Treating Headaches with Meridian Release Techniques

Now we're going to go this way (rocking head with reference to axis tilted to
her right). Again, just let her get comfortable with the motion before we do any
major Releases. Coming this way (rocking her head with the axis tilted to her
left). And then, (extending the arc of the rocking motion toward her shoulder,
with a quick little push), that's all you're doing. Very simple. If you (the patient)
are sitting you can easily hurt someone, but.... That's all you're doing. It can be
very gentle and then you can give them a little shock (same motion, slightly
exaggerated) and go like that if you want. Sometimes you need that to wake
someone upfrom their stubbornness, in terms of their of condition, that is.
And here (extending arc of rocking motion, with a quick push to her left) and
then you Release that way. And those are the three (axes), you do both sides. I
only did one side.
OK, are there any questions.

Question: (inaudible)
JCY: One Release was the GB Point, and then the other one was the Bladder.
That means from that Release she told me where the Ah Shi Points were. I would
Needle the Ah Shi Points. Given that she has described GI3 and BL, even though
I have not really done much evaluation, I would add BL 67 and GB 44 because
they are the Jing Well Points to Release that side of the body.
Question: (inaudible, something about, and she's still lying on her back)
JCY: You don't have to flip her over. Obviously you want to flip her over to get
to the Bladder Points, but if you are just doing the Jing Well Point, you don't
have to do that What you can sometimes do is, if she still feels the pain there.
Let's say she says, yeah, I still feel a lot and I'mstill really uncomfortable here.
Then you can go into BL 67 and press down on the Jing Well Point and ask is it
better? You can almost do that referred ...idea and find out does it Release the
pain. And if it doesnft, then you can go to GB, since she also gave us GB. Is it
better with GB? Yeah, that released, then you know it went to BL from GB. So
then Gall Bladder becomes the major Meridian that you will focus your attention
on. For her, most likely it is BL because she is also describing that pain above the
left eye, which mostly likely will be around BL 1area, but maybe even GB. So
most likely it is EL.
Patient: Yes it is there around BL 1.
Question: You mentioned "inthe olden daysf'. In the times of the Nan Jing?
JCY: In the olden days, it was the Han dynasty when all the Meridians were
being used at one time, so that is what I refer to a lot of times.
JCY: Now, you would be looking at Eastern Han during that time.
81
0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
Question: (inaudible, something about working with strokes)
JCY: Right. I'll do that tomorrow. Stroke a lot of times is GB. Ill demonstrate
that tomorrow and show you the Releases for that. In fact tomorrow I'll show
you a Release for Tai Yang, Shao Yang, Yang Ming, Tai Yin, Shao Yin, Jue Yin. Six
Releases in addition to the fundamental Releases which is Du Mai in terms of Du
4 and Du 14.
So we'll meet again tomorrow and wish everyone a good night.

-
December 23,2001
I'd like to briefly review the topics we covered yesterday regarding the
Sinew Channels, and then I'd like to extend into the description of the trajectories
of the Sinew Channels. In the afternoon, HI go into some more of the Releases
that we demonstrated yesterday.
Question: [inaudible]
JCY: Any reaction from yesterday's Release? I mean, if you felt nothing that's
fine too.
JCY: Again, you don't have to take it to that extreme. You can start out very
gently and then move them into that particular phase. The basic premise is that
we begin by Releasing Du 4 and DM 14 because that is where all the Yang is
rooted. Once you Release the Yang, you can support Wei Qi. The whole idea of
the Tendinomuscular Channels or Sinew Meridians is to attempt to support Wei
energy.
Any other questions from yesterday?

Question: When you were leaning on her, were you using all your body weight
or was it controlled as to how much she could take?
JCY: It was controlled.
JCY: Right, it was just enough pressure that she could feel that there is a
resistance that's dosing the gap each time that she's giving to the point of the, so
called, past. There's nothing that infers that you are pushing against her.
There's just enough pressure that she feels that she's trapped in that space, but
not that she's being compressed further into the other motion.
82
@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
JCY: Those of you who study Tai Ji, think of it as if you are practicing your
stance training. That s how I see it. When you are standing there you are letting
the whole body relax and you just let the body lean into that person. Instead of
thinking it is all upper body. If s mostly coming from your legs. Just think of it
as helping you develop your stances in Tai Ji. Even if you do Tui Na you should
think of it as practicing your form. It should not be very strenuous. It should not
be very depleting at the end of the day. Because if it is, mostly likely you are
using effort. The whole idea of learning any technique, be it Acupuncture or be
it Massage, is that there should be no effort involved. It should be something
where you are using the person's own weight and you are redirecting their
weight back to their body. That's what you're really trying to achieve.
The first term that appears in the Su Wen is a term known as An Mood . An is
the same as in An Mo. Mo means bridge. So that you as a massage therapist, or
you as a clinician who is doing more palpational techniques, as you An, as you
press, you are making a bridge between you and the person. That's the
traditional term for massage in China. That term appears in the Su Wen itself.
Then the term evolved into the term known An Mo. An meaning again "press."
Mu means to touch. So that the idea here is that they are differentiating.
Touching is much more subtle. Pressing is much more rigorous, relatively
speaking. Once you understand that when they are applying techniques, that
they should also be looking at the gentleness of the technique, as well as those
times you need to be applying a greater technique. The difference between
gentle and heavy pressure is not necessarily the intensity of the therapy, but a
reflection of the invitation of touch, and what is warranted for the client.
Some people, for example, love very deep massage. They love very deep
pressure. They love massage systems with techniques that involve really deep
muscle work. A lot of times it might be reflective of the fact that they are
individuals longing to be touched. They are individuals who long to be
embraced. They are ones who are potentially very lonely in their lives. So the
idea of having the opportunity to be really touched in a very dramatic way, to
them is something much more inviting than having someone who is doing very
subtle touching.
Sometimes you can have a situation where someone doesn't want to be

