Yangxi (LI5): The Thumb-Base Wrist Point for Sore Wrists and Thumbs

Where Yangxi Sits

Hold your hand out as if you were hitching a lift. Thumb out sideways, away from the fingers, and pulled slightly back. Look at the thumb side of your wrist. You will see two cords stand up at the base of the thumb, with a small triangular hollow between them. The point is in that hollow, at the level where the wrist folds.

Standard reference works place it on the back and outer side of the wrist, on the thumb side of the wrist crease. It lies a little beyond the bony bump at the end of the forearm bone. In Vietnamese traditional medicine it belongs to the line that runs from the first finger up the outside of the arm to the face. In English that line is called the Large Intestine channel.

The two cords are tendons. The one nearer your fingers is the long extensor of the thumb. The pair on the forearm side are the short extensor and the long abductor. Anatomists have called the space between them the anatomical snuffbox for three centuries, because a pinch of snuff was laid there before it was taken. The floor of the hollow is made of two small wrist bones (the scaphoid and the trapezium). Above it, on the forearm side, sits the bony knob at the end of the outer forearm bone (the styloid process).

Two structures inside the hollow matter for how you press. An artery (the radial artery) crosses its floor on the way round to the palm. That is why a faint pulse under your fingertip is normal, and why the pressure stays light. A nerve branch (the superficial branch of the radial nerve) crosses its roof, running out toward the thumb. It carries signals from the sixth and seventh nerve roots of the neck. That is why a heavy press can send a sparkle along the back of the thumb. That sparkle means ease off, not that you have found the right depth.

Why This Spot

Everything that moves your thumb outward and backward passes through this narrow gap. A nerve and an artery cross the gap in a space no wider than a pencil. A thumb that has been working takes the load: gripping a phone, a steering wheel, a pair of secateurs, a jar lid. The tendons and their sheaths on the edges of the hollow are the tissue that carries it. Tender edges around a small hollow are what most people find when they first put a finger there.

In this tradition the hollow is described as a narrows. It is a place where the line running up the arm is said to run fast and shallow between two banks. It lies close enough to the surface to be reached easily. The old writers grouped the stations at this depth with complaints of the wrist, the arm and the head. That grouping is why a Vietnamese practitioner reaches for it when a wrist aches. We pass the reasoning on as it was written, as a system of correspondences, and make no claim about what happens under the skin when you press.

What the Old Texts Say About Yangxi

The classification comes from the Spiritual Pivot (Ling Shu), the second half of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, compiled in the Han dynasty. Its chapter on the transport points imagines each channel as a watercourse running from the fingertip toward the elbow. The water rises through five stations: a well, a spring, a stream, a river and finally a sea. This hollow at the base of the thumb is the river station of its channel. Its classical name translates as the yang stream. Yang is the sunlit outer side of the arm, and stream is the water running between the two tendon banks.

The Classic of Difficulties (Nan Jing), from the same period, sets out in its sixty-eighth chapter what each of the five stations was used for. It assigns the river stations to coughing and wheezing and to alternating chills and fever. That is worth keeping in view. The earliest classification was not built around the wrist at all. The modern use of this hollow for a sore wrist and thumb comes from the experience recorded in the later manuals, rather than from the first theory.

Those later manuals are specific. The Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing) was compiled by Huangfu Mi around the year 259. It is the oldest surviving book that goes through the body point by point. It records this hollow for pain in the wrist, for an arm that cannot be lifted, and for headache. It also lists aching teeth, ringing in the ears and eyes that are red and sore. The wrist entry has been copied into every major manual since, which is a fair measure of how consistently practitioners have found it useful.

Points That Work With Yangxi

The muscle mound in the web of the thumb. Follow the long bone of the first finger back from the knuckle. Let your thumb sink off the ridge into the springy muscle beside it. This is the baseline point of the hand set. It pairs naturally with the hollow at the wrist when the whole hand feels tired. It carries a caution in pregnancy; the hollow at the base of the thumb does not.

The dip behind the knuckle of the first finger. Make a loose fist and slide back off that knuckle toward the wrist, on the thumb side, into a small notch. This one is reached for when the ache is low in the back. It is a useful third stop when a stiff hand and a heavy back turn up together, as they often do after a day of lifting.

How to Press Yangxi With Your Thumb

Getting Into Position

Sit with your feet flat and your back supported. Lay the working forearm across your thigh with the thumb side facing up and the hand hanging slightly over the knee, so the wrist is free to fold. Let the shoulder drop. Set the thumb out sideways for a moment to raise the cords and locate the hollow, then let the thumb relax before you press.

How to Find It

With the thumb held out, put the pad of your opposite index finger on the bony knob at the end of your outer forearm bone. Step forward from that knob toward the hand by roughly the width of your own fingertip. Your finger will slide into a dip with a firm cord on either side. Rock gently from side to side and you will feel both cords rise and fall under the edges of your fingertip. That confirms you are between them rather than on one.

Press in lightly. The feeling should be a dull, slightly tight ache that stays around the wrist and the base of the thumb. Many people also feel a faint pulse. That is the artery crossing the floor, and it is expected. What you do not want is a bright electric sparkle running out along the back of the thumb. That is the nerve. It means you are pressing too hard or too far toward the back of the hand. Ease off and move a millimetre or two toward the palm side.

