Cupping is a recovery technique where cups are placed on the skin to create suction, pulling blood flow into the tissue underneath. Athletes use it primarily to reduce muscle soreness after hard training, improve flexibility, and speed up recovery between sessions. The therapy gained mainstream attention during the 2016 Rio Olympics when swimmer Michael Phelps, gymnast Alex Naddour, and other U.S. athletes appeared on camera with the technique’s signature circular red marks.
How Cupping Works on Muscle Tissue
The cups, typically made of glass, silicone, or plastic, are placed on the skin and either heated or pumped to create negative pressure. This suction lifts the skin and underlying tissue away from the muscle, creating a stretch through the layers of connective tissue (fascia) that wrap around muscles. When the cup is removed, the area experiences what’s called reactive hyperemia: a rush of fresh blood into the tissue that had been under suction.
That local increase in blood flow is the mechanism most researchers point to as the primary driver of cupping’s effects. The negative pressure also increases fluid movement from blood vessels into the surrounding tissue spaces and stimulates lymphatic drainage, which helps clear metabolic waste products that accumulate during intense exercise. Together, these responses can help relieve myofascial pain and support soft tissue healing.
Effects on Muscle Soreness and Recovery
The strongest evidence for cupping in athletes relates to delayed onset muscle soreness, the deep aching you feel 24 to 72 hours after a tough workout. In a controlled study published in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, athletes who received cupping after exercise-induced muscle soreness reported dramatically lower pain scores compared to a control group. The control group rated their pain at about 6.1 out of 10 at the 24-hour mark, while athletes who received cupping at optimal pressure levels reported scores as low as 1.6 out of 10.
The recovery benefits extended beyond just feeling better. Athletes in the cupping groups recovered sprint speed by up to 0.27 seconds on a 30-meter sprint and gained back about 8 centimeters on a standing long jump within 24 hours of treatment. Those in the control group showed no comparable recovery. The study also tracked blood markers of muscle damage, specifically two enzymes that spike when muscle fibers break down during hard training. At the most effective pressure levels, cupping restored these markers to near-baseline values within 24 hours, suggesting the tissue was genuinely recovering faster, not just feeling less painful.
The effects were pressure-dependent, meaning stronger suction produced better results up to a point. The most effective range fell between moderate and high negative pressure, while very light suction produced smaller improvements.
Improvements in Flexibility
Cupping also appears to increase joint range of motion in the short term. A study in The Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy found that moving cupping (where the cup is slid along the skin rather than left in one place) improved hip flexibility by about 6 degrees on a straight leg raise test, going from an average of 86 degrees before treatment to 92 degrees after. Knee range of motion improved by about 7 degrees in a separate measurement.
For athletes, those gains matter in practical terms. A few extra degrees of hip or knee range can improve stride mechanics for runners, depth in squats for weightlifters, or overhead positions for swimmers and gymnasts. Whether those gains persist beyond a single session is less clear, which is why many athletes use cupping as part of their pre-training or pre-competition routine rather than as a standalone flexibility program.
Types of Cupping Athletes Use
There are two main approaches. Dry cupping uses suction alone. Cups are placed on target areas, typically the back, shoulders, hamstrings, or calves, and left in place for around 5 to 10 minutes. Moving cupping involves applying oil to the skin and sliding cups along the muscle, which functions more like a deep tissue massage with added suction. Both methods are common in athletic settings.
Wet cupping, which involves making small incisions in the skin before applying cups, is practiced in some traditional medicine systems but is rarely used in sports recovery. Most athletic trainers and sports physical therapists stick with dry or moving cupping.
Session length typically ranges from 5 to 10 minutes per area. There are no standardized clinical guidelines for frequency, which partly explains why results vary across studies. Some athletes use cupping after every hard training session, while others reserve it for competition weeks or periods of particularly heavy training load.
The Placebo Question
One of the more honest conversations in sports medicine right now is whether cupping’s benefits come entirely from the physical suction or partly from the athlete’s belief that it works. Cupping is notoriously difficult to study with a true placebo because participants can feel the suction. Some researchers have tried using cups with tiny holes drilled in them to release pressure within seconds, but even that doesn’t fully eliminate the sensation.
Patient expectation is known to influence both pain perception and satisfaction with treatment, and researchers have begun designing studies that measure psychological factors alongside physical outcomes. The blood marker data showing faster clearance of muscle damage enzymes suggests something physiological is happening beyond perception alone. But the pain relief component likely involves both a real circulatory response and a psychological one, which, for a competitive athlete trying to recover for tomorrow’s session, may be a distinction without a difference.
Side Effects and Who Should Avoid It
The most visible side effect is the circular red or purple marks left on the skin. These are caused by blood pooling in the tissue under suction and typically fade within one to two weeks. They look dramatic but are painless for most people after the initial session.
Cupping is generally low-risk for healthy athletes, but certain conditions make it unsafe. According to Cleveland Clinic, you should avoid cupping if you have a bleeding disorder like hemophilia, blood clotting problems such as deep vein thrombosis, cardiovascular disease, or skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis in the treatment area. Pregnancy is also a contraindication because the effects on fetal development haven’t been studied. Athletes taking blood thinners should discuss cupping with their medical team before trying it.
Minor side effects beyond the marks can include temporary skin sensitivity, light bruising that extends beyond the cup borders, and occasional dizziness during the session, particularly when cups are applied to large areas of the back while lying face down.