touched. They tend to be very sensitive to touch. They might even relate that to
Acupuncture. You put a Needle in, and they say it is really sensitive. Sometimes
the Needle is not even where they indicate. That's because the whole idea of
being touched is in a way a violation. So they tend to prefer very gentle
techniques. So we can't assume that everyone likes very deep technique. In fact,
in China and as well as in Japan, very often they say "deep shiatsu", deep
massage. They feel that's when you're getting into the deepest layer of the body.
And very often there is a certain degree of arrogance that anyone who does it
83
@ New England SchooI of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
subtly, who does it gently, is not doing the true technique. The idea of An Mo is
that there needs to be a balance. We need to understand that there is the
effectiveness of something very subtle. Like "cranial sacral" is something that is
very subtle. But there is also something that's very effective and it goes very
deep. We need to understand that not everything works across the board. We
need to understand what is it they are longing for and what they are inviting us
to do. We can start from the very gentle and see that as the message. Sometimes
what we have to realize is that what they really want is a big hug. What they
want is a lot pf deep muscle work. That might be a lot more revealing than
something very subtle, and vice versa. So that's the term An Mu.
Then later on the term An Mo became associated with prostitution. A lot of
the brothels in China did An Mo and these people got massaged in addition to
other services. So that term became tainted. Tui Na did not appear until the 20th
century. The 2othcentury developed that term so they could differentiate that
this is a professional massage, it is not that kind of massage. But if you speak to
the older generation and you mention the word Tui Nu, they won't know what
you are talking about. But if you say An Mo, they know exactly what you are
talking about. "OK, I could sure use a massage." That's the differentiation. And
of course that term became more popularized by the People's Republic of China
when they developed the text. They call it a Tui Na text, and no longer An Mu
therapy.
In terms of Massage therapy, as I mentioned yesterday, it is about a ten year
program traditionally. What you learn refers to hand techniques. These different
techniques that they teach you, ranging from Tui to Na to An to Mo. There are
basically thirteen hand techniques. Some people might go to eighteen or even
more thanthat. But there are essentially thirteen hand techniques. The hand
techniques are to get you to be familiarized with the general region of the body.
If s getting you familiarized with the Sinews of the body, the muscles, the
ligaments, the tendons and so forth. And then as you look at this very broad
area, you gradually become more precise, and then it develops into one of the
thirteen techniques is Dian (?) "point". Now learning "point" therapy. You are
no longer massaging an area. You are massaging a very precise location. From
the Sinew Channels you are going into the Primary Channels. You go into
specific Points. From there you would learn about the context, just as
Acupuncture teaches us that you can Release one area from another area. You
look at the microcosm of the body. And they start teaching you the little systems
by which the hands can treat the entire body, the feet can treat the entire body, or
the face, and in Acupuncture we use the ears obviously. The microsystems
becomes an area where you realize the entire body can be reflected in one very
small area. And that's comes from the idea of the loop. If I can think of the
Primary Channels as a continuous loop, I don't need to treat any one of the
Meridians themselves. I could just pick one point and that will treat the entire
body. Or I could treat one region and that will treat the entire part of the body.
So they have Facial Massage, Ear Acupuncture. You can look at the chest, and it
looks regional, but those techniques treat the entire body.
84
@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C.Yuen 2003
Then they get you to work on the Bones, to get deeper, and that's Die Da
medicine, for people who have broken bones and fractures. That is generally
transmitted by the Martial Arts schools. Back then you obviously had wars, and
during the wars you had people who were able to fix all of that. So the martial
arts schools inherited that, and that's known as the Die Da tradition.
Lastly, you learn the etheric techniques. That means you don't need the
body any longer. You get so acquainted with the body, and you cultivate it over
the years, so you can do what they call Qi projection on the body. Then you can
heal without touching the body. That's what they call Qi Gong Massage. That is
basically the'development of the Massage therapists. Back then you wouldn't
even call them a therapist They should be able to treat anything and everything,
and that's not an adjunct to Acupuncture. If s not an adjunct to Herbal Medicine.
They are all individual clinicians.
Question: The An Mo that they are teaching now, is that very different from the
Tui Na7
JCY: They are just differentwords for the same thing. Some people might have
standardized their program and said this is my method of teaching. Anyone can
do that. If s just like you could take Shiatsu and standardizeit too. This is my
method of doing Shiatsu, or "JinShin Do" (?)/ all of these different Massage
systems. All of you are creative. You can come up with your own system. You
just have to convince everyone else that yours is the best one and you have a
following. That's how it works. (laughing). You set up centers all over the
world.
In any case, thafs the idea. The Sinew Meridians are saying that there is first
a hands-on aspect. You have to learn from the hands-on aspect, and then go
deeper, and now we start with the Acupuncture. So when you move from the
physical palpational part into the Acupuncture part, it goes from a very broad
area to a concise area. I massaged this whole area! 1touched this whole area, I
palpated this whole area and I do feel this is where most of the Ah Shi area is. So
I am going to now Needle that area. I am becoming aware. That person is telling
you where it is. "I felt it here when you did that Sinew Release." So they are
telling you, and you honor that, and Needle that, and you are going to explain to
them that this "holding" that they have here has a lot to do with this area and
that area, and we are going to Needle those Points also to allow you to have an
outlet to Release that. To me it is always important to explain to the client what
you are doing. If you explain to the client what you are doing, you are
empowering them and they participate in the process and they have a certain
expectation by suggestion that this is going to be Released. This usually helps a
lot
JCY: The question was if someone has chronic Wind Cold, do we do Moxa
directly on the area or do we Needle and do Moxa on the area? Generally
speaking if someone has a Wind Cold condition that is chronic, remember Wind
85
Cold would first of all be classified as a Tai Yang condition which means that we
have the involvement of the Bladder and Small Intestine Sinew Meridian. The
fact that it is chronic means that it has entered and affected its Yirz pair which in
this case would be the Kidneys and the Heart. It doesn't have to be both. The
idea is that Tai Yang has now affectedshao Yin. In terms of the Needling to
resolve the nature of the condition, which is Wind Cold, ideally what you would
do is Blowing Moxa. Many people, cosmetically speaking, or in terms of comfort
level, might find Direct Moxa, even though you are blowing on it, to be very
uncomfortable and painful. In that case, then you can Needle and Moxa on top
of the Needle. What I recommend sometimes is Needle and have an indirect
Moxa applied toward the tip of the Needle, so then they almost have a Hot
Needle technique taking place. When it gets too hot, you pull the Indirect Moxa
away. That would be the basic format of treating the Ah Shi areas.
Then, because it is chronic you have to consider the Yin zones. You also
have to do the Jing Well Points. Because you are treating primarily Tai Yang, you
have to Needle SI 1and BL 67. If the chroniaty is there, and how we would
know that is by palpation, we will palpate the aspect that relates to Shao Yin,
Kidneys and Heart, to find if there are any Ah Shi Points along the Kidney Sinew
Channel or the Heart Sinew Channel, and then Release those Points as well when
you find that. Those will be the "holding" Points that allow this person to have a
chronic Wind Cold condition. Some of us who may be pressed for time because
we don't really feel we have the time to palpate, then that's when they might use
the Confluence Points, since the Confluence Points affect all the Meridians within
the Sinew Channels, you Release those areas. That gives you some time
flexibility. Some of us simply don't like touching because we ourselves find if we
touch other people it might mean we are being too sensual or we are connecting
too much with people, and we find that if s hard for us to connect. So we don't
like palpation. We might not like to do that.
JCY: The Confluent Point is not really on the KI and HT. There are zones where
they meet. What I meant by Confluence Points is that you have those four
Confluence Points that I mentioned yesterday, GB 13, GB 22, CV 3, SI 18. Those
are the most popular ones. Some people will argue between SI 18and ST 3, GI3
13and ST 8, but those are the Confluence Points. You have Arm and Leg
Channels both involved, of Yin and Yang. That's why you are doing all four.
You do have, however, major Points. Let's say someone has a chronic Tai Yang
condition. The major area where SI and BL converge, where they meet together,
will be the area around BL 11,BL 41. Those are the areas you are looking at. It
can also be the area of SI 12. From a Tendinomuscular point of view, this is a
major meeting between SI and BL. That would again infer that it is severe. The
fact that it is chronic, you are looking at the context of KI and HT,and where the
HT and KI converge is usually right at the base of the throat So these people
who have these chronic Wind Cold conditions usually have a lot of Phlegm that
is Cold Phlegm, but Cold Phlegm that seems to be very difficult to expectorate
because it is lodged in the region of the throat. So that would be a major area
that we would want to Release.
@ New England School ofAcupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003

JCY: The question was about the Needling of theling Well Point- The Needling
of the Jing Well Point in terms of rubbing is not just because they have a Cold
condition. Jing Well Points would be rubbed regardless of what the nature of the
condition is. The idea is that the Well Point has to be stimulated. Energy has to
come out of that Point. Qi has to come out of that Point. You are either looking
for swellings along the nailbed, or you are looking at areas that look a little
occluded, oryou will be following anatomical preaseness, which implies that
you need to be very traditional in terms of how it is written in the books. You
may decide you want to locate it exactly how it is written in the books, where
that area might not be swollen, or the area might not be occluded. I donft want
to use those words in a negative way. What I mean is that energy is rising up out
of that area, so then you have to stimulate that Point to get the energy to be at
that Point. That means by rubbing vigorously you are stimulating that Point,
and then you are going to Needle that Point afterwards. This is one way to
bypass what traditionally was said to be the Needling technique for the Sinew
Channels, which was a Hot Needle technique on the Jing Well Points. The other
technique was to use the Chisel Needle on the Ah Shi Points. The Chisel Needle
was one of the Nine Needles that were mentioned in the Ling Shu. Chisel
Needles were used for Sinew Channel imbalances or disharmonies. Today we
obviously do not have a Needle that looks like a chisel. So what you would do
then is you would duplicate that technique with a modem technique of
Needling.
If you look at Chiseling techniques, the arms are extended out. It is all one
motion of the arms. You hold the Needle on to the Ah Shi area and one whole
movement (from the shoulder, out) is going into the area. If I am Chiseling this
table and I am trying to get something off this table (scraping), that's called the
Chisel technique. That's a technique we use now with the modem Needles to
duplicate one of the Classical Needles themselves. Thafs how you Needle an Ah
Shi Point. You chisel the Point. If s almost like, if this was a table that needs
restoration, if s suffered a lot, if s in pain. You would first sand down the table.
That's the chiseling. Sanding down is a Chiseling technique. Then you might
notice that there are some encrustations that are stuck. So the encrustations now,
you might need to go in and almost lift them out. h the old days they would use
the Hook Needles. You take something and you hook it out. So that is another
technique. Hooking technique is where I pull something from the Deep level
back out to the Surface level, as you expect, like going in, getting to that lower
part of it, and you are liftingit up.
The Hooking technique, if you are practicing the Nine Needle Techniques,
means that as you are inserting the Needle, if this is the head of the Needle and
this is the Needle itself, as the Needle goes in, this finger (the middle finger) is
going to hit against the metal (the shaft) of the Needle. If s not "dean" Needle
technique, but the Needle is going to bend as it goes in. As if s bending, as it
goes in, it is hooking up. And then you lift it out, you are almost hitting
(bending)it again so that you are pushing the metal (the shaft) back up, and
@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003

