Massage therapy and cupping therapy have become two of the most popular topics of discussion in the fitness world today. Imagine having to deal with severe back pain or muscle sprain, and there’s a device readily available to fix that. Most people have envisioned this for a long time — the ability to fix their muscle soreness without necessarily visiting a muscle therapist.
Both the massage gun and cupping massager helps relieve the muscles and improve circulation. However, while both are available for muscle use, they still have their unique differences. This article will highlight everything you need to know about each of them and which one is better.
What is Massage Gun Therapy?
The massage gun isn’t just a fitness trend but a device that has been proven over the years to be effective for the muscles. The human body often gets stressed and needs to bounce back from a sustained performance. However, it won’t always automatically do that, and this is where a massage becomes useful. A massage gun can help you replicate all the benefits of a professional massage right in the comfort of your home or anywhere at your convenience.
Some of the benefits include relieved muscle pain, enhanced workout performance, improved sleep, and enhanced range of motion. It has also been proven effective in vibration therapy and traditional massage, as it reduces delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
If you have the RecoverFun mini-massage gun, you have an even greater advantage. It is portable, quiet, and has a long-lasting battery life, which means you can carry it along with you to be used anywhere. This level of convenience is what pushes most people to choose a massage gun over visiting a massage therapist.
What is Cupping Therapy?
Cupping therapy has been around for centuries but has recently become a trend due to the new innovations around it. This traditional Chinese therapy works by placing cups made from rubber, glass, ceramic, or plastic on specific areas of the body. The cup is designed to create suction on the skin and this works by pulling blood from muscles around the region. 
This benefits the muscles in many ways, including providing massage benefits, increasing circulation, relieving tense muscles, improving relaxation, and increasing immune function, among others.
However, the traditional cupping therapy is quite stressful for the average person and can even be dangerous due to the method used, which may include flammable substances. In this modern age, smart dynamic cupping has been introduced, making the process easier, better, and with little to zero risks. In an earlier article, we explained the clear difference between Traditional Cupping and Dynamic Cupping.
With smart cupping devices introduced, you can walk around with your smart cup and control it yourself from an app or manually. You don’t have to visit a traditional cupping therapist to get all the benefits. You also get additional features such as the red light therapy and the Guasha/scraping feature, all in the same device.
Massage Gun Therapy Vs Cupping Therapy: What’s the Difference?
Massage therapy and cupping therapy often tend to overlap in their functions but they however still have their distinctive features. How then do you differentiate cupping therapy from massage therapy? The points highlighted below can help.
1. Performance
The massage gun is designed to punch the muscle via vibration to improve circulation and heal muscle sprains. On the other hand, the cupping massager creates suction in the muscle and pulls blood, which improves the flow of blood to the region to stimulate the natural healing process.
2. Focus
The massage gun is dynamic — it works like a manual massage therapy that helps relieve tense and sore muscles. Cupping therapy, on the other hand, is based on traditional cupping traced back to the early Han dynasty in Chinese tradition. If you want a form of muscle relaxation while still connecting to the traditional roots, cupping therapy will be great. It has all the benefits you would get from traditional cupping therapy but with the new innovation, you can get even better benefits and do it at your pace.
3. Relaxation Vs Pain Relief
The massage gun is often great for muscle relaxation. However, the cupping massager focuses on a particular muscle region at a time and helps relieve pain in that region. This could be your back, shoulder, thigh, or glutes.
4. Preference
Many times, it’s all about preference - whether you’d like the massage gun or the cupping massager. Many athletes today tend to choose cupping therapy for several reasons — whether it is for quick pain relief or to show off the cupping marks for some time or just for preference’s sake. At the same time, the massage gun is also great for athletes.
Which Should You Buy: Massage Gun or Cupping Massager?
Massage and cupping look quite similar but they are two different ways to relieve your tense muscles and improve your overall health. With the great benefits these two devices have to offer, the best option would be to have both in possession. You can switch between the massage gun and the Aircup device. For days when you want to relax, use your massage gun, and for days when you want to increase blood flow to a muscle region, use your Aircup device.