As warm weather beckons us outdoors and yard projects await, our bodies can already feel the strain with tight muscles and painful inflammation. Whether you’ve suffered an injury or struggle with chronic pain, our Spring & Summer Menu’s featured cupping therapy service can give you the relief you need. Read on to discover from our lead massage therapist Sara exactly how cupping therapy can ease sore muscles, lymphedema, neuropathy, scar tissue, and your own pain or inflammation!
Get to Know Sara
Before she was a massage therapist at Tyler Mason, Sara attended Ball State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in dance. She then performed with professional dance companies around Indianapolis and was a dance instructor for 13 years.
While Sara was dancing full-time, she injured her neck and shoulder doing a front roll. Because she had a performance coming up, she booked a deep tissue massage for the first time, and her massage therapist incorporated cupping therapy.
“This was the only way I could have gotten through the run of the show,” Sara says. “It really helped heal [my injury.] When I went to massage school, I wanted to make sure I got my extra certification for cupping.”
When Sara began looking for a career change, she turned to her love for anatomy and healing others when she decided to pursue massage therapy. Now, she has four years of massage therapy experience at Tyler Mason, and she has been certified in cupping therapy since 2022.
What to Expect During Cupping Therapy
Sara uses a handheld pump to suction a cup onto your skin to pull blood toward your skin’s surface. This increased blood flow facilitates healing to these cupped areas. Sara adapts her approach based on your specific pain. She may use lotion to glide cups along your muscles, or she may leave multiple cups in place on a targeted area for 5-10 minutes.
Our guest services coordinator Becca receives cupping therapy to ease her back pain that would keep her up all night. Becca has scoliosis and upper back and neck pain from constantly looking down at a computer screen or book as a college student. Since receiving cupping therapy, Becca says she feels revived and like a new woman who’s no longer tossing and turning at night in pain.
One of Sara’s guests uses cupping therapy for lymphatic drainage on her stomach and legs to help relieve her lymphedema after weight loss surgery. Sara also uses her cups on one of her guest’s arms after an excess skin-removal surgery to break down scar tissue. Because her guest’s surgeons cut into her lymph nodes during surgery — which is common during mastectomies and other breast reconstruction surgeries as well, Sara says — her lymphatic system isn’t able to drain fluid on its own. So, Sara also glides her cups to move this fluid up toward her guest’s lymph nodes.
Sara uses cupping therapy on herself for lymphatic drainage as well. When she has swelling around her face and chin due to hormonal changes, she uses her smallest cups to guide this fluid trapped in her tissues to her lymph nodes to drain away.
Sara’s Suggestions
After your cupping therapy, you may have “cup kisses.” This discoloration appears where stagnant blood and toxins have been pulled to your skin’s surface so your lymphatic system can drain it out. Don’t worry — these cup kisses aren’t bruises and should fade within a week.
If you have a cold or sinus infection, Sara recommends waiting until you’re feeling better to receive cupping therapy. Because the technique works so closely to your lymph nodes, it could spread these viruses further throughout your body.
However, if you have lymphedema or neuropathy, weekly cupping therapy sessions can help relieve pain and swelling in your body’s damaged nerves and tissues, Sara says. After receiving cupping therapy, she also recommends drinking lots of water to help flush toxins out of your system.
“I believe so much in the power of [cupping therapy] because I’ve seen the results,” Sara says. “I’m such a nerd — I get so excited that it’s actually working. People are seeing the difference, and they’re really happy.”
Interested in cupping therapy? Add this service onto your next massage for $25, or schedule a 30-minute ($78) or 60-minute ($108) cupping session with Sara here!
Nicole Thomas is the marketing manager for Tyler Mason Salon & Spa. She is also a passionate writer and digital marketer for several Indiana-based publications. When she isn’t at TM, she loves cozying up with a book and cup of coffee or crocheting a new cardigan for her wardrobe.