I've been using these Chinese suction cups for couple of months now and I like them a lot. I've been putting them on an area and then moving around. I call it, "Mobility cupping". It's kind of like combining mobility exercises along with the cupping. It's working well for me.

I've been able to get more cups at a time to stay on there, so that tells me my muscles are getting softer and more pliable. Sometimes the cups fall off after a while but that's OK. So far, none have broken when they hit the floor. When my muscles are pulled into these cups, and I move around, it gives me a very intense stretch, and I think it helps to decompress things. I know my movement has improved a lot.

I've been using these Chinese vacuum cups directly on the thoracic outlet area. The sides of my neck, and the upper chest and clavicle area. It's pretty intense. I can't say I enjoy it that much but it needs to be done. I've heard cupping called, "Myofascial decompression" so we'll see how much it helps.

So far, it hasn't made my symptoms any worse, and my movement is improving, so I think I'm on the right track. These areas get really purple after, so that tells me it's pulling a lot of stagnant blood out of there. I've had surgery on one side, so there's a lot of scar tissue there as well. It seems to be softening up some from using these cups.

I've been working on my mobility for 39 months now, so I'm 1/4 of the way into my fourth year of this. Still, no doctors, and no therapists, just me working alone, figuring things out as I go along.

The Internet has been a huge help to me, without that, I would never have gotten this far. I spend a lot of time studying human anatomy and movement. I'm physically not were I'd like to be but the progress is still coming. I'm excited to see how far I can take this. Even if I don't reach my goals, at least I'll know that I gave it my best shot.

My neck, spine, and ribcage seem to be the last areas to start loosening up. The Chinese vacuum cups are working really well on these areas. They help to pull the muscles away from the ribcage. They work really well on the neck as well.

I think the reason lying on foam rollers never worked well for me, is, they just put too much pressure on everything and caused flare-ups. These cups pull on small areas of muscle and fascia so they gradually loosen things up. I use them daily and keep rotating the areas I put them on. It's kind of like connect the dots.

I've been using these Chinese vacuum cups for a little more than three months now and they work really well on scars, and scar tissue. Even though my TOS surgery was 22 years ago, using the cups directly on my neck scar has really loosened things up. It feels the best it's ever felt. It still needs work but I'm getting looser all the time. I think on the neck, cupping works better than massage.

I also have a scar from having open heart surgery last year and I've been using the cups on that. It was very painful at first but it's getting better all the time. The scar has faded and loosened up a lot.

When I first started using these cups, I was afraid it might cause a TOS flare but so far it hasn't. In fact, I haven't had TOS flare since I've been using these. Hopefully I didn't jinx myself by saying that.

Joint mobility is good stuff and it works even better when you put some of these cups on and do it.

I'm at the 40 month mark now and still making progress. Slow and steady wins the race when you're doing this.

Along with the cupping, I've gotten a little bit more aggressive with my myofascial release. I've been using a 2" hard plastic spikey ball on my upper body and a bamboo stick on my legs. I put one end of the stick against the wall and the other end against the tight muscle and lean into it. It penetrates deeper into the muscle than anything else I've tried.

I've gotten most of my ideas on myofascial release, including the cupping, from Naudi Aguilar at Functionalpatterns.com. He has a lot of good videos on myofascial release and he points out that you should keep working towards harder objects to get deeper into the muscle fibers. Foam rollers are too soft in his opinion. Some of this stuff hurts but it gets results.

I had pain in my entire body when I started this and I'm starting to feel much better head to toe. As my movement improves, my pain levels are getting much lower. It just takes time and patience.

This post was on 11-18-2012, so about nine months ago. I was just reading through some of my old posts to see when I started working on myofascial release. At that point, I had been doing joint mobility for 31 months.

I was thinking that if I'd started doing myofascial release earlier on, I might have made faster progress, but after reading this, I'm not sure. I think that it took the 31 months of joint mobility before my body was ready for it.

I've heard people say that myofascial release should come before mobility work, but I think in my case, that was just too aggressive. In the beginning, I got a lot of pain and inflammation after doing mobility exercises, but over time, that's gradually gotten a lot better. I think early on, myofascial release would have been too aggressive, and caused flare ups. I think my intuition was correct.

I had lower back surgery in 1990, and I haven't been able to squat since then, without flaring up the nerves in my lower back and legs. In fact, about two years ago I had to make a couple of trips to the emergency room, because I flared my lower back up so bad from trying that. It's in one of my old posts.

In the last week or two, I started squatting, and so far, no pain. I'm being very, very careful and gradually working at it. It's been 23 years since I've been able to squat, so I'm having a little bit of trouble fathoming this. It just seems surreal. I'm excited, but I'm still a little scared something's going to go wrong. It's taken 40 months of hard work to get to this point. Still a lot of work to do though. Hopefully, the progress will continue.

Coop: I enjoy checking in on your progress now and then. Slow and steady does seem to win the race. Even if it doesn't completely get you to the finish line, hopefully it will get you to a spot where you can live a full, satisfying life.

I may get a set of those cups. I've been cupped many times before and it was amazing to see the decrease of "darkness" in the skin the longer you cupped. I also would like to try the sliding over the skin method. I have an appointment with a new acupuncturist in a few weeks who does cupping, but not traditional Chinese. I'm hoping she can offer up some "at home" suggestions.

Thanks for the update. You are an inspiration! Keep up the good work.

It is interesting to see the color changes from the cupping. When I first start working on an area, the skin usually turns pretty dark purple, but as things get healthier, it just turns more of a nice pink color, and the marks fade away much faster. My thoracic outlet area, chest, neck, and the front side of my shoulders still get really purple when I cup them, but they're moving a little bit better all the time, so I keep at it.