What is Cupping? and Why Trauma Liniments May be Better than Cupping for Athletes

What is Cupping?  Why is cupping being used by American Olympic Athletes?

We have all now seen multiple images of Olympic Athletes with large red round circles on their skin.  These red circles are the result of having received cupping therapy.  Cupping therapy is believed to have originated in Egypt some 5,000 years ago. It has become most closely associated with traditional Chinese medicine, where it has been practiced since around 1,000 BCE.

Cupping involves placing a glass or plastic cup on the skin, and applying negative pressure or heat to create a mild vacuum inside the vessel. This draws the skin up, pulling blood to the surface where it ruptures small capillaries. The suction is said to draw fresh blood and lymph into the tissue and the increased blood flow brings more nutrients and oxygen the area. The client undergoing the cupping therapy is left with a round bruise or "welt" from the therapy, and proponents of cupping claim clients also end up healthier. Cupping has been used as a treatment from everything from muscle pain to infertility and pneumonia.

Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine claim that cupping clears “stagnant blood," improves the flow of energy, increases the speed of healing, and they use the therapy for pain management, increased mobility and range of motion and decreased stress.

A word of caution: cupping is a therapy that, in our humble opinion, should not really be performed apart from acupuncture as it has not been shown to be clinically effective on its own. There are certain conditions, symptoms and body types that can make cupping ineffective or even harmful.  There are also inexperienced practitioners that can apply too much vacuum pressure for too long and cause damage to the skin and underlying tissue.

What is Dit Da Jow? Why Might Dit Da Jow be Better for Olympic Athletes (or any athletes) Than Cupping?

Most of our longtime readers are already familiar with Dit Da Jow, what it is and how it works, but in case you have newly joined us, here is a brief explanation:
Dit Da Jow, roughly translated from the Chinese, means “hit fall wine,” and it is a created by soaking specific herbal blends in an alcohol based solution. Once the herbs have aged long enough in the alcohol solution, the solution is used as a topical liniment - a liquid applied to the skin for pain relief and for healing injury. (There is a video explanation you can watch at the Dit Da Jow link above.)
The primary uses of Dit Da Jow are:

• Healing (bruises, strains, sprains, fractures, tendonitis, joint injuries, hyperextensions, etc.)
• Conditioning (strengthening the tissues affected by impact, chronic stress and overuse: skin, muscle, connective tissue, and bone.)

To date, Dit Da Jow has been used most widely by martial artists, and many athletes in other high contact sports have now begun to discover its benefits, as well as fitness enthusiasts who train intensely and want to be able to train more often without being sidelined by the effects of overtraining.  Dit Da Jow is not used only for athletes, however, and anyone with pain or injury can benefit from the use of these liniments.  (For example, we even have an elderly group of knitters who use these formulas to help with the arthritic pain in their fingers!)
Dit Da Jow formulas utilize a combination of herbal ingredients with synergistic properties.
Three of the primary modes of action in Dit Da Jow healing formulas are:

1. Reducing Inflammation (which is the cause of swelling, sensitivity, and decreased range of motion)
2. Reducing Pain (powerful analgesic herbs help to sooth various kinds of pain)
3. Increasing Circulation (helps bring fresh healing nutrients and oxygen into the area and drives out stagnating fluid surrounding the injury)

There are many more possible positive effects from Dit Da Jow than just these three–it all depends on the formula. But we can see here, that with just these three important functions, Dit Da Jow is serving much the same purpose as the cupping therapy mentioned above, AND -

There are several reasons why we think using Dit Da Jow is even better than cupping therapy for pain and injury:

• Dit Da Jow formulas are portable and easy to use. Keep it in your gym bag and use several times as day as needed.
• No professional fees or appointments needed. No driving. No parking. No waiting room, No time spent on the therapy. No expensive repeat appointments.
• Ease of use AND lower expense lead to more regular usage which usually means BETTER RESULTS.
• No blemishes or large red circles left of your body for days or weeks.
• Superior results in terms of pain relief, increased circulation, inflammation reduction, and longterm healing and conditioning results.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Not all Dit Da Jow is created equal. We offer the best in the world and have earned a reputation for being the  best in the business, offering the highest quality herbal medicine of this kind that you can get anywhere on the globe.
(***Please note that this article is not intended to discourage the practice of cupping, but to encourage more people to consider using Dit Da Jow to achieve the same or better results in what we believe to be a much easier manner.***)

If you would like to learn more about how TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) herbs promote healing by improving blood flow, click HERE.

If you would like a more in depth understanding of how Dit Da Jow works for pain and injury compared to pharmaceutical solutions, please read Why Plum Dragon's Dit Da Joe Herbs Work Better Than Mainstream Solutions for Pain.