How to Press It

Use the pad of the opposite index finger or thumb, never a nail. Wrap the other fingers underneath the wrist so you can squeeze gently rather than push. Direct the pressure straight down into the hollow and very slightly toward the palm side, away from the back of the hand where the nerve runs.

Slow, small circles suit this point better than deep holds, because the space is shallow and crossed by an artery. Keep the depth light and move the skin in circles about the width of a grain of rice, roughly one per second. If you prefer holds, make them short: sink in over two seconds, stay for one breath, come off for a breath, repeat. Never press hard on both wrists at the same time.

How Much Pressure

Lighter than you think. This is the gentlest of the hand points and the one most people overdo. Aim for a faint dull ache and no more. If you are holding your breath, you are too deep. If the shoulder on the working side has crept up toward your ear, your body is bracing against you. Drop the shoulder and press only as hard as lets it stay down. Any tingling in the thumb, or a pulse that becomes strong and uncomfortable under your finger, means come off now.

How Long

Four or five slow breaths of light circling, one breath off, three times through. That is well under a minute on that wrist. Change sides and repeat, even if the second wrist feels like nothing. Twice a day is enough for most people. A wrist that is sore the following morning is a sign you used too much pressure, not too little time.

When to Do It

Work it at the end of whatever made the wrist ache, rather than the next day. Do it after gardening, after a long drive, after an afternoon of chopping or sewing or scrolling. If your hands and wrists are stiff on waking, do it sitting on the edge of the bed while the kettle is on.

What This Won't Do

Nothing you do with a fingertip changes the structure of a wrist. Suppose a tendon sheath is inflamed, or a joint surface is worn, or a nerve is being squeezed in the tunnel on the palm side. Pressing this hollow does not alter any of that. What people report is modest: a wrist that feels less tight, a thumb that moves more freely for a while, an evening with less nagging. Some notice nothing, and after two weeks of daily work with no change it is reasonable to conclude this is not your point.

There is one warning here that matters more than all the rest. Sharp tenderness in this hollow after a fall onto an outstretched hand is the classic sign of a break. The bone involved is the small wrist bone that forms the floor of the hollow (the scaphoid). That break often looks normal on an early X-ray. It can go badly wrong if it is missed. So if you fell and this hollow is exquisitely tender, stop pressing and see a doctor the same week.

Get a proper opinion too on a wrist that is hot and swollen, or a thumb joint that locks or gives way. The same goes for numbness that wakes you at night, or a grip noticeably weaker than the other side. Pressure work sits alongside medical care. It does not replace an examination or any medicine you have been prescribed. It should never be the reason you put off an appointment.

Safety First

Keep the pressure light, because an artery crosses the floor of this hollow and a nerve crosses its roof. Come off the spot at once in any of these cases. Tingling runs into the thumb. The pulse under your finger becomes strong and uncomfortable. Or the feeling turns sharp, burning or electric rather than a dull ache. Do not press both wrists hard at the same time, and do not lean your weight into this point.

Stay off skin that is broken, burned, infected, bruised or newly scarred, and off any joint that is hot and swollen. If you take blood-thinning medicine or bruise easily, use half the pressure you think you need. If you have had surgery on the wrist or thumb, or a fracture in the past few months, ask your surgeon before you begin. This point carries no pregnancy caution. Even so, if you are pregnant and new to pressure work, speak to your doctor first. Read the full safety guide before you start.

Questions People Ask

Where is the Yangxi (LI5) pressure point? Yangxi (LI5) sits in the small hollow at the base of your thumb, on the thumb side of the wrist fold. Hold the thumb out sideways and slightly back, and two cords rise with the hollow between them. The spot is in that hollow, a fingertip width past the bony knob at the end of the forearm bone.

How long should I press Yangxi? Keep it short and light. Do four or five slow breaths of gentle circling, rest for one breath, and repeat three times, which is well under a minute. Then change wrists. Twice a day is enough for most people. A wrist that is sore the next morning means you pressed too hard.

I can feel a pulse in the hollow. Should I still press? An artery does cross the floor of that hollow, so a faint pulse under your fingertip is normal anatomy and not a sign of anything wrong. Keep the pressure light and steady, come off if the pulse becomes strong or uncomfortable under your thumb, and never press hard on both wrists at once.

My hollow is very tender and I fell on that hand recently. Is that normal? No, and it is worth acting on. Marked tenderness in this hollow after a fall onto an outstretched hand is the classic sign of a break in one of the small wrist bones, which can look normal on an early X-ray. Stop pressing and see a doctor.

Can I use this if I wear a wrist support for typing? Take the support off first so you can see the tendons rise, and work the hollow with the hand resting on your thigh. If your doctor or physiotherapist has told you to keep the wrist still, follow their instruction and ask them before you add anything.

The hollow disappears when I relax my hand. What am I doing wrong? Nothing. The hollow only opens when the thumb is held out sideways and slightly back, which lifts the two cords. Set the thumb first, find the hollow, then let the thumb soften a little before you press. With practice you can find the spot without setting it up.

Other Points in This Library

Each of these sits within reach of the same hand. They are often worked in the same sitting.

This page shares general information about a traditional practice. It is not medical advice and does not replace what your doctor has given you. If you are pregnant, managing a health condition, or unsure whether this applies to you, check with your doctor first.

The whole inner edge of the foot, laid out on one page with photographs, is in The Foot Map — the free book. For every point in this library, see the full pressure point index.

(Point shown: LI5 · Yangxi · Dương Khê.)