What’s cupping?You know that one song that Anna Kendrick does in Pitch Perfect that launched a billion catchy YouTube covers? I know. It’s amazing, right. Let’s watch it again…

No, no—cupping.Oh! Shit. Yes. Well, that’s well-trodden territory at this point, but it’s a form of widely practiced therapy that came over from China. An array of suction cups—sometimes glass, sometimes plastic—are placed on the body for anywhere from five to 20 minutes to literally suck at your flesh. There are two varieties: wet cupping, which involves tiny needles and BLOOD, and dry cupping, which does not. In the old days, the suction was accomplished using a small flame to change the air pressure inside the cup, but today the suction is achieved with a little handheld pump. It’s sort of like giving yourself a hickey with a Dyson before you tell the other kids at school about your definitely real girlfriend who lives in Canada. (Not that I’d know.)

Why’s everyone talking about it?Cupping’s been in the news recently thanks to moray eel in human suit Michael Phelps, whose sexy swimming bod was spotted at the Rio Olympics covered in sexy, circular bruises. According to his Instagram, he’s been doing cupping treatments for at least a year.

Instagram content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

Weird. What’s cupping supposed to do?A whole variety of things, including but not limited to: improving circulation, pain relief, giving you energy…

So it’s mostly bullshit, right?I mean, some of it? Probably? A lot has already been written about how little scientific literature there is out there to prove that cupping actually works. Studies to support cupping’s efficacy either have been poorly designed (lacking control groups, etc.) or were hilariously biased. This week alone, Slate called cupping “another expensive placebo,” while ScienceBlogs thanked Phelps for “glamourizing cupping quackery.” It probably doesn’t help that cupping’s most vocal supporter to this point has been Gwyneth Paltrow, who devoted a now-legendary blog post on Goop.com to extolling its virtues. Between Goop and murdering rare rhinos and using their horns to treat boners or whatever, Eastern medicine has terrible PR.

Ha.That said, here’s a lukewarm take: Maybe—just maybe!—dismissing a millennium of medicine just because it came from China and hasn’t been clinically validated by Pfizer or Novartis is shortsighted. Maybe there’s something to it. In 2013, Columbia College Chicago philosophy professor Stephen T. Asma wrote that assessing Chinese medicine is largely a “demarcation problem,” or trying to pinpoint the exact point of separation between science and pseudoscience. Just because we haven’t devoted time and resources to proving something works doesn’t mean it doesn’t. “We are all living in the vast gray area between leech-bleeding and antibiotics,” he wrote. “We like to think that a rigorous application of logic will eliminate kooky ideas. But it doesn’t.”

He continues:

In other words, it is possible for people to practice a kind of“accidental medicine”—in the sense that symptoms might be alleviatedeven when their causes are misdiagnosed (it happens all the time inWestern medicine, too). Acupuncture, turtle blood, and many similartherapies are not superstitious, but may be morsels of practical folkwisdom. The causal theory that’s concocted to explain the practicalsuccesses of treatment is not terribly important or interesting to thepoor schlub who’s thrown out his back or taken ill.”

Basically, if acupuncture or whatever makes you feel good, that’s great! A whole subset of the sciences is devoted to the healing power of placebos. Do your thing, Phelps!

Theoretically, what’s the “scientific argument” that it might work?Inflicting trauma locally increases blood flow to the area and helps promote healing. It’s sort of like a deep-tissue massage. But, er, pulling instead of pushing.

Does cupping hurt?A little bit. Bruising is definitely a thing, since it bursts your capillaries. (Just like my ex-girlfriend from Canada.) I went in for a dry cupping session this week—shout out to Yupo Wellness on Canal Street—to experience what it felt like. Imagine the pain like this: Take your thumb and forefinger, and pinch a two-inch area on your other arm as hard as you can. Now grit your teeth and pinch harder.

Imagine that happening on, like, fourteen places on your back simultaneously. Not only does it hurt, but you will look like a fleshy transistor radio. Or the underside of a cow being milked on an industrial farm.

How’d you feel after?Weirdly relaxed. I don’t know if it did anything to help muscle soreness or alleviate stress, but getting cupped was chill as hell. I could’ve knocked out for eight hours on that table.

Did you leave feeling like 21-time gold medalist Michael Phelps?I definitely did not leave feeling (or looking) like 21-time gold medalist Michael Phelps. But when you're competing on an international level, it's literally a game of inches, and any advantage—psychic or otherwise—can go a long way.

Chris Gayomali is a GQ articles editor, where he works on features and other stories for print and web. Prior to that he was the site editor of GQ.com. His stories been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing, have been selected for Longform’s annual Best Of lists, and have... Read moreArticles EditorXInstagramRelated Stories for GQMichael Phelps