Apparently looking like Bowser from Super Mario is one way to shape up for the 2018 baseball season.
So what exactly is Washington Nationals' right fielder Bryce Harper doing in this picture he shared to his Instagram story...because it looks like it hurts. A lot.
It's a form of Chinese acupuncture called cupping in which one "warm[s] and plac[es] cups, usually made of glass, on the skin. By warming the air within the cup, a vacuum is created, and when it is applied to the skin, the tissue is drawn up into the cup" according to medicinenet.com.
This practice is supposed to help alleviate stress and aches within the muscles and while the act of cupping does not hurt, one could receive burns from the cups themselves. The bruising color comes from the combination of your skins being suctioned to the cup and the status of your blood circulation in the targeted section of your body. The darker the circles, the poorer your circulation.
If you remember back to the 2016 Summer Olympics, several athletes (including Michael Phelps) also used cupping before and after they competed in their respective sports.