Scraping & Cupping

There are many ways we can address soft tissue injuries and dysfunction. Here we use our fingers and massage tools.  Sometimes we take a different approach to communicate with the muscles. While dry needling is very effective, breaking the skin barrier is not always necessary.  The use of an instrument to assist in soft tissue work is incredibly helpful and accelerates the healing process. Not only does the speed of recovery improve, but so does the quality of recovery. By using an instrument, we communicate different messages to the brain, and the body lays down a higher quality collagen; and this is particularly helpful when the scraping is combined with movement because we talk to the movement receptors in the joint too. 

We perform specific soft-tissue techniques to address tension patterns across muscle groups. Imagine your individual muscle fibers are like the teeth on a Ziploc bag; if they don’t line up, the bag doesn’t work. This technique lines the muscle fibers back up, much like the teeth on the Ziploc bag, and keeps the power in to be expressed appropriately in muscle contractions. 

Another tool we have here are air cups; these can be powerful tools in the healing and recovery process. When we use a scraping tool and cups it is a minor “insult” to the body, stimulating blood flow, lymphatic drainage, and an entire cascade of the healing process without breaking the skin. These leave characteristic bruises while the healing process takes place, and we like to joke about octopus attacks in our office.