It’s not just the gold Olympians are sporting that has spectators buzzing—it’s the medal-size purple spots along their limbs, too. From Michael Phelps to Alex Naddour to Pavel Sankovich, athletes across the games are competing with the marks of cupping, a traditional Eastern therapy, emblazoned on their skin.
So what, exactly, is it? The practice, which is speculated to date back to circa 3000 B.C., involves placing glass domes on the body and using either heat or an air pump to suction up sections of tissue. Practitioners claim that the suction increases blood flow to injured or painful areas, increasing circulation and hastening recovery. While scientific studies of the procedure have been limited, some evidence links it to muscle-tension relief, relaxation, and lessened symptoms of osteoarthritis, though detractors claim that the placebo effect may be responsible.
The 2016 Rio games aren’t the first time Olympians have adopted a contested recovery method. From ice baths to kinesiology tape, naysayers scoff at what they deem pseudoscience. But at a level of competition in which fractions of seconds separate winners from losers, every option is on the table. Dr. Alex Moroz, director of the Integrative Sports Medicine program at NYU Langone Medical Center’s Rusk Rehabilitation, uses cupping at home on himself and his family. He believes there’s wisdom in the ancient practice, as well as common sense. Cupping’s effect, he says, is “mechanical, much like a massage,” and though Moroz has not treated professional athletes personally, he says, “It makes sense that it would work for that group of muscular skeletal injuries and problems.”
Moroz believes, furthermore, that cupping’s benefits reach far beyond sports. “For people with muscle-based pain, tightness, spasms, or chronic pain of any sort, it’s a great modality to use.” So what’s with the controversy surrounding cupping’s legitimacy? “Like other short-term modalities, there’s a curve where you have a small number of people who have rather dramatic results, and then you have a group of people who will not be helped at all,” he says. “Everyone else will fall somewhere in between.” For now, it’s worth seeing how many of them make their way to the podiums in Rio.