I had a bad knot in my in my right rhomboid for a few weeks and when it finally loosened, my left decided to knot up. After a few weeks on my left and not being able to stretch it out, I grabbed a cupping kit off of amazon and had my wife put them over the knot.

About five minutes on and when she removed them, all knots were completely released. I was surprised but it led me to look at other uses.

Anyone here use cupping for more than knots? And did I get lucky, or is it actually effective?

In my experience, dry needling as much more effective, but of course you can't do that on your own. Didn't seem to find much help with cupping personally.

Definitely wouldn't want to give my the go ahead to poke me with needles! Everything I read about cupping was essentially what you said. I guess I got lucky, but it really gave immediate relief and the knot still hasn't returned.

Cupping didn't do anything for me on some pain I was having, but my PT guy was trying something at the time. May not have been the best application.

Had dry needling done with Achilles tendinitis and that worked well.

I've had it once and did nothing. The physiology doesn't make sense. I can see it helping a rhomboid though as that is a pretty small and superficial muscle. I find lidocaine icy hot patches work really well for rhomboid pain where they seem to do nothing for bigger muscle clusters like quads, calves, etc.

The main reason we learn about it in medical school is to not call CPS haha.

I agree that dry needling is where it's at. However, I think for certain issues it might be beneficial. If it is able to pull and stretch fascia, and not just pull up skin and fat, you may experience benefit. I bought a kit of amazon recently for some neck and shoulder issues as well recently. I could definitely feel a stretch of the fascia in my neck, but then was sore the next couple days. So maybe it is stretching and I just need to get used to it? Shoulder, not sure yet.

As a PT I used to use some cupping in my clinic years ago but I didn't find it all that helpful. But dry needling is a nice tool especially with those with acute neck pain. It works wonders so fast.

I had it done as part of a "sports" massage. I was not impressed. It didn't really do anything but leave giant purple marks on my shoulders.

After getting cracked, cupped, scraped, dry needled and/or electro-dry needled. I feel like a new person. Improved range of motion is the biggest thing I notice, but overall, it's a quick fix for problem areas.