Nationals’ star Bryce Harper did cupping therapy and it’s making us feel all the wrong things

Athletes do weird things to keep their body where it needs to be for the year; some push cars, others run marathons, and others just lift insane amounts of weights.

Bryce Harper has to be different, though.

Bryce Harper has to do (gulps) cupping therapy. Cupping therapy first made its way into the public spotlight during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, when swimmers like Michael Phelps would enter the water with large splotches on their backs from the treatment.

Photo credit should read GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

WebMD defines cupping therapy as a form of alternative medicine advertised as: helping to improve blood flow, relieving pain and inflammation, as well as serving as a deep tissue massage — but the suction treatment has never been proven to work.

Apparently, though, Bryce Harper was convinced enough.

It looks... painful, and also, somehow is really gross. Or something. But hey, if it helps him hit forty home runs, then it’s an image that Nats fans can probably learn to live with.