“It looks weird,” said American Dana Vollmer, who finished third in the women’s 100-metre butterfly on Sunday and also uses cupping. “But it helps with blood flow, helps with pulling the swelling out of different areas.” “I asked for a little cupping (on Sunday) because I was sore and the trainer hit me pretty hard with one,” Phelps said. “It left a couple of bruises.”While cupping is currently believed to be legal under IOC rules, the method is not without controversy. RIO DE JANEIRO – Those welts on Michael Phelps’ sculpted body aren’t from those nasty Zika virus-carrying mosquitoes we’ve heard about, nor has the 23-time Olympic medallist been sparring with U.S. boxers in his spare time.

Source: National Post August 09, 2016 12:11 UTC