Lieque (LU7): The Wrist Point for a Stiff Neck and Headache

Where Lieque Sits

This point sits on the thumb-side edge of the forearm, one and a half proportional units (about two finger-widths) above the wrist crease, and it is used above all for a stiff neck and a heavy head. The line this point belongs to is called the Lung channel in Vietnamese and Chinese texts. It starts on the front of the chest below the collarbone, runs down the front of the arm on the thumb side, crosses the wrist and ends at the corner of the thumbnail. There are eleven stops along it, and this is the seventh.

The old texts place it one and a half proportional units above the crease on the palm side of the wrist, on the thumb-side edge of the forearm. Those units scale to your own body: one and a half of them is the width of your first and middle fingers laid side by side. Above the wrist on that side you can feel a rounded bony knob, the end of the forearm bone called the radius. The point sits a little above that knob, where the bone flattens out, in a small groove on its edge.

That groove is real anatomy. Two slim tendons run along this stretch of bone on their way to the thumb. One belongs to the muscle that draws the thumb away from the hand. The other belongs to the short muscle that straightens the thumb. When you lift your thumb up and back, you can feel the pair tighten. The spot lies between them, where the first tendon slides in its shallow channel on the bone.

The nerve supply explains why the spot can sting so clearly. The skin here is served by a branch of the radial nerve that runs over the bone right at this level, and by a skin branch from the upper arm. Both draw from nerve roots in the lower neck, the fifth and sixth cervical roots. Those same roots serve the side of the neck, the outer shoulder and the thumb. The wrist pulse lies a finger's width lower and toward the palm, and a vein often crosses the area. Keep the pressure off both.

Why This Spot

Few places on the forearm give such a clear target. There is a firm shelf of bone underneath, very little padding on top, and two tendons that act as guide rails. Press here and the sensation is sharp and local. You know at once whether you are on the spot or a few millimetres away. For someone working alone, with no one to check the location, that clarity matters.

It is also easy to reach. You do not need to twist, reach behind your back or lie down. The forearm rests on a table and the other hand does the work. A neck that will not turn can still be worked on from here without moving it.

In this tradition the point has two roles. First, it is the connecting point of its channel. It is described as the place where the Lung line sends a branch across to its partner, the Large Intestine line, which runs up the back of the arm to the neck and face. Second, it is counted among the eight confluent points. These are said to open onto deeper vessels that classical writers believed tied the channels together. Here that vessel is the one running down the front midline of the body. That is why teachers reach for this spot for complaints of the head, neck, throat and chest, a long way from the wrist. Its name hints at the same idea. It means a break in a sequence, and the old word was also used for a crack of lightning splitting the sky: the place where the line divides.

What the Old Texts Say About Lieque

The point is very old, and it has kept the same name and the same place through many centuries of copying and argument. Its most famous role comes from a short teaching rhyme that generations of students memorised. The rhyme names four "command points," each said to govern one region of the body. For the head and the back of the neck, it says, look to this spot above the wrist. It survived because it was useful: the neck is not always easy to reach, the forearm always is.

The Vietnamese handbook used in this method, Ngô Trung Triều's Points and Channels of the Human Body (Huyệt vị kinh lạc cơ thể người), lists a swollen and painful wrist, headache, a stiff neck and the back of the head, and cough and wheezing among its uses. It gives two ways of finding the spot. One measures one and a half units up from the wrist crease. The other uses crossed hands. You hook the webs between thumb and first finger together, and the point lies in the small hollow under the tip of the top first finger. The book adds a useful detail: at the right place the edge of the bone dips slightly under the fingertip.

The location has been set in the international standard as well. The World Health Organization's point location guide of 2008 places it between the two thumb tendons, in the groove of the tendon that draws the thumb out, one and a half units above the wrist crease. Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese schools agree on the spot. That agreement proves nothing about how the point works. It does show that people in many countries, over a very long time, kept finding it in the same place and kept using it for the same complaints.

Points That Work With Lieque

The closest partner is the soft web between the thumb and the first finger on the back of the hand. Squeeze the thumb against the side of the hand and find the highest part of the muscle mound, then let the hand relax and probe there. It belongs to the partner line that this point connects to. In this tradition the two are often used together, one on each line, for a stiff neck and a heavy, dull headache.

The second sits at the top of the neck. Run your fingertips up the back of the neck until they meet the base of the skull. Out to each side of the thick central muscles there is a soft hollow under the bone. It is commonly used for tension at the back of the head and a neck that will not turn.

The third is on the back of the hand. Find the knuckles of your first and middle fingers, then slide back toward the wrist into the groove between those two bones. The tradition calls this the stiff-neck point. It is used for the neck you wake up with after sleeping at an awkward angle, often while the head turns slowly from side to side.

How to Find and Press Lieque

Getting Into Position

Sit at a table with your feet flat. Rest the working forearm on its little-finger edge, thumb side up, with the hand in a loose fist, as in the picture. Let the shoulder drop and the arm go heavy. If the arm is held up in the air, the tendons stay tight and the spot is harder to feel.

How to Find It

Start with the crossed-hands method. Open the thumb and first finger of both hands into a wide L. Hook the two webs together so the working hand is underneath and the other first finger lies flat along the thumb side of the working forearm. Where the tip of that top first finger rests, on the edge of the bone, is your area. As a check, lay your first and middle fingers side by side above the wrist crease on the palm side. The far edge of the middle finger should land at about the same level.

