Dynamic Cupping Therapy Explained: Benefits and What to Expect

You have seen the marks.

Those round, reddish circles across the back of an Olympic swimmer, right there on the starting block for the whole world to see. The first time they showed up on TV, half the country thought something had gone wrong. Then the questions started, and they never really stopped.

With the 2028 Games heading here to Los Angeles, I have a feeling those circles are about to come up in conversation a lot more. So I want to take my time and actually explain this one properly, because cupping is one of the most misunderstood tools I bring into a session. It is also one of the most satisfying when it lands on the right body.

I am James Palmer, The Massage Guy. I have been doing this work for nearly a decade, and this July marks my tenth year. I do not run a spa, and there is no front desk and no waiting room. I bring the table to you, anywhere across Los Angeles, from Beverly Hills down to Santa Monica and out into the Valley.

If you already know your body wants this, you can book a session here. If you want the full story first, keep reading.

First, what is cupping actually doing?

Almost everything I do with my hands works by pressing down. I use my fingers, my forearms, sometimes an elbow, to compress tight tissue and coax it into letting go. That is the language most massage speaks. Pressure in, tension out.

Cupping speaks the opposite language. It lifts.

A cup creates a gentle suction against the skin and draws the tissue upward, away from the body rather than into it. So instead of squeezing a stubborn area, we are decompressing it. Think of a spot that has been compressed and stuck for months. Pressing on it is one conversation. Lifting it, creating a little space where there has been none, is a completely different one.

That change in direction is the whole point. It reaches the fascia and the layers underneath in a way that pressing simply cannot replicate. Fascia is the connective webbing that wraps and links everything inside you, and when it gets stiff or stuck, it can quietly pull your whole system out of sorts. If you want to understand why that tissue matters so much, I wrote a full piece on fascia and why it deserves your attention.

The research lines up with what I feel under my hands. According to a review of cupping in musculoskeletal and sports rehabilitation, cupping improves blood flow to the treated area and can increase soft tissue flexibility, and it does so with a very low rate of side effects.* That last part matters to me. This is a gentle tool, not a punishing one, and anyone who tells you good bodywork has to hurt to work is selling you something.

So what makes it "dynamic"?

Here is where a lot of people have the wrong picture in their heads.

The classic image of cupping is completely still. The cups go on, you lie there for ten or fifteen minutes, the cups come off. That approach has its place, and it works. But it is only half the story, and in my hands it is usually the smaller half.

Dynamic cupping keeps things moving. Sometimes I glide the cups slowly along the length of a muscle, so the decompression travels with the tissue instead of sitting on one fixed spot. Other times I have you gently move the joint, or take the limb through its range, while the cup stays engaged. So rather than freeing up a single frozen point, we are freeing up the tissue as it lengthens, shortens, and glides. It feels less like a treatment being done to you and more like your muscles finally getting to move the way they were built to.

This is the same interactive, problem-solving mindset I bring to everything, whether I am working on a chronic issue or helping an athlete recover. You can see more of that approach on my sports massage page.

When it makes sense to let things marinate

Every so often my hands, or the cup, will find a trigger point. One of those dense, cranky little knots that has clearly been holding on for a while and is not interested in a quick pass. When I find one of those, the smart move is often the opposite of movement. I will park the cup right there and let it sit stationary for a minute or so, giving that spot sustained, patient decompression while everything around it softens.

So the honest picture is this. Most of the work is dynamic and moving. But from time to time it simply makes sense to stop, hold, and let things marinate for a minute. Bodies are not machines with a single correct setting. Reading the difference between "keep this moving" and "let this one sit" is a big part of what a decade of doing this teaches you.

Which brings me to how I actually work. I do not sell a "cupping session" off a menu, and I no longer slice my work into rigid categories like deep tissue here, myofascial release there. On our first visit I do a full intake, we get on the same page about what is going on and what you are hoping for, and then I build a custom, therapeutic session around what your body is actually asking for that day. Some days that leans into deep pressure. Some days it is more fascia-focused. And some days the cups come out, because your tissue needs to be lifted rather than pressed. If you want the standalone details, here is my full dynamic cupping page.

What can dynamic cupping actually help with?

I would always rather set honest expectations than oversell you on a miracle. So here is where the evidence is strongest, and where I genuinely see the best results in real bodies.