that's called the Hooking technique. That's for encrustations. The Hooking
technique is commonly used when they use Luo Vessel treatments, if they are not
Bleeding. They might use that as a technique on Luo Points.
After I get rid of the encrustations, then "the table can be restored", so I can
fill in the blanks. You all should know in terms of Gun Sha, the three techniques.
The first technique is called Pao Sha, which means you take the area that you are
working on and you are doing this. You are sanding down the area. And now
you see where all this redness is. Now you take the spoon, in the old days they
used the cash coins, you go to the area and now you start lifting up. That's the
Hooking technique. That's the actual technique that's known as Gun Sha. Gun
Sha is known as scraping. Then, "Oh gee, this is really deep", now you Meng (?)
Sha], you grab the whole skin, you pull it out. You are plucking, if s a Plucking
technique. Those are the three techniques of Gua Sha. First, your arm is
extended to do Pao Sha. Once you get used to using the whole arm, if s elbow
scooping (a rotational movement with the elbow bent). It looks like my wrist is
moving but my elbow is moving too (for Gua Sh). Then, if s all wrist. That was
a wrist technique (Meng Sha).
I think I have mentioned this in previous classes, at least for those who have
come to previous lectures, the cultivation of a clinician and Needling technique,
especially, you have to develop your forearms. I don't mean strengthen your
forearms. I mean be able to move Qi through your forearms. When you first
practice Needling, or you first practice calligraphy, your arms have to be like one
straight arm. You can't cheat too early. You have to be able to bring Qi out
through this area (the upper arm). So you have to practice with one whole arm.
So Chiseling Technique is a Whole Arm Technique. When you practice
calligraphy you are practicing straight lines first. This is all one Whole Arm
Technique. All you are doing is holding a brush and moving the entire arm.
Thafs how you practice straight lines, going foreword and backward. It would
be going like this (moving the entire body). My whole arm is extended. Then,
you can graduate into circles. Circles are Elbow Technique. Then you can
graduate. Now after you learn'how to Chisel you can graduate to Elbow
Technique for Needling. Then comes the Wrist Technique. Then come the
splashes. After you learn to do the circles, then you learn to do the curves, the
little splashes. Most people when they write, they only write with their wrist.
Sometimes they even need a support for their whole arm. You shouldn't need
that. Remember when you first studied Qi Gong? What did the teacher make
you do? Arm (extended forward like holding a ball), then you got a little better,
then they let you do this (let the elbows drop slightly). Some of them know if s
very hard for you to do this (keep the elbows straight) so they let you do this
already (drop the elbows). So you never really develop your forearms. The Qi
can only travel from here to here (from the elbow to the wrist). It always gets
stuck here (in the shoulder). When it gets stuck there you can't create what they
call "explosive power". "Explosive power" comes from the shoulders. It
Releases from the shoulders but comes from the entire body, when the shoulders
open up. All of those techniques are giving you ways of understanding that you
could take one little idea and develop it into a whole cultivation.
88
Question: ........do you leave the Needle in, or is it an in and out technique?
JCY: The time for which the Needle is left in, regardless of whether it is on the
Ah Shi Points or the Jing Well Points depends on how much you have worked on
the Meridian. As I mentioned yesterday, generally you are working on one
Meridian. You'd spend about 25 minutes on that one Meridian. Included in that
could be the G w Sha, the palpation, the Sinew Release, so that by the time you
get to the Jing Well Point, let's say you have done a whole 20 minutes session, the
Jing Well Point at that point could just be Needled, and you could withdraw the
Needle, or you could leave it for another five minutes. Let's say, if I am one of
those clinicians who doesn't like touching the body, so just tell me where it hurts
and do a little movement evaluation, "Oh, it hurts when it rotates, when you are
standing". And you say, "Oh this is Gall Bladder". So let me just Needle the GB
Jing Well Point and I leave the room and you come back in 25 minutes and you
take out the Needles. That's obviously someone who is not interested in
engaging or touching the person. That could be a personal choice. Not all
clinicians like the personal touch. And that's why not all clinicians like Sinew
Channels. That's why they like the Primary Meridians. You know where the
Points are, you palpate the Point and that's it. We can argue that you don't need
to know that Sinew stuffbecause Primary Channels include Wei Qi. That's going
to deal with those Superficialissues you have been learning about this weekend.
That's definitely a valid argument. I'm just saying that sometimes we might
need to see the whole picture before we come to that conclusion.
JCY: What you do is, in general, the most important one is GV 4 and GV 14. So
let's say that after you have done the first Release of both areas, and they come
back and you've done the evaluation and they look really fine, then you don't
need to do it again. You always need to evaluate. You want to know how much
Du 4 as well as Du 14 are participating inthe process, at least for Sinew
Channels. If you're not doing Sinew Channels, then it doesn't matter whether
those areas are open or not. Even though the suggestion would be that if those
areas are not open, it's not going to give you much Qi to do other things.
J C X What you are doing in terms of the evaluation is that their knee is being
put in a Tai Yin posture. But what you are doing is you arc evaluating Tai Yang
as it is going away from the body, and as it comes toward the body what you are
evaluating is Yang Ming, with a Tai Yin position. So now Gall Bladder is
involved in both of those motions. So that most commonly the Ah Shi Points that
will be felt are going to be Tai Yang Points, Shao Yang Points or Yang Ming Points.
Now they can also feel, when they feel it mostly in the groin, where it does come
into SP Points, and in that case most likely the problem that they have is a
chronic problem. Because if it is chronic, the Yin Channels will elicit sensitivity,
per se. The Yin is where it is holding on to it Let's say if you get someone who
comes in and they have Irritable Bowel Syndrome and they might not necessarily
have any low back pain whatsoever but you still do that evaluation and you

notice that they do have loss of mobility but they are not describing anything on
a Superficiallevel, because all that energy is trapped on the Yin Sinew Channels.
So what happens as you are doing the evaluation, they might say, "Yes it is
really sensitive at SP 12". So SP 12 now becomes a major holding area that, when
you Needle that, and you Needle SP 1will help with the Irritable Bowel
Syndrome, from the use of the Tendinomuscular Channels. What you are doing
is freeing up the Wei Qt that is trapped in the Interior that is constantly causing
peristalsis, causing an irritation of the smooth muscles of the gut, causing this
person to constantly have bowel movements. So by Releasing Wei Qi back to the
Surface, then I'm going to have a diminished frequency of bowel movements, or
in some cases frequent urinary tract movement in someone who has prostatitis.
So even though I don't come in with pain, which is why most people think of
Sinew Channels, you can come in with anything. What you are doing is
releasing Wei Qi. The fact, that it was in the SP will tell you that it is chronic, that
it originated with something that happened in the ST. You know that it goes
from the Yang to the Yin pair. So (hat means that Yang Ming is somehow
involved too. Now you might then want to Release Y a w Ming by palpating the
ST Sinew Meridian and finding the sensitive Points. Those sensitive Points will
be the trigger Points that will treat this Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
JCY: It could definitely come up as LV. The reason why I am saying that a lot of
times it tends to be more related to the SP is that the feet are in a Tai Yin position.
If s already going to give you a lot more Tai Yin signs as compared to a Jue Yin
sign. Jue Yin, remember that there is a paralysis already. The pain the person
experiences, regardless of what you do, what kind of movement evaluation you
do, it is so paralyzed by that pain, it doesn't mean numb by that pain, you would
always think of it as a jue Yin condition. And then you would treat Jue Yin.
In other words, they will come in and say I always have this pain here and no
matter what they are doing it always seems to be there. There is nothing that
seems to exacerbate it, then you know that's a LV issue. The LV is trapping it.
The LV is trapping it by holding on to its Blood. Thafs why I mentioned
yesterday that when you have those kinds of issues, your treatment will involve
the Ah Shi, this area. The area does not even have to be a LV Point. Technically
let's say, you could make it a little bit more textbook, the Ah Shi Point was LV 12.
Then you would Needle LV 12 and LV 1,but because we think that now if s
Blood, which is generally the case when it is Jue Yin holding on to the Wei Qi,
you also need a Luo Point, LV 5 which definitely Releases the genital area. -.Re
fact that if s Jue Yin, we assume that maybe there could be Shao Yang
involvement. So then we evaluate S h o Yang. The root of that problem could
have been that this person had an injury in the Shao Yang area that maybe they
took the blow to their flanks,to their ribs. As a result, the trauma, this pain lefs
say in the ovaries, began to develop later on. Wei Qz is being trapped from Shao
Yang to Jue Yin. So there is nothing you can look at within the context of Oriental
Medicine that you can't treat with Sinew Channels. After a while it might be
boring because all you are using are Jing Well Points and Ah Shi Points and you
90
might not find that as interesting. At that point you graduate and you start
learning other Meridians. Thafs basically what they did in the old days.
Let's do a summary of what we did yesterday and then we will move into
the trajectories. What I'd like to do is randomly look through this textbook and
find some cases that we will apply Sinew Meridian treatments to, so you get a
better sense of how to take this back to your clinic, for those of you who are at
least intrigued by this, to begin to apply some of this to your practice. Of course
if it doesn't work you can always go back to the system that has become your
foundation. Give it a chance to become a part of your clinical practice. That way
at least you have some familiarity for what is actually meant by a Sinew
Meridian treatment.
The major energetic domain that we are concerned about is Wei Qz. We're
always looking at how Wei Qi is moving. So for any case, when a person comes
in you can always bring it into the context of Wei Qz. So if I am having chest
pains, Wei Qi homes into the chest. If I am having frequent bowel movements
with cold limbs, as you might think SP Qi Deficiency or SP Yang Deficiency in
particular. That, from a Sinew Meridian point of view, would be Wei Qi that is
trapped in the Lower Jiao and if s not circulating to the extremities, to the Yang
Sinews. That's why the Yang Sinews are cold, because Wei Qi is warming, and
you have a lot of activity in this lower region which causes the diarrhea. So now
SP Yang gets translated in a very different language.
There is the context of Wei Qi in relationship to its functions. That brings us

