Exploring how cupping therapy elevates athletic performance and recovery
Cupping therapy gained global recognition through athletes’ participation in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Countless Olympic champions appeared with distinctive red cupping marks on their bodies, a sight that became common across many teams and fueled intense discussion on social media and in specialized sports outlets. The most notable example was American swimmer Michael Phelps, who secured five gold medals and one silver while displaying those unmistakable cupping signs.
The Tokyo Olympics in 2020 revived the same questions and worldwide curiosity, prompting the recurring inquiry: How does cupping therapy help athletes reach the podium and win gold?
Our participation in FIFA’s "Future of Football" Sports Medicine Conference, hosted at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, in May 2017, offered a decisive answer. We presented a scientific paper that explained how cupping contributes to Olympic victories.
For the first time, we introduced what is now known as "referred sports pain from the spine," distinguishing it from conventional sports injuries that occur directly during athletic activity.
A study involving 500 injured athletes revealed that not every pain experienced during sport stems from a classic sports injury. Approximately 20.6% of the reported pain originated from the spine, which explains why standard treatment protocols often fail to fully resolve athletes’ discomfort.
In other words, the study confirmed that 20.6% of athletes suffer from vertebral issues that require a different therapeutic approach.
The study clarified the relationship between dry and wet cupping and the enhancement of neural signaling throughout the athlete’s body. This improvement boosts key components of physical fitness, leading directly to superior competitive results.
It also established cupping therapy as a preventive measure against sports injuries, helping athletes maintain peak condition.
Discussions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic showed that sports underwent a profound transformation. Our hypothesis—that the virus attacks both the central and peripheral nervous systems—explains the 20% to 30% surge in sports injuries.
This surge stems from a doubling in spinal injuries, pushing their prevalence to around 40% compared with the original study’s findings.
Neuromuscular imbalance had significant consequences once athletes returned to full training. Many athletes continued some level of training during lockdowns to preserve fitness, yet true comprehensive fitness was compromised.
Multiple elements of fitness suffered due to muscular imbalance, notably pulmonary circulation—a cornerstone of athletic performance. As oxygenation of the blood faltered, critical organs such as the brain and muscles received less support.
The loss of robust neural signaling diminished muscle endurance, flexibility, and overall neuromuscular balance. These factors form the core of health-related fitness, and their disruption had far-reaching effects.