Syracuse turns to cups to help rehabilitation

Syracuse has a new healing tool: cups.

The Orange (6-1, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) has turned to a method known as cupping to help the players cope with practice and matches. With 22 matches in three months, and daily practices, it can be difficult to keep at least six players healthy for every match. Four Orange players have received the special treatment this season, and some have made it a part of the routine as they recover from injuries and inflammation. Cupping has helped the Orange stay healthy, improving its ranking to No. 43 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.

The treatment is performed by placing special cups on the athletes’ skin for a few minutes. It’s done to help reduce pain, improve blood circulation and aid recovery. The cupping therapist places a flammable substance on the skin, sets it on fire, then places the cup over the fire for a few minutes.

Once the fire is out, the air under the cup cools, which helps blood vessels expand and pump blood throughout the affected area. This leaves behind multiple purple spots that can be spotted from far away on athletes’ skin.

Cupping therapy is gaining popularity around sports science, especially when Michael Phelps and other Olympians received the treatments before competitions in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. NFL linebacker, James Harrison, who turns 40 in May, partially contributes his playing into late age to cupping. While cupping is just one of the numerous things Harrison does to stay healthy, he often flaunts the novel-recovery method on Instagram.

It’s still not clear whether or not cupping is actually effective for the body. A 2012 review of 135 randomized controlled trials on cupping suggested that it has no effect on sore muscle recovery.

Still, Syracuse players believe that cupping has been vital to their recovery.

“It gets the blood flow pumping in the different areas to get the muscles ready to play,” Gabriela Knutson said.

Head trainer Brad Pike introduced the idea to SU women’s tennis this season, and the results have been positive. The treatment has been applied to half of the Orange players. Sofya Golubovskaya first used the treatment early in the season to help with inflammation and pain in her glutes, head coach Younes Limam said.

The treatment worked for Golubovskaya, who only missed two matches and has now returned to win three straight matches. Now, cupping has been expanded to other members of the team. Masha Tritou and Knutson both used cupping to help with their right shoulders, and Knutson has now received the treatment three times. Knutson and the trainers have managed her shoulder closely this year, but she says that the cupping has improved her recovery.

“I don’t have much say in what really happens to me in the training room,” Knutson said. “It’s like a deep tissue massage, it feels like it’s helping.”

Knutson and Limam say that she is fully healthy now, but Limam decided on Sunday against Yale that his first singles player would sit out the singles after she won her doubles match with Miranda Ramirez.

A few days before the match against Connecticut on Feb. 9, Ramirez felt tightness in her lower back. She received the cups from Pike, which she said helped her muscles relax and recover. Days later, she went on to win in straight sets 6-0, 6-2.

“Our physio (Pike) is very knowledgeable and he knows how to fix everything,” Ramirez said. “I’ve been pretty healthy this year but he always helps us.”

Whether cupping is a placebo or not remains to be seen, but for now the Syracuse players have bought into the idea that they have an edge in recovery thanks to their special cups.