After mother runner Jacki was sidelined with deep glute pain, she felt the frustration and uncertainty that so many injured runners know too well. When regular stretching didn’t bring relief, she turned to cupping in hopes of finding a solution. Here, she shares her experience—and why you might want to consider it if you’re struggling with stubborn aches and pains.

After four months of heavy mileage with no real rest, my attempt to outrun change turned into a real pain in the butt, literally. The pain began as a tightness high in my right hamstring any time I climbed stairs, and since this feeling was reminiscent of one I’d get if I skimped on a cool down, my first course of action was to add more stretching. 

Unfortunately, none of the myriad stretches I tried seemed to reach deep enough, and rolling, even lightly over a frozen water bottle, was painfully intolerable. My participation in strength classes decreased sharply due to gripping pain when I attempted a descent of even a few inches. When the pain became constant regardless of position or activity, I saw my longtime physical therapist. She diagnosed ischial bursitis (an inflammation of the fluid-filled bursa located deep between the glute and the sitz bone) and initially prescribed, along with regular doses of ibuprofen and strengthening exercises, Graston therapy, a form of “massage” that involves various medieval-looking metal instruments. 

When, after weeks of this regimen I wasn’t improving, she suggested cupping.

I’d heard of cupping, but only as it related to Olympic athletes like Michael Phelps or celebrities like Gywenth Paltrow and mostly what I’d remembered about it was the round bruising it caused. The way I understand it is that, unlike Graston which compresses the layers of tissue together as it stimulates blood flow, cupping uses negative pressure (via suction) to separate the tissue layers, allowing for increased circulation between them, which can result in faster healing and pain relief. My PT admitted that cupping would be a bit more uncomfortable than Graston and there could be some bruising, but the part I focused on was “faster healing and pain relief.” I readily agreed to try it.

My first experience with cupping occurred on a cold, early spring day, not yet shorts weather, and I was wearing full length leggings. Since the injury was essentially under my butt cheek and the technique required direct access to my skin, my PT moved me from the open warehouse-like gym to a small treatment room that had a sterile doctor’s office vibe. 

She offered me a pair of white tissue paper shorts “for modesty” and left me alone to change. The treatment room felt much more clinical than what I was accustomed to for physical therapy and I began to worry that something more serious could be wrong with my leg. I tried to shake the nerves out of my icy hands and draw deep breaths, but the dampness that had formed at the back of my neck caused me to shiver. 

My impending anxiety attack was interrupted by my PT re-entering the room with a rectangular black plastic briefcase. I watched as she removed various sizes of clear plastic bell jar shaped domes that had rubber rings around their bottoms and small rubber nipple looking appendages on their tops. Then, she unpacked a cookie press looking device with a tube attached to the front of it, affixing a medium-sized dome to the other end of the tube. (Spoiler Alert: It did NOT make cookies.)

An example of suctioning air out of the cup to create a strong seal

She asked me to lie prone on the crinkly paper covered table and sang “I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly,” making me laugh at the Bootylicious reference as she squirted cold, slimy goo the entire length of my hamstring before placing the dome about two inches up from the back of my knee. I heard the air being pumped out of the dome before I felt it as she squeezed the trigger. It wasn’t long before the suction felt like a hard lingering pinch. I was just settling into that den of discomfort when she began to slowly slide the pressurized dome up toward my gluteal cleft which caused a blazing sensation along my hamstring. This went on for what felt like an hour, though in reality it was only 15 minutes, and afterward she told me to expect some bruising on the back of my leg. The next morning I didn’t have perfectly round circles of bruising like I’d expected. Instead it appeared that I had been struck repeatedly with a bat all the way up the back of my right thigh. 

For a month, I underwent cupping twice a week on top of daily PT exercises, and each week I could bear to sit longer, run farther, and climb more stairs. By week five, I was completely pain free in all activities, including 20-mile training runs. I’m happy to report that it’s been almost a year, and as long as I’m diligent about PT exercises and strength training, I am able to run long, climb high and squat low with nary a twinge of pain. 

Long story short? Cupping wasn’t pleasant, butt—LOL—I would definitely do it again.