where we definitely see the validity of Sinew Channels, in particular to certain
kinds of diseases, for example dermatological diseases. Just as we say that Wind
Cold is Tai Yang, Wind Damp or Summer Heat is Shao Yang, and Wind Heat is
Yang Ming, skin conditions can be evaluated the same way. Is it papular? It is
raised above the skin, so it means Heat Is it pustular? Is it raised above the skin
with fluid, dampness, Wind Damp. Or if it is simply level with the skin, Wind
Cold, macular. So you have the same kinds of evaluations that you canuse to
look at dermatological conditions. And if s chronic. Chronic means that
whatever Channel it is appearing on, the Yin Channel is involved. No, if s all
over my body. If s not one region. Anything that seems to involve the entirety of
the body usually means Jue Yin. So that means you know you have a Jue Yin
issue, and its chronic. Shoo Yang affecting Jue Yin. So it can start out as a Wind
Damp condition, and then because of underlying Blood Deficiency or Blood
Stasis the condition is never resolved. So it became chronic. That would be seen
as getting it all over your body, which means that Blood is carrying it all over the
body, spread by Wind. We would see that as a Jue Yin condition and we would
treat it accordingly. You can always look at the site of the papular manifestation.
So if s papular and the site of it is around Triple Heater maybe. So you can say if
if s Triple Heater, is it a Triple Heater condition, or is it, because it is papular, a
Wind Heat condition which means Yang Ming. So the Ah Shi remember is
always secondary to where it is coming from. The fact it manifests as Wind
Heat, most likely it is coming from LI of the arms. Even though if s Ah Shi is
located along the Triple Heater Meridian. If you're not sure you can always treat
TH 1as well, as well as LI.The reason why it is LI is because of its
91
manifestations. It is protruded above the skin. It is papular, red, inflamed, itchy.
That's Wind Heat. If s not Wind Damp. Wind Damp would be pus underneath.
It wouldn't be solid. Wind Cold is generally more localized, it might be
clustering, but if s not going to spread that much because Cold prevents the
movement of Wind. It might be itchy, but if s not going to be spreading.
Generally, it might get red because you have been scratching it so much. But
when you finish scratching it turns back and dears again. So that would be seen
as Wind Cold. Dermatology is one definite application of Sinew Channels.
If it is chfonic, it means the Yin pair is affected. It might be severe. Severity

