Effect Of Different Doses Of Cupping Therapy In Reducing Muscle Fatigue

Cupping therapy has been used to alleviate muscle fatigue. However, the lack of standardized guidelines on the dose-response relationship of cupping therapy limits the adoption of cupping therapy in clinical practice. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of various durations and pressures of cupping therapy in reducing muscle fatigue. METHODS: Twenty-eight healthy participants were randomized into four groups. The 2 × 2 factorial design was used to test four cupping protocols, including two durations of 5 and 10 minutes and two negative pressures at -300 and -400 mmHg. Different doses of cupping therapy were applied after muscle fatigue. Surface electromyography (EMG) with mean frequency (MF) and median frequency (MDF) were used to assess muscle fatigue before fatigue, immediately after fatigue, and 24 hours after fatigue. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the main effects of the duration and pressure and the interaction effect between the duration and pressure factors. RESULTS: The results showed that there were no significant differences in baseline levels and immediately after fatigue among the 4 groups. There were no interactions between the durations and pressure factors (MF p = 0.830, MDF p = 0.742). The main effects of the pressure of MF and MDF were both p < 0.001. The main effects of the duration of MF and MDF were p = 0.06 and p = 0.189, respectively. The post hoc comparison showed that -400 mmHg cupping is more effective in reducing muscle fatigue than -300 mmHg cupping with the same duration (MF: -400 mmHg 127.074 ± 2.514 Hz vs. -300 mmHg 111.320 ± 2.514 Hz, P < 0.001; MDF: -400 mmHg 107.670 ± 2.608 Hz vs. -300 mmHg 124.320 ± 2.608 HZ, P < 0.001). However, there was no significant difference between the different cupping durations in reducing muscle fatigue with the same pressure (MF: -400 mmHg 115.6993 ± 2.514 Hz vs. -300 mmHg 122.700 ± 2.514 Hz, P = 0.06; MDF: -400 mmHg 113.734 ± 2.608 Hz vs. -300 mmHg 118.726 ± 2.608 Hz, P = 0.189). CONCLUSION: These results provide modest support for the idea that the pressure of cupping therapy could affect the changes in reducing muscle fatigue, and the more negative pressure could be more effective within an appropriate range.