Reporter Han Bing reported that the 35-year-old Benzema is experiencing the real peak of his career, he became the first French player to score five consecutive Champions League games, and Benzema scored 10 goals in the Champions League knockout rounds this season, equaling the Champions League knockout record held by C. Ronaldo. Benzema is already a La Liga champion and La Liga Golden Boot winner, and if he can win the Champions League trophy, there is almost no suspense that he will be the restructured Ballon d'Or winner.
Compared with the injury-ridden superstars Bale and Hazard, who are younger than Benzema, the Spanish media attributes his "old and strong" to Real Madrid's physical coach Bindus. But in fact, the real "secret" of French shooters to maintain physical health and stability comes from cupping, moxibustion and acupuncture, the latter two of which are also highly recommended rehabilitation methods by tennis superstar Djokovic.
Elite stars have received help from ergonomics, biology, sports rehabilitation and even other high-tech technologies, but traditional Chinese medicine treatment methods such as acupuncture and cupping are also becoming increasingly popular in the elite athlete community in Europe and the United States. Benzema's love of cupping has long been known, and his physical condition has remained stable enough in recent years. Djokovic has dominated the world tennis world for many years, and acupuncture is indispensable.
Cold therapy is popular, and "hyperthermia" is even more popular
C. Ronaldo is the "image ambassador" of ultra-low temperature "cold therapy", and football superstars Neymar, Benzema and Mahrez are the "spokespersons" of cupping "heat therapy". All three are passionate about cupping, relieving muscle soreness while improving blood circulation through this traditional TCM treatment. Cupping (Fire Cupping) in the European and American world as the name suggests, is the "cup in the fire therapy", through different materials, different shapes of the cup, the use of flames to produce heat to produce air pumps, between the cup and the skin to produce suction, the skin slightly upward away from the muscle tissue below. This can lead to locally congested bruises on the skin, but that's how it relieves muscle soreness and improves blood circulation. Common cupping in Benzema includes the Wet Jar (Hijima), which is widely used in the Islamic world to achieve a relaxing effect by sucking blood locally from small incisions in the skin.
Cupping has become a popular therapy in the elite sports circles of Europe and the United States, originating from the American swimming superstar Phelps. The cupping bruises on the shoulders of the latter at the Rio 2016 Olympics were the best promotion of this TCM remedy. Similarly, Neymar and Benzema have posted cupping photos on their respective social networking pages, which is worth a thousand words. Five years ago, heavyweight boxer Joshua also chose cupping as the main means of pre-match relief and relaxation before fighting krychenko's championship battle.
Although cupping therapy in the West is believed to have originated in ancient Egypt in 1550 BC and was also popular in ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, in modern times, cupping is the first treatment method of traditional Chinese medicine to enter Europe and the United States and has been recognized and popularized. Cupping was first found in Chinese literature in the Western Han Dynasty book "Fifty-Two Sick Prescriptions", known as the "Horn Method". The athletic performance of top athletes is more dependent on accelerated blood circulation and fully "maintained" muscle fibers, cupping can not only provide the above effects, but also reduce pain and inflammation, but also improve the respiratory system, which is the main reason why it is widely welcomed by swimmers, boxing, football and other sports athletes, because their athletic performance is more dependent on the normal operation of the respiratory system.
In addition to football, American football superstar James Harrison has also recovered from cupping therapy. Harrison suffered a serious back injury and underwent multiple surgeries, but after receiving cupping and acupuncture treatment, the 39-year-old Harrison became the oldest defensive player in Super Bowl history. Harrison spends $350,000 a year on a dedicated physiotherapy team that includes masseurs, chiropractic specialists, and of course cupping and acupuncture specialists.
Cupping + acupuncture, the effect is better
In addition to cupping, Harrison acupuncture is also his favorite means of rehabilitation. He receives regular acupuncture treatments, using more than 400 needles at a time, and some silver needles are inserted into muscles as deep as 7.5-8 cm. The sports rehabilitation field in Europe and the United States has always been skeptical of TCM methods such as cupping and acupuncture, but Harrison's words represent the views of many athletes who have received TCM: "What I know is that before receiving acupuncture treatment, I often got injured, but after that I felt better." His 4-quarter teammate Brady is also the oldest offensive player in the NFL, and in addition to a strict diet regimen, cupping and acupuncture are also Brady's favorites.
European and American professional football circles are more receptive to acupuncture than cupping, and stars such as Beckham have already begun to use acupuncture. Acupuncture has become the most common physiotherapy in modern football, helping to release nervous and stiff muscle fibers in players, relieving joint inflammation, and especially for common injuries such as acute hamstring strains.
Acupuncture regulates nerve signaling, as well as the brain's perception of pain. The inserted fine needle creates an initial irritation that creates a local trauma around the needle, which will lead to the release of calcitonin gene peptides (substances that play a role in pain transmission) and histamine, so there will be a local inflammatory response around the needle. When muscle fibers are stimulated, they are inverted with endorphins, neurotransmitters that achieve pain relief by asking the brain to focus on the needle rather than the pain at the injured site.
In the early years, Leeds United star Alain Smith released the effusion of his right calf and the surrounding hematoma through acupuncture, allowing him to play a full 90 minutes after receiving treatment for at least 1 week. Lower extremity injuries are the most common among professional players (about 70%), with an average of 10-15 lower extremity injuries per 1000 hours of training and play. Acupuncture or moxibustion is effective in preventing and treating musculoskeletal injuries, improving athletic performance and accelerating recovery.
Acupuncture, as a means of rehabilitation for the treatment of injuries in players, has been systematically studied in Europe and the United States for at least 20 years, and its positive effects on pain, physical function, muscle strength, aerobic regulation and flexibility are obvious. Acupuncture has been found to be effective in the treatment of several chronic musculoskeletal disorders associated with high-performance exercise exercises and has been recommended as an adjunctive intervention to treat pain caused by acute muscle injury.
For the average amateur footballer, cupping and acupuncture are the similarities between them and superstars such as Benzema, Neymar, Beckham and so on, and injury prevention and rehabilitation are more cost-effective. After all, the vast majority of people can't spend millions of dollars on high-tech equipment such as ultra-low temperature cold therapy like C. Luo.