By the Cupping Warehouse Team — founded by a retired nurse and massage therapist with 27 years of combined healthcare experience
Buy the 5560. Almost everyone should, almost always — including most professionals, for most of their work. DEEP PRO 6065 is not a better or more advanced version of 5560. It is a specialty cup for slow, deep work, and it takes real hand strength to use. If you cannot compress it far enough, you will not get the suction it is capable of, and it will feel like a faulty cup.
That last sentence is the most common reason a cup gets returned to us. Someone reads “DEEP,” assumes deeper means better, orders 6065, cannot squeeze it, and concludes the product does not work. The product works. It was the wrong cup.
What the numbers actually mean
5560 and 6065 are silicone firmness. That is the only thing they describe.
- Intermediate PRO 5560 — our softer silicone.
- DEEP PRO 6065 — hard silicone.
- DEEP PRO 6570 — the firmest we make.
Firmness matters because of how a silicone cup creates suction. You squeeze the cup, place it, and let go. The pull comes from the cup recoiling back to its original shape. Harder silicone recoils faster and with more force, so it draws harder. That is the whole mechanism.
Which sounds like an obvious argument for buying the hardest cup you can. It isn't, for one simple reason.
The part nobody tells you: you have to squeeze it
All that recoil force only helps if you can compress the cup in the first place.
Harder silicone resists compression. On a 6065 cup, getting the walls to collapse far enough to produce a strong draw takes genuine hand strength — and it takes some experience to read how far you have actually compressed it. If you can only squeeze it halfway, you get a fraction of the suction the cup is capable of, and it will feel weaker than a 5560 you can compress fully.
So the cup that draws harder on paper can easily draw less in your hand. That is not a flaw in the cup. It is a mismatch between the cup and the hands using it.
Now do that ten times in a session, on a client, several clients a day. Hand fatigue is real, and it is the reason experienced therapists do not reach for 6065 by default.
So what is 5560 actually for?
Nearly everything. This is the point people miss.
Intermediate PRO 5560 is not the beginner tier you use until you are good enough for something harder. There is no graduation. It is the everyday working cup — the one most therapists use across most of their sessions, on most bodies, for most of the work they do.
It is softer than our harder tiers, not soft in absolute terms. It still produces a firm, definite pull. What it also does is compress easily enough that you can generate that pull consistently, session after session.
If you own one firmness, own this one.
And what is 6065 for?
Slow, deliberate, deep work over dense muscle — where you want the extra draw and you are willing to work slowly to place it well. Larger, denser tissue. Sessions where a specific area needs more than your everyday cup gives.
It is a specialty cup, not an everyday cup, even for professionals. Most practitioners who own 6065 use it for particular cases and reach for 5560 the rest of the time.
You want 6065 if you have the hand strength, you have used cups enough to know what good compression feels like, and you have a specific reason for wanting a harder draw. If any of those three is missing, it is the wrong purchase today. It may be the right one in six months.
What about the rim? That matters too
Firmness is only one of the two things that decide how a cup feels. The other is rim shape, and they work independently.
Supreme cups have a squared rim. It catches and holds tissue. That makes it excellent for static holds — place the cup, leave it, let it work. Supreme can also glide, but it grips as it travels: a tug on the skin, then release, then movement. That grabbing quality is genuinely useful for slow, deep myofascial work. It is not a smooth glide, and it needs to be done slowly.
GRIP cups have a rounded rim. It releases and slides, so the cup travels smoothly and continuously across oiled skin. That is the smooth glide, and it is the reason to choose GRIP.
So pick your rim for the technique, and your firmness for how much draw you want — and can actually produce.
The short version
- New to cupping? Intermediate PRO 5560. Not a compromise — the correct cup.
- A practitioner building a kit? 5560 in a full size range. That is your working set.
- Want smooth gliding work? GRIP, rounded rim.
- Experienced, strong hands, specific need for deep slow work? DEEP PRO 6065 — as an addition to your 5560 set, not a replacement for it.
Frequently asked questions
Is 6065 better than 5560?
No. It is harder, which is not the same as better. 6065 draws more force only if you can compress it fully, and it takes real hand strength to do that. 5560 is the everyday cup for most people and most work, including for professionals.
Should a beginner buy 6065 cupping cups?
No. Beginners who buy 6065 frequently cannot squeeze it hard enough to produce good suction, and conclude the cup is faulty. Start with Intermediate PRO 5560.
Why does my 6065 cup feel weaker than my 5560?
Almost certainly because you are not compressing it far enough. Harder silicone resists compression, so if you can only squeeze it partway you get a fraction of the suction it is capable of. A 5560 you can fully compress will out-pull a 6065 you cannot.
Does harder silicone mean stronger suction?
In the material, yes — harder silicone recoils faster and harder, and that recoil is what creates the pull. In practice, only if you can squeeze it fully. Suction you cannot generate does not exist.
Is 5560 too soft to be useful?
No. “Softer” here means softer than our harder tiers, not soft in absolute terms. It produces a firm, definite pull, and it is what most therapists use for most of their sessions.
Can Supreme cups glide, or only hold still?
They can glide. The squared rim grips tissue as it travels, adding a tug before the cup releases and moves — useful for slow, deep myofascial work, but it must be done slowly and it is not a smooth glide. For continuous smooth gliding, use the rounded rim on GRIP cups.
What is the difference between 6065 and 6570?
Both are DEEP PRO firmness; 6570 is the firmest silicone we make. In our range 6570 is paired with the rounded GRIP rim for gliding work, while 6065 is available on the squared Supreme rim.
Cupping Warehouse was founded by a retired nurse and massage therapist with 27 years of combined healthcare experience, and supplies silicone and polycarbonate cupping sets to therapists, athletes and at-home users. This guide is general education and not a substitute for individualized medical advice.