is sometimes measured by the fact that you've had it for more than three days.
In terms of an Exogenous condition, if it is mild, in terms of Chinese Medicine it
is usually resolved in three to five days. If it is something severe, it might take
seven to ten days to resolve. Almost like the Western idea of someone taking
antibiotics for ten days to make sure it does not linger in the body.
Muscular conditions, we already described that. The important thing about
muscular conditions is the evaluation of i t That is more crucial than the Ah Shi
area. The Sinew Channels Transverse across each other. So while it might show
up in GB 30, it might be coming from the Bladder Channel. And how we know
that is by a s h g how the pain might be elicited upon movement. Is their pain
upon standing? Is there pain upon sitting? Is there pain upon rotating? All of
those things give you dues as to where it is coining from. That's the nature of it.
Then you can apply it to respiratory, in terms of Wind Heat, Wind Cold,
Summer Heat or Wind Damp. You can also apply it in context to conditions
involving the ears, eyes, nose and throat, the Sensory Organs, someone who has
allergic rhinitis, someone who has seasonal rhinitis. Seasonal again, we looked at
how you can look at what season it is appearing in, or what month it is
appearing in. Just go back one month, and thafs most likely the month in terms
of the Sinew Channels. The Chinese calendar, the lunar calendar is usually one
month behind the Western calendar, usually. Sometimes it might extend to two
months, but generally speaking it is about one month behind. That would then
give you dues about how to treat someone with hay fever. Those are the general
applications for the Sinew Vessels. But as I am going to suggest to you, you can
use them for anything and everything. Wei Qi homes into the chest,
cardiovascular. Wei Qi homes into the smooth muscles of the gut,
gastrointestinal health. Wei Qi causes peristaltic activity of the ring muscles,
sphincter muscles. Intestinal, urogenital integrity, as well as inducing
menstruation, so gynecological conditions as well.
Trajectories
In general, for the trajectories which we will be looking at, two days is a
really short time to study the intensity of the trajectories, but when we study
them I am going to point out the major things to be aware of in terms of the
trajectories.
92
0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C.Yuen 2003
The main trajectory begins at the ling Well Point and they all ascend, they all
go up. Remember with the Sinew Channels, none of them are in direct contact
with the Organs they are named after. The BL Sinew Channel doesn't have
anything to do with the Bladder per se. They don't connect to the Internal
Organs. Just as the Luo Channels do not connect with Internal Organs, with the
exception of the Luo of the HT and PC. They are the only Channels that directly
connect to the Heart itself. None of the other Luo Channels connect with the
Organs they are associated with. LU is not connected to Lungs. Primary
( 'hannels allTonnect with the Internal Organs that they have been named after.
As well as the Divergent Channels, they all have a connection with the Zang Fu
that they are named after. With the Divergent Channels, we do know that none
of them come out directly from the Internal Organ they are named after. The
Primary Channels, on the other hand, the only ones that come out from the
Organ they are associated with are the HT and PC. Again, if s the statement
about Chinese Medicine that our life, our Meridians, is a representation of our
quest. It is about finding the answers about our being. The HT is the Sovereign
Ruler that attempts to make the conquest, to make the satisfaction of what my
life is about. And as such, we see why it should come directly from the HT. So
the HT Channel, PC Channel emanates directly from the Heart, none of the other
Channels do so.
It is important that you realize that while the Channel is named after
something, don't put it in association with the Internal Organs, the Sinew
Channels in particular. You don't say, "If someone has a urogenital problem that
might be because of the Bladder's Sinew Channel". The BL Sinew Channel
definitely goes to the lower back and you might think of how it might be causing
pressure on the lower back causing urination, but in general the actual
mechanism of urination is because of Wei Qi entering internally into the body.
So Wei Qi going internally is due to the Yin Sinew Channels. So if someone has
frequent urination we might see that as one of the Yin Sinew Channels rather
than the Yany Sinew Channels.. It might be KL It doesn't have to be. It could be
SP.
Evaluation is very important, and later this afternoon I will show you an
evaluation for each one of the zones, Tai Yam, Shao Yang, Yung Ming, Ted Yin,
Shao Yin, Jue Yin. As treatment, you should all know, basically the treatment, if
you are using just the Sinew Channels, if s going to be the use of the Ah Shi
Points, the Confluence Points if needed, if there are things that are Transversing,
and you are also looking at the use of the Jing Well Points. The other Points that
sometimes you can use is where the Ann and Leg Channels meet together:
Where Bladder Leg and Small Intestine Arm meet together is around the area,
even though I am giving you Points,it is really the area of SI 12, BL 11,BL 41.
Even in Acupuncture you learn that SI Meridian Converges or meets up with BL
at BL 11 and BL 41. Thafs a major area of meeting.
Where TH and GI3 meet is at the mastoid, this area of the GB 12region, the
TH 17region. This is an area where you will find that GB and TH meet. If you
don't want to use the Confluence Points, you can use this meeting of the zones.
93
Where Yang Ming, U and ST meets is obviously on the clavicle around the area
of ST 12. Thafs a major meeting of Yang Ming. Tai Yin, where LU and SP meet is
the area around SP 20 and LU 1. That's a major meeting area where we will
palpate and see if there is sensitivity in that area. That can be used to Release a
condition that is severe within Tai Yin. Severe means both Leg and Arm
Channels are involved. And generally when it is in the Yin level, it usually
already infers both Leg and Arm are involved.
Shao Yin I mentioned already. In terms of HT and KI, you are looking at CV
22 area, the area of the throat Lastly Jue Yin, the meeting of LV and PC, will be
the area that is around LV 14 and PC 1. So that would be an area that you would
palpate and Release if you suspect that there was indeed a Yin issue, that is
severe, both Arms and Legs. Generally with Yin, that is already inferred.
Those are the basic treatments that you have. Needling Techniques will be
the Chisel Technique. If you can't do Chisel Technique, then do a Warming
Technique over the area. Heat up the area, massage the area, then Needle, with
the same going for the Jing Well Points. That's how you would view your
treatments. So treatments are relatively simple. It just requires you have to be a
hunter in that you hunt for Ah Shi Points. You have to be willing to look and to
feel and to palpate for Points of sensitivity. If you are not inclined to do that,
then the Sinew Channels might not be the Meridians that you are most interested
in. Maybe you are not that much interested in External features, more Internal.
You believe that the root of all diseases is emotional. The Sinew Channels may
not be the road map that you are traveling in your life. As a result you attract
people who will be more in resonance with your particular journey.
JCY: Yes, in fact, one of the cases I selected was involving emotions from
Giovanni's book. Everything is essentially rooted in the context of a trinity. So
in terms of the trinity of one's psyche, one can say we have our feelings, our
moods. One can say we have our emotions. One can say we have our
temperament, or one's nature. So the differencehere again in this trinity is
reflective of Wei Qi, Sinew Channels, Ying Qi, Luo Channels, and Yuan Qz, Eight
Extra Channels and of course Primary Channels, Wei and Ying. What I mean by
a Mood is that a Mood & Can, is instinctual like Wei 0,it is intrinsic. An
Emotion is something that is cognitive @ Qing, has an intelligence. A
Temperament & Xing, is sometlung that represents one's own Constitutional
nature. At least that's the way I am using the word Temperament Some of us
might use it a little differently.
A Mood is something that you feel but you cannot come up with a reason,
intellectually, for why you feel what you feel. That's a Mood. When you feel
depressed and you try to say what's making you sad, what's making you feel so
out of place, and you can't seem to come up with a reason for it, that would be
seen as a Mood, a Wei Qi issue. Some of us get depressed in the winter. We get
seasonal depression. That's Wei Qi. Now I can say I am sad because of this and
94
that. It means you can own the Emotions, you can blame something on the
Emotions, and that becomes known as Ying Qi issue. That's an Emotion. So if
you can name it, in the sense that you can come up with a reason for why you are
feeling angry, sad, excited, that's an Emotion. With a Mood, you don't know
why you are feeling the way you are feeling. You can call it something that
appears to be very passive, a passion as compared to an Emotion. Nature, or
one's Temperament is something that you find yourself constantly in.
Sometimesyou can give a reason for it, sometimes you cannot. But it seems to be
a very major part of your life. That's your Temperament. The Temperament is
really a lessen that allows things to be attractive in your life, that conjures up this
Emotion, this Temperament that you have, to allow you to realize it, and
hopefully to transcend it. A Temperament is something you cannot change. It is
something you can control. So someone may have a very angry Temperament,
and while it might sound negative, that's the nature of that being.
If s like someone is a Wood person. Someone is a Fire person. We might not
like the fact that they are a Wood person because we are a Metal person, but
that's the way they are. Someone who is angry, you might love the fact that they
are really angry because their anger gets you to do something. It gets you to at
least become more focused on what it is you are doing because you happen to be
a Fire person. A Wood person feeds and nurtures a Fire person. So those two
people will get along quite well. Obviously, a person who is Metal is not going
get along with a person who is Wood. Someone might say, "Oh I'm sad and they
never understand me. The only thing they do is get mad at me," Metal and
Wood. So you obviously have a problem here. That's Temperament.
So Sinew Meridians are going to address Moods. If someone comes in and
they have a Mood of depression, sadness. Because a Mood is something that we
tend to bring in, if s very much going into the Ying level, the level of the
Emotions, the level of Blood. To have Shen, to have feelings, to have Emotions,
you need to have Blood. What you are looking at, if someone is depressed, we
know depression in terms of Five Element theory is related to Metal, Large
Intestine and Lung. So you would treat Large Intestine and Lung. You would
palpate the person, their LI and LU Sinew Meridian, find areas that appear to be
sensitive, you Needle those Ah Shi areas, and that will Release the Mood that
they are feeling, in addition to the Jing Well Points. That's how you would treat
someone in a depressed Mood. I'm just so angry today, I don't know why. Then
you palpate LV and GB. So you are applying the Five Element theory, but you
are treating not in context of using LV 3, LV 14, LV 2. You are not using those
kinds of contexts. You will be using LV 1,GI3 44 and you will be palpatingthe
area of LV and GB Tendinomuscular Channels to find where these Ah Shi areas
are. While it might seem like it is a big trajectory, there are major areas where the
energy tends to get bundled up. If it bundles up in those areas, it's kind of like
you already know the major areas you are going to palpate. You don' t have to
palpate the entire Meridian once you begin to study the trajectories. So that's
how to treat a Mood.
When you get into Emotions, you are going to be looking at Lw Channels.
So when you come to the Luo Channel discussion we are going to talk a lot about
95
@ New E@imd School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
using Luo for treating things that I am aware of. I know why I am angry. I know
why I am sad. I can blame it on this person or that person or this event or that
event. Or maybe I blame it on myself. In which case, if you blame it on yourself,
it becomes a Source Luo problem. These are ideas for looking at your Emotions
as an expression of your Temperament
JCY: The Moods themselves will be the same that you learned in school in terms
of Five Elements. So anger would be Wood. The idea of anxiety, excitement
would be associated with Heart and Small Intestine or Fire, and could include
Pericardium and Triple Heater. The idea of excessive thinking, pensiveness,
obsession, would be associated with the Spleen and Stomach. Sorrow, sadness
would be associated with Metal. Fear would be associated with Kidney and
Bladder. These are the most primitive of the Emotions. They are other Emotions
that one can have. Emotions or Moods do something to us. I can have a Mood
that I hold onto for a very long time, where I am suffering from depression all
the time. We know that chronicity of that depression is the Lung and Large
Intestine, but because it is so chronic, we definitely want to palpate the entirety
of the LU and LI Sinew Channel to find where the trigger Point is, or which Ah
Shi Point is contributing to this energetic stuckness.
JCY: Temperament can only be controlled. It cannot be altered. So you would
just help them to expel some of this relative extreme. But what you are doing is
basically managing their Temperament for them.
You don't look like you are very satisfied with that answer, because of the
word management, I think.
JCY: Remember if you are looking at Wei Qi and its relationship to
menstruation, that means Wei Qz is moving Internally which means the Yin
Sinew Channels are activated, and it is moving internally to the uterine muscle,
the uterine Sinew. In Chinese, it would be referred to as the Ancestral Sinew,
and now it is causing the Ancestral Sinew to move, and that's when you have
menstruation. So if some of the Wei Qi is not going into this area, it is stuck in
the chest, so now the muscles in the chest might become tight A person might
get fibrocysticbreasts. They might get diaphragmatic distension, because Wei Qi
gets stuck in the chest, which means that there is not enough Wei Qi pushing
through the uterus. The menstruation is irregular. There is a lot of cramping.
The cramping is to try to draw the energy downward. It's not drawing the
energy downward. Those would be some of the physical effects. We might,
during that period of time, feel the Emotions of any one of the Yin Sinews.
Maybe it is stuck mostly in my LU. If it is stuck mostly in my LU during the time
of the menstruation, the PMS is more the feeling of depression during that time
rather than anger. Maybe it is stuck in the LV and we have the expression of
96
@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Ynen 2005
anger. Maybe it is more or less stuck in the area of the KI, and during that period
of time they feel an impending dread coming over them. That would be the idea
of PMS from the context of Sinew Channels.
JCY: What you want to do in the case of someone who comes in with PMS, is
you want to make sure the Wei Qz is able to move into the Yin level, without
doing a lot of evaluation, which you can do. You already know the Confluence
Points of theTin Sinew Channels, GB 22 and CV 3. By Reducing those Points,
you are moving Wei Qz into this region from the chest downward into the pelvic
region, so you are already doing that Now the person comes in, and let's say
their major symptom is indeed temporal headaches. You might already assume
that that could be Tai Yang, or Shoo Yam for that matter, because Tai Yang will
also go into this region. A lot of us might assume liver, Shoo Yang, Gall Bladder
headaches. And at the same time that they are getting the Shoo Yang issue they
are expressing anger. So you see a Gall Bladder and Liver relationship. Also you
see that during this period of time their nipples are engorged. Again, Liver,
because the Stomach controls the breasts themselves, but the nipple is obviously
more Liver. So you see some Liver/Gall Bladder correlations. So in addition,
you are going to treat CV 3 and GB 22, you are also going to treat LV 1and GB
44, and you will palpate the areas of Ah Shi. The major areas of the LV, the major
Points of the Sinew Channel of the LV, when we look at it later, will include
areas like LV 8, areas like LV 12. So those areas might be Needled, depending on
how much Needling you want and the sensitivity of Needling in the pelvic
region.
BL Sinew Channel
Lefs begin our discussion of the Channel System in terms of their

