitely weren’t bruises.

They didn’t hurt at all and were gone within a week, I normally stay bruised for weeks.

This experience was totally new for me, and I’m so thankful I gave it a try. I can’t speak highly enough about Paola and her knowledge…and the massage room is beautifully decorated, and wonderfully relaxing.

Categories: Health and Wellness, This and That

Tags: , cupping therapy, detoxify, health, massage, massage therapy, relaxation, stirling skin care