• Low back pain. According to a 2024 meta-analysis of eleven trials with over nine hundred participants, there is high-quality evidence that cupping meaningfully reduces low back pain across a two to eight week course, and it held up better than medication or usual care in that window.** If your low back is the thing that keeps flaring up, cupping earns its spot in the toolkit. My deeper dive on backs lives right here.

• Neck and shoulder tension. A review of eighteen trials found that cupping reduced neck pain and improved function, and it worked especially well as an add-on alongside other hands-on treatment.*** This is my bread and butter with desk workers, drivers, and anyone who lives with their head tilted down at a phone all day. The cups feel amazing on the upper traps..

• Tight, restricted muscles. That improvement in soft tissue flexibility tends to show up quickly, which is exactly why cupping pairs so beautifully with movement.* When I combine the decompression with taking a joint through its range, that new flexibility gets to show up as actual freedom to move.

• Athletic recovery. More blood flow, looser tissue, and a quicker turnaround between hard efforts. If you train seriously, cupping deserves a place in your recovery rotation. I broke this whole subject down for the endurance crowd in my post on Hyrox training and recovery.

Zooming out, an evidence map that pulled together a decade of cupping research landed in the same neighborhood as everything above. The most consistent wins are in musculoskeletal pain, especially the low back, the neck, and the knees.****

And now the honest caveat, because you deserve it. The researchers studying cupping are the first to say they want bigger, cleaner, better-designed studies before making bold claims.**** *** I feel exactly the same way from the table. Cupping is a genuinely useful tool inside a smart, personalized session. It is not magic, and it is not a cure for everything. It is one more effective way to help your body move and feel better, and I use it when it fits, not because it looks impressive on Instagram.

About those marks

Let me settle the big question, because it is the one everyone eventually asks.

Those circles are not bruises, at least not in the way a bruise from banging your shin is a bruise. There is no impact and nothing gets crushed. The suction simply draws a small amount of blood toward the surface of the skin, and that shows up as temporary discoloration. For most people it fades on its own within a few days.

They do not hurt. In fact most people are surprised by how genuinely relaxing the whole thing feels once they get past the look of it. And for the most part, Dynamic Cupping leaves fewer marks than the stationary cups do.

And if you have something on the calendar, a wedding, a photo shoot, or a beach day out in Santa Monica, Venice, or Malibu, just tell me at the start. We can go lighter, work different areas, or plan the timing so nothing shows when you do not want it to. This is your session, and it should fit your life.

What to expect when I come to you

Since I am fully mobile, the setup is simple and I handle every bit of it. You do not need to prepare anything or run out for supplies.

• I need roughly an 8 foot by 8 foot clear space, ideally somewhere calm where you can settle.

• I bring the table, sheets, blanket, oil, and music. Everything.

• We start with a quick check-in about how you are feeling that day, and then I build the session around it in real time.

• If cupping makes sense for your body, it becomes one part of a larger, custom treatment, woven together with the hands-on work rather than tacked on as a separate thing.

That is the real gift of in-home massage. No traffic on the 405 before you have even started relaxing, no waiting room, and no rushing back out into your day the second I finish. You get to actually rest, in your own space, on your own terms.

Let's get you moving

If your low back has been nagging you, your neck feels like it is set in concrete, or you just want to recover smarter between workouts, dynamic cupping might be exactly the tool your body has been looking for. And if it turns out it is not the right fit for you, I will tell you that too, and we will reach for something that serves you better. That honesty is the whole point of working with one experienced person instead of a rotating roster.

I bring mobile, therapeutic massage to Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Studio City, Encino, and the greater Los Angeles area, right to your door.

Book your session now and let's figure out what your body actually needs.

See you soon, James

References

According to PubMed:

* Mohamed AA, Zhang X, Jan YK. Evidence-based and adverse-effects analyses of cupping therapy in musculoskeletal and sports rehabilitation: A systematic and evidence-based review. J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. 2023;36(1):3-19. https://doi.org/10.3233/BMR-210242

** Zhang Z, Pasapula M, Wang Z, Edwards K, Norrish A. The effectiveness of cupping therapy on low back pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized control trials. Complement Ther Med. 2024;80:103013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2024.103013

*** Kim S, Lee SH, Kim MR, et al. Is cupping therapy effective in patients with neck pain? A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open. 2018;8(11):e021070. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-021070

**** Choi TY, Ang L, Ku B, Jun JH, Lee MS. Evidence Map of Cupping Therapy. J Clin Med. 2021;10(8):1750. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10081750