trajectories. I have a lot of transparencies of Sinew Channels that I have taken
from other people's books. The ones from teaching this in several places, the
ones that most people like the most are the ones in Tina Song's book An Mu. I
also made copies from Chinese Acupunctur~one of the first books, before the
Essentials,,there was another book before that. In any case, I am using her
particular mapping. Some of her mapping is a little different than the mapping
from Deadman's book. Peter Deadman's recent book also depicts the Sinew
Channels but, I think the markings here are a little more definitive.
In any case, the basic symptom we know from the Sinew Channels is &ways
pain along the trajectory, obviously, a lot relating to the Jing Well area. In the
case of the BL Sinew you might hear the discussion about pain on the little toe.
That's basically relating to the Jing Well Point. But if you look at the trajectory of
the BL, the first major component is that you have the trajectory starting from the
little toe where it goes and it embraces the front of the lateral malleolus as well as
the back of the lateral malleolus. So it is embracing the anterior aspect as well as
the posterior aspect of the lateral malleolus. It is supporting the ankle bone. The
lateral ankle bone is usually the one that sticks out. The medial ankle bone,
while it might stick out, generally does not stick out, is not more pronounced
97
than the lateral malleolus. The lateral malleolus, if s intent is to try to lift up the
body, to help support the weight of the knees and support the weight of the hips.
What you are seeing within this trajectory is that there is the anterior aspect
where it goes in front of the ankle Bone, the lateral malleolus, and it moves
primarily into the area of the fibula. It goes to the head of the fibula. So here we
can see where Tai Yang is communicating with Yang Ming, And the area that's
going behind the lateral malleolus is coming up and then you can see by the time
it reaches the base of the calf muscle, it begins to break up into two components
as it goes to embrace, branching out, to embrace the popliteal region, the area of
BL 40.
When I use Points, keep in mind that I am using Points as a reference. It is
not saying that these Meridians go to those Points. They go to that region where
that Point that's located on the Primary Channel is located. Remember its
relationship to the gastrocnemius muscle. When the body is under stress, stress
in the sense that you have to do something, that is as yet uncompleted, the first
muscle that the body will begin to waste away at, will be the gastrocnemius
muscle. The first muscle that the body will take from a nutritional point of view,
amino adds away from, to give you the fuel to do something that you need to do,
will be at the gastrocnemius muscle. People with Wasting and Thirsting
Syndrome, people who seem to have Consumption Syndrome, their calf muscles,
their gastrocnemius muscles are the first muscles that begin to lose integrity.
They are losing amino adds. They are losing collagen. They are losing their Wei
Qi. The fluids that are produced by Wei Qi, that goes to the Sinews, they are
losing that. The area is drying up. As it dries up it goes into spasms. If you have
spasms in your calf muscles, a lot of times there is a relationship, You are doing
too much. And the body is now bring taxed to accommodate that need, resulting
from that which you are doing too much of. A lot of times what happens is it
begins to leach calcium away from the medial malleolus and you start to lose
that protrusion along the medial malleolus to give additional strength to the
lateral malleolus. This is a very important component The gastrocnemius
muscle is also responsible for the flexion of the knees.
If you are looking at the context of walking, as you push the weight down
onto the lateral aspect of the feet and you begin to push down and walk up, here
is this muscle now that is becoming very pronounced. Those of you sitting, if
you go like this, you are going to feel that muscle. Now if you step on it, you will
feel it become contracted. That's the BL Sinew Channel that you are feeling. It
has a very muscular component It is describing movement. As soon as you
walk. The first thing that happens is you put weight lateral aspect Remember, if
you put weight on the medial aspect mostly likely you will be very clumsy and
you will fall. Most people who tend to fall very easily, who tend to have lack of
coordination, are people that generally are very flaccid along the lateral aspect,
and very tight along the medial aspect because their body is being inverted
inward. That makes them much more clumsy. If I am putting my weight in, if s
only a matter of time before I am going to fall down. Because once you put the
weight in, when you are standing, the intention of the body is to stop motion. So
if you try to stop and walk at the same time, if s like pressing on the brakes and
98
0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
pressing on the gas pedal at the same time. The body jerks, and after a while you
are going to fall.
That component here is saying first and foremost that the BL Sinew Channel
supports, by musculature, the lateral malleolus, so one can look at it as
supporting the Qzao vessel in some ways. Qiao's relationship to BL 1. The whole
idea of BL 1is I see something upon the opening of my eyes, Wei Qi is activated,
I begin to move into the day. I begin to move into the world. I begin to take my
first step out of bed and I begin to feel the stimulation of what it means to stand
up to the world, or to stand with the world in some cases.
As it begins to go into the region of the gastrocnemius, keep in mind that this
is a major area which is responsible for the support of ST Yin. Stomach Yin
produces the bodily fluids. The Thin Fluids and the Thick Fluids. Sinew
Meridians are interested in the Thin Fluids. Those are the Fluids that go to
support the Pure aspect, the sensory Organs, the Impure aspect, the skin and the
Sinews. You can almost see where we can argue why in dermatology BL 40 is
such a powerful Point for treating dermatological conditions. In that case they
Bleed the Point. The whole idea here is that you are looking at this muscle group
as a major depository of the dynamics of Wei Qi that comes from the production
of ST Fluid. Remember, if you want to translate that into nutritional terms, the
ST is only interested in digesting one thing, protein. If s not interested in fat. If s
not interested in carbohydrate. Protein becomes digested into amino aads.
Amino aads are the building blocks in particular for the muscles of the body.
That's why when the body is under stress, the first area if s going to take amino
aads away from will be the gastrocnemius muscle. Now Chinese Medicine will
be in line with Western nutritional medicine. You can see diabetes, Wasting and
Thirsting Syndrome, which on one end can be seen as Kidney Yin, but we can
also look at that as a Stomach Yin problem. Why? They tend to have a lot of
weakness, especially in the gastrocnemius muscle. They can't support their
weight You see why Kidney is involved, because Kidney ultimately supports
Wei Qi. If I deplete my ST Yin which is producing Wei Qi, then I have to relate
back to the Constitutional Wei Qi which is Yang. Kidneys now become stressed.
And as Kidneys become stressed, how I am going to Bind and keep the amino
adds together? Through calaum. So I take calaum from where? From the area
that stores it the most, the medial malleolus. So that's why those people who use
the gastrocnemius muscle too much, the lateral malleolus is very pronounced,
but when you look at the medial malleolus, it looks like they hardly have any
ankle bone at all, in terms of the inner ankle bone. Diagnostically, it helps us to
determine that. .
You will find that when someone who is diabetic comes to see you, that
when you do the evaluation especially for Tai Yang, they might have a hard time
tensing up the gastrocnemius muscle. I other words, you have them flex and put
weight to the lateral aspect and put a lot of strength on that, they have a hard
time doing that. So now by getting you to program them to do that,you are
giving them a way of storing, consolidating Yin back into the body, from the
Sinew Meridian perspective. So you are helping them to nourish ST Yin. With
Acupuncture and the Primary Meridians, you might have Points like CV 12, but
@ New E q k d School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003

very commonly it doesn't really do it as well. For ST Yin, one of the foremost
components is its support of Wei Qi.
Question: [inaudible] ...feeling or emotion relating to "too much to do" ...
JCY:Well, the feeling is the compulsive thinking. The Emotion is the
compulsion, this constant need, that if I am not doing something that I am not
productive. Potentially, you could say this is part of the culture in some ways.
You can't be a couch potato. You can't be a person sitting around being very
Damp, beingvery Spleen, eating sugar and ice cream and watching TV all day
long. You have to do something constructive. That would be the Mood that
would be percolating in our mind while we were eating our cheesecake.
Anyone who finds they can't raise their toes, who can't bring their toes up,
calls your attention to this section here thafs pulling the lateral ankle bone and
bringing it up. So you bring it up, when you walk you are pressing and you are
moving. When I am walking on one (foot) I am pressing (off) the other and it is
rising bade and forth. The bade embraces so I don't fall over. The general
context is that as the back is pressing down the front is going up. This flags as
the back presses. That's how you walk. You don't walk like this. One presses
down as one lifts up. Thafs the balance. As it is becoming Yang that is the
responsibility of the BL Sinew Channel. So if someone has difficulty flexing,
bringing their feet toward their knees, is someone who has a Deficiency in the BL
Sinew Channel, if not a Blockage, something that is blocking it, preventing it
from moving, as in the case where you can have pathology traveling from Shao
Yang or Yang Ming into Tai Yang. And the Deficiency because of chronic
condition that is in if s Yin pair, the Kidney Sinew Meridian. So you might find
that if you have KI Yang Deficiency, that you find that you are having a hard
time now, weakness of the knees, but while you might call that weakness of the
knees in TCM, it might really be weakness really in flexion of the ankles. If I
can't flex my ankles, my knees are going to have to bend. Or else I am going to
fall. If I am shuffling because I am not lifting up my ankles any more, I could
press down on the floor. What happens when you press? You're pulling your
knees down more. You're going to start walking around with your knees bent.
And you're going to say, "Oh my knees are weak, I can't straighten it", because
you potentially have difficulty working with the Sinew Channel, because there is
a Deficiencyin the KI Sinew due to maybe excessive sex, excessive urination,
what have you.
Thafsthe first component. You can see that the ramifications are very
broad. What it is teaching us is the involvement of the musculature, with a lot of
Internal activity. That means that if someone comes in, let's say they are diabetic,
they have Wasting and Thirsting Syndrome. One of the most common things
that we see in diabetics is that they become obese. The reason why is because the
calcium is not binding the muscles. If the calcium does not bind in the muscles
you have atony. You have very flaccid muscles. That's why in TCM, we might
think of it as a Yang Deficiency. They are obese, and they are heavy. We say KI
Yang Deficiency with maybe KI Yin. So you treat their frequent urination.
Things are not being astringed. Things are not being held. Calcium would be
100
that which is trying to Bind them together. And they might start losing calcium
because the body can't use the calcium to Bind. So they might have osteoporosis
even though they are overweight. They might have to take Fosomax. They
might come back to you with that kind of scenario. So by tensing the muscles, by
getting them to exercise those muscles, the muscles are being programmed to try
and hold. If s not really doing vigorous exercise. All they have to do is sit on a
chair every day and just practice pressing down on the lateral aspect of their toes,
pressing down and then lifting, pressing down and then lifting, and then feeling
the gastrocnemius muscle tense up. By doing that, they are programming the
muscles to try to hold. As they program the muscles to try to hold that's going to
help them with this Wasting and Thirsting Syndrome.
If you are going to use Acupuncture, now you want to strengthen, you want
to Tomfy. That means here you want to stimulate Wei Qi. You want to do
Moxibustion. Not Blowing Moxibustion, but just Indirect or Direct Moxibustion
on Tai Yang, BL 67. And one of the very common Ah Shi Points that you will find
for many of these people when you do the evaluation will be BL 26. Interesting
enough, G u m Yuan Shu, BL 26, the Shu Point for Gum Yuun. Guan Yuan of
course is CV 4. But BL 26, interesting enough, is a Point that treats Wasting and
Thirsting Syndrome. They tend to be very sensitive. From my experience a lot of
times they will complain that that's where the Ah Shi Point is. And when you
look up the Ah Shi Point and look up its function you will notice it will treat
Wasting and Thirsting Syndrome.
What you would then Needle would be, in terms of support, would be this
band that is supporting the lateral malleolus. You would be Needling the area
around the ankle bone. You might be Needling BL 60. You might even Needle
along the lateral side along the dorsum of the foot, BL 64. When I say Needle
that, while I am describing the Points, if s more of a region. If s really Moxa-ing,
building, reinforcing the muscle as it goes to that small joint that we call the
ankle bone. So that's what you are doing. If s more area specific as being
referenced by a certain Point. If s not really the Point itself. If fact, when you
touch or palpate that area, you will find where it is very flaccid. That means that
if you are Needling, or if the person is very sensitive, Moxibustion, reinforcing
means that you Needle the Point and you get the area to pucker up against the
Needle. It has to pucker up. The skin has to squeeze against the Needle. That
does not mean Deep Needling where you get the muscle fibers to touch the
Needle. You are just going right in like a Chisel Technique, and you might be
just kind of like chiseling away until all of a sudden you feel a squeeze like a fish
has caught your Needle. They don't have to feel De Qi,but you will feel like the
Needle is being held. That's helping Tonify that area around the lateral ankle
bone.
Are there any questions about this first segment of the BL Sinew Channel.
That segment helps in the production of Stomach Fluids, in particular the Thin
part of the Stomach Fluids. So my eyes are dry. You can use that segment.
That's the Pure aspect of the Jin Ye. It helps with Wasting and Thirsting
Syndrome. It helps with people that have osteoporosis, loss of calcium. Again,
the body type of those individuals is usually not the skinny ones, but the obese
101
ones. The ones that are relatively overweight and they are taking Fosomax.
Their bone density test shows that they do not have enough calcium.
The next area we are looking at is in the area in back of the knees.
Remember the popliteal region is the area that is responsible for turning the
knees and turning the foot. In particular turning (the foot) it in. When you bend
your knees and you go like that (turning the foot medially and laterally), if s
greater usually coming in, lesser going out. If s greater movement of turning the
foot and turning the knees in. That comes from the popliteus, that area of BL 40,
the area of KI 10, BL 39, that whole area that is in the back of the knees.
Sometimes the popliteus can be in a state of Excess which means that it is in a
state of hyperextension. It's causing the knees to be pushed out. If I am going to
tense up my popliteus, the knees get pushed back too much, that means I can't
bend. If I can't bend, the only way I can compensate for that is bending by
rotating my knees. That's the only time I can bend. So anyone who has
hyperextended knees is going to have Shao Yang problems. If s going to
Transverse itself from Tai Yang to Shoo Yang. Those are people who when they
stand, they stand like this (knees look locked). I am hyperextending my knees.
And what happens is that you will notice their hips tend to, start to get swayed
out a little. I am consciously tilting my hips a little. People that have
hyperextended knees always tend to be tilted to one side from their hips, GB,
because that is the only way they can still walk. See (like a swagger with the
belly out). I can walk now. I am exaggerating the hyperextensionbut notice that
when I push into my hips, I can walk without bending my knees. If I try to do
this (withoutpushing the hips to one side with each step) without bending my
knees, I will look like Frankenstein. I can't walk like that. People who look at me
will think I look pretty funny. Now I'll do it very subtly, you might not even
notice that I am doing it. But I am hyperextending my knees, I'm not really
allowing my knees to bend much and my hips are accommodating for that. It
will look kind of like average walking, unless someone pays attention to the way
you walk, then you get a better sense of how their Sinew Channels are behaving.
If someone has hyperextended knees, that would be why. This component,
when you look at the aspect where it goes from the anterior aspect along the
Yung Ming, where it ends, or where it primarily bundles up. In Tina Song's book
the inference is that it does not end and in Deadman's book it does show that it
ends there. Where it ends is at GB 34, the area that Controls the Sinews, at least
according to the Nan ling School, a major reflex Point for the Sinews, Sinews in
terms of extending the knees, turning the knees in and out, the major control
over the Sinews. Keep in mind however that the Gall Bladder traditionally really
Controls the Bones,it does not control the Sinews. Bladder controls the Sinews,
at least from the Ling Shu point of view. The Nan Jing point of view changed that
somewhat.
So if someone has hyperextended knees, the major Ah Shi area is not going to
be the popliteal region. The major area you should be working on is GB 34. In
terms of the ankles, if you go back down, you might be looking at GB 39. You
might be looking at the area that is in front of the lateral malleolus. You might be
looking at BL 64, that region looking for an area that now instead of being flaccid
102
is very, very tight because it is hyperextended. If it is tight, excessive Wei Qi in
BL Channel will Transverse itself to GB Channel. And we have already
mentioned how it can Transverse itself to Yang Ming Channel as it goes along the
gastrocnemius. Again, if someone is hypoglycemic, if they Massage this area,
that hypoglycemia will start to go away, acute treatment for someone who is
having a need for sugar. This is the area that's going to get most excited. When
you Massage the area, it stimulates the adrenals. Adrenals will give you back the
energy. If s going to stimulate Tai Yang, Bladder, Wei Qi, if they just do this,
(Massaging the calf muscles with both hands) when they are feeling that sugar
low, and they just Massage along this region. I am going down but you can also
go both ways. If you Massage that, that hypoglycemic sensation they feel
generally dissipates.
Even in chiropractic, they find that if you have a weakness in the
gastrocnemius muscle, that generally means you have a Vitamin C Deficiency.
What is Vitamin C? Wei Qz. Interesting enough, when they look at the popliteal
region they talk about that as a Vitamin A and Vitamin D, calcium kind of
component, those who do kinesiology with nutritional findings, where they do
muscle testing.
But Sinew Channels are not really the same component. I'm sharing this
with you after having taught this material in seminars in which nutritionists and
chiropractors were attending, and they give you those insights.
If you are looking at the area of the popliteal region in relationship to Tai
Yang, it is responsible for bringing the knees into an extended state. Sometimes
there is hyperextension, whereas if your knees are constantly bent, that would be
more related, potentially, to the KI. That would not be seen as a BL Sinew
Channel. You can look at it as maybe a Bladder Deficiency, but generally
speaking you would treat the KI. When you have bent knees, usually by that
time it is a chronic condition, so usually BL and KI are involved. Whereas if you
were just in a rush that day, you might find that you were hyperextending your
knees to get a lot of things done, to make all those choices that you need to make
for GB.
So again, the treatment would be BL 67. Now you would have to treat GB 44
because it has Transversed into GB, so you would have to treat GB 44 plus these
major areas where it bundles as Qi, like BL 64, GB 34, those are the areas that
would be among the Ah Shi areas.
Question: Inaudible
JCY: When I say Ah Shi, I'm not just referring to sensitive Points that don't like
to be touched. It can be an area that enjoys pressure, an area that's relatively
Deficient, that looks very flaccid. That's why I said in the case of someone who's
hypoglycemic or diabetic, a lot of times you might palpate the area that's very
numb because they already have some form of neuropathy in the area, so they
might enjoy the pressure. What you are looking for are areas that are very
flaccid, and when you Needle it you want the skin, the Sinews, to pucker up
103
@ New l3ghd School of Acupunctureand Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
against the Needle. That would be a situation where there would not be any
sensitive Points. It would be a Point of flaccidity that enjoys warmth and
Massage. But in the case of the popliteal region, this area usually, because the
knee is already hyper-extended, these areas tend to be already very sensitive, so
when you put pressure on it, they don't tend to like it. That would be seen more
as the BL. If they like it, then mostly likely it is related to a KI issue.
Question: Inaudible
JCY:That would be the situation where something has a Deficiency and the
body is tensing up to try to retain as much as possible. So that's where you have
a tight muscle as a need (compensating)to fulfill an underlying Deficiency.
Question: Inaudible
JCY: Yes, Ah Shi Points are more of a generic term that can mean sensitive, a
Point that draws your attention to it, lefs put it that way. That Point does not
necessarily have to be an Acupuncture Point within the context of the Primary
Meridian. All Ah Shi Points are Points along the Sinew Channels. The Sinew
Channels are big enough to include all those Points.
Break
For those of you who are wondering about the diagrams, they come from a
book called An Mo by Tina Song. If you are interested in getting the diagrams,
that is the source. If s a book on Chinese Massage Therapy, so keep in mind that
it is very different. Even though the Sinew Channels are depicted, it is very
differentfrom what we are talking about today.
One of the classes that Steve has suggested that I present to those of you who
have been studying with me in this series on the Chinese medical Classics and
the Secondary Vessels, is to get a sense of the Daoist tradition that I come from.
As some of you know, in the Daoist tradition they believe that there are what
they call Three Spirits and Seven Souls. Basically it is an attempt to get you to
understand some of the motivating forces about Dauism and their attempts to
understand destiny, and how destiny is reflected through their medical studies
of the human body. I tried to allude to that yesterday. When you look at the
Meridians you are really looking at them as road maps. They are road maps that
are representing the ways we have chosen to live our lives. As a result they are
really trying to emanate, if not trying to at least fulfill, some of the intrinsic or
inherent purposes of our existence which are defined by the Three Spirits.-.
A lot of times the Three Spirits, in medical terms, are referred to as the Three
Worms. It means that the Spirit can very often be distracted. The Spirits can be
tempted, seduced by what they consider to be issues or matters that take us
further away from the path. As the Spirit is being distracted, then it leads into
the disruption of the Souls. The Seven Souls would be very similar to the Seven
Emotions in terms of Chinese Medicine, but here they really go a bit deeper in
terms of some of the spiritual aspects related to that, and it gives you a better
104
aNew England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
foundation. The place I am coming from, in terms of where my teaching
emanates from, always stems from a religious background. So it was
recommended that I present something of that sort, because I have done it in
New York and Californiabut I have not done it in Massachusetts, so Steve
thought that maybe I should present that here too.
In terms of the question before, what does An Mo mean? An Mo ^?%

are the two Chinese characters that represent the two of the basic hand
techniques that you learn in Chinese massage therapy. An Mo means to press.
Those of you who study Tai Ji, it is one of the thirteen postures of Tai Ji, to be able
to "press" forward. Mu means to touch. So when you are doing cranial sacral
therapy, the technique itself would be considered Mo, very very gentle touching,
proprioception, so that you who are touching, are also being touched by the
contact that you are making. Not only are you cradling the skull, the skull is also
cradling you. There is a dual dynamic about energy being exchanged between
the two. So any very subtle technique would be under the auspices of Mo and
things that are little bit more direct contact, using more pressure, is considered
An. Just as Tui f t is the push technique and Na @ is the grasping
technique. So those are just two terms that define the techniques of Chinese
Massage Therapy.
So getting back to the BL Channel, we have a connection to the lateral
malleolus, the calf muscles, the gastrocnemius muscles. We have the connection
to the popliteal region which we are referring to as BL 40. Then you see this
branching up. In Tina Song's book she has the branch that is moving to the head
of the fibula continue on to the gluteus. Whereas if you look at Deadman's book,
Deadman has it end at the fibula, so that there are only two branches that begin
at the popliteal region traveling up into the gluteus. So there are some
differences in the depiction of the Sinew Channels. The idea here is that if it goes
into Shao Y q , if s going to go into Shao Yang at the level of the popliteal area.
If s not going to continue into Shao Yang when it goes up towards the hips,
because when it goes to the hips, there's going to be another trajectory in the
upper region where you can see that if s going to make a connection to the hips
once again. Where something transverses to the hips, to Shoo Yang from Tai
Yang, it will occur at the base of the gluteal fold, at the base of the buttocks.
So you can say that the two trajectories from the popliteal region, from BL 40,
there are two branches. One traveling more medial along the KI Sinew line, the
other traveling more along the BL line, and as it goes up, if s going to merge at
BL 36. The role of the gluteus is to serve as an anchor, to support the lower back.
The whole idea of the gluteus and its particular function as part of Tai Yung is
when I hyperextend my knees,you can feel that the glutens will begin to get
tight. That tightness is to support the lower back. One can see that if if s
supporting die lower back, partially it could be because it is trying to support
things along the hip area. If s trying to support the things along the Belt
Channel. So as you begm to get obese, as you begin to put a lot of weight onto
the pelvic region, which means you are putting more weight on the lower back,
that can then cause a tremendous amount of tension to build up in BL 36 and as a
105
@ New E i @ d School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
result is trying to hold up, to squeeze the gluteus. As it tries to squeeze the
gluteus you are going to get, as one of the major functions of BL 36 is
hemorrhoids. You're going to get a lot of tension building up along the buttocks
and you're going to have hemorrhoids. You're going to have sphincter muscles
of the anus become constricted and you get constipation. The whole idea of BL
36 treating constipation, again, we know where it originates from, so when we
treat BL 36 we may want to treat BL 40 because we know if s coming from that
area, from this lower region and converging at the base of the buttocks.
Likewise/ we can also look at a condition where someone has the inability to
support the lower back, where the gluteus is flaccid, where the gluteus is starting
to become more pronounced. If you Needle that area, you want to Needle it so
that the muscles pucker up against the Needle, toward the Needle. literally
when they pucker up, you know you are consolidating, you cause the muscles to
tense up, to squeeze, to reinforce, the idea of supporting something that is
prolapsing. So you have hemorrhoids that are prolapsing. You have
hemorrhoids that are bleeding. You have a fissure. And the gluteus is flaccid.
In TCM you would say Spleen Deficiency is leading to the prolapse. In terms of
the Tendino-muscular Channel, it is because the gluteus is not supporting the
ring muscles, the sphincter muscles of the anus. If it cannot support that,it
cannot hold the bowels and you're going to have frequent bowel movements or
incontinence. BL 36 which is rooted in BL 40, which is rooted in BL 64 and BL 60,
the whole idea of using those Points to relax the area of the back as used in TCM,
using BL 40 to Release the back, using BL 60 to treat the back. That's all part of
the Sinew Meridian perspective already.
So the gluteus and if s relationship to the orifice, the anus, Portals are under
the auspices of the Sinew Channels, Tendino-muscular Channels, Wei Qi. As it
goes into the gluteus, it begins to wrap around the gluteus, going along the sides.
As it continues to go up into the sacrum, if s going to also wrap around. If s
really cradling the greater trochanter. If s basically cradling the pelvis, lifting the
pelvic region up so if s able to keep this area up, instead of dropping.
That's where it can now travel into Shao Ymg. Things that are trapped in BL
36 can begin to go into GB 30 and from GB 30 it can go into GB 27 and 28 along
the Belt Channel trajectory. Keep in mind that when I am giving you Points, it is
in reference to a region, not a particular Point per se.
Then it continues along the paravertebrals. We talked about what the

paravertebrals represent, maintaining the upright posture. Keep in mind that the
upright posture is what allows for separation. That's supporting the DMMai.
What I mean by that is that if you look at a child, once a child develops the
upright posture, philosophically what that means is that the child is preparing
himself to become individualized. They are beginning to separate from the
maternal matax, which is represented by Ren Mat, which is represented by the
mother figure in most cases. Now the child is ready to walk away. What it also
means is that the mother has lost possession of the child's body. The child's
body is no longer just embraced and held by the mother, wherever she wants to
place the child. Now the child has the free will to be able to say "no." In fact this

is the first time the child begins to experience choices in his or her life, when they
are able to walk away from something. We know that for a harmonious
relationship during separation and individualkation, when a child begins to
separate, as I begin to walk away, I need to be able to look back and still see that
Mommy and Daddy are still there. Thafs very crucial. When a child starts to
walk and to learn to discover the world, they always want to know where
Mommy and Daddy is exactly, that there is always a home base they could go
back to. When they are playing and they turn around and Mommy or Daddy are
not there, they start to cry, because they know that crying brings the maternal
matrix to them.
In some cases, as we begin to separate, because of our parents' agenda, or
because of circumstances that force those agendas, the child can be forced to
separate too quickly. Not only are they being encouraged to discover the world,
they are given a lot of toys to play with, they are given a lot more time away
from the maternal matrix. That means this individual will be constantly,
throughout their life, very tight along the paravertebral muscles. This
individual, ever since they were very young, will suffer from occipital or frontal
headaches. This individual might even suffer from epilepsy and seizures at the
age of two and three as a reflection of a situation by which they are being forced
to separate too early in their lives. They go to nursery school very early. The
parents are not around as much. They are forced to be in a room by themselves a
lot of times, early separation. They might be foster children, orphans, separated.
They never found someone to connect to. There was never a Ren Mai, a maternal
matrix embrace.
Because of some of that early programming they will find that they will
never be in situations that allow for commitment. They cannot commit
themselves. If a relationship happens and the partner gets too serious, then they
get afraid and walk away. They will feel that their individualization is being
threatened, because there is something that wants to embrace that separation.
I just want you to know that that sometimes, when you try to Release these
muscles, if they stay habitually tight, generally it is a reflection of very early
childhood issues, as soon as they walked, the parents wanted them to run. As
soon as they ran, the parents wanted them to now excel in many other things. So
they were never completely content with the pace they were at. They were
always ahead of themselves. Consequently, they always get headaches, very
cerebral kinds of afflictions. They