Now search inside that area. Use a rounded-tip pressing tool, or the tip of your thumb with the nail cut short. Probe in small steps along the edge of the bone, a few millimetres at a time. Most spots will feel like ordinary pressure. One spot will sting: a sharp, pinpoint tenderness that makes you notice it. That is the point. It may sit a little above or below where the measurement told you, and that is normal. If you feel a pulse under the tip, you have drifted toward the palm; move back onto the bone. If a buzz runs toward the thumb, lighten and shift a little.

How to Press It

Once you have the spot that stings, stay on it. Rub it in small circles, no wider than a grain of rice, with the skin moving together with the tool rather than the tool sliding over the skin. Aim straight in toward the bone, angled slightly up the arm. Keep a steady, moderate pressure while you circle.

A rounded-tip tool is the easiest choice for most hands, because it finds and holds one small spot without tiring the thumb. If you use your thumb, use the very tip, not the flat pad, and keep the nail short so it does not dig into the skin. Never use anything sharp, pointed or hot.

How Much Pressure

On this point, sharp under the tool is right. The stinging should be clear but bearable, and it should fade within a few seconds of lifting off. Use your body as a check. If you are holding your breath, or your shoulder has crept up toward your ear, ease off a little. Stop if the pain stays after you lift off, if it spreads up or down the arm, or if the area turns swollen, hot or red. Stop too if you feel an electric or numb sensation running into the thumb. A small bruise the next day means lighter pressure next time.

How Long

One to three minutes per point, on each arm. In the first few sessions stay near one minute a side, because the skin and tissue here are thin. As the days go on and the spot becomes less touchy, build up toward two or three minutes. One or two sessions a day is plenty. Do both arms, even when the stiffness sits on one side of the neck.

When to Do It

A morning session suits a neck that is stiff on waking. Sit at the breakfast table, rub each side, then turn the head slowly to see how far it goes. An afternoon session suits a headache that builds through the day, or a neck that tightens after a long spell of reading or screen work. A short session before bed is the latest it belongs. Do not press in the middle of the night. If neck pain wakes you at three in the morning, make a note of it and come back to this point after you get up. Working a stinging spot while half-awake is easy to overdo, and it tends to leave you more alert, not less.

What This Won't Do

It will not remove the reason your neck is stiff. That reason is usually posture, a pillow at the wrong height, a car journey, a long day at a screen or years of wear in the neck joints. Rubbing a groove on your forearm will not out-argue any of that. Raise or lower the pillow, bring the screen up to eye level, take breaks from reading. Then this point has something to add. On its own it is a comfort measure, and it is worth doing as one.

It will not stand in for a diagnosis either. A sudden, severe headache unlike any you have had before is an emergency. So is a headache with a stiff neck and fever, with confusion, with slurred speech, with weakness on one side, or after a fall or a blow to the head. Call for help at once. A neck stiffness that comes with pain running down one arm, numbness in the hand, or a grip that is getting weaker points to a nerve being pressed in the neck and needs to be checked. A cough that has lasted more than three weeks, brings up blood, or comes with breathlessness, chest pain or weight loss you cannot explain needs a doctor. Time spent on a forearm point is time not spent getting those looked at.

Safety First

Do not work over skin that is broken, burned, infected, badly bruised or rashy. Leave the area alone after a recent fracture of the wrist, a fresh sprain, or any plate or pin under the skin. Keep off the wrist pulse and off any vein you can see. If you take blood thinners, bruise easily, have a bleeding disorder, advanced diabetes or reduced feeling in your hands, use lighter pressure and shorter sessions, and talk to your doctor first. If you have carpal tunnel symptoms or a painful tendon at the base of the thumb, start very gently, because this is the same corridor.

Stop at once if the hand goes numb, if a buzz runs into the thumb, if the pain stays after you lift off, or if the area turns swollen, hot or red. For the full list of cautions and the situations where self-applied pressure is not appropriate, read the full safety guide before you begin.

Questions People Ask

Where is the Lieque (LU7) pressure point? Lieque (LU7) sits on the thumb-side edge of your forearm, about two finger-widths above the wrist crease, in a small groove on the bone. The quickest way to find it is to hook the webs of your two hands together. The tip of the top first finger rests on the area, and a little probing finds the spot that stings.

How long should I press Lieque? One to three minutes on each arm. Keep it near one minute in the first few sessions, then lengthen it a little as the days go on. One or two sessions a day is enough. Do both arms, even when the stiffness sits on one side of the neck.

The spot stings when I press it. Is that right? Yes. A sharp, pinpoint tenderness under the tool is how you know you are on the point. It should fade within a few seconds of lifting off. Stop if the pain stays after you lift off, spreads up or down the arm, or the area turns swollen, hot or red.

Can I use Lieque (LU7) for a stiff neck in the morning? In this tradition it is one of the points most often used for a stiff neck and a heavy head. Many people rub it after getting up, then turn the head slowly from side to side. It will not loosen every neck, but it is easy to reach and costs nothing to try.

I can feel a pulse under my thumb. Am I in the wrong place? You are a little too low and too far toward the palm. The wrist pulse lies close by but should never be pressed. Move up the arm and back toward the edge of the bone until the pulse disappears, then probe again for the sharp spot.

What is Lieque (LU7) used for, and what does the name mean? In Vietnamese traditional medicine it is commonly used for a stiff neck, a heavy headache, a sore wrist on the thumb side and a cough that comes with a cold. The name means "the Broken Sequence", the place where the line divides and sends a branch across to its partner. In Vietnamese the point is called Liệt Khuyết. A rounded-tip tool is the easiest way to press it if your thumb is weak or stiff.

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: LU7 · Lieque · The Broken Sequence · Liệt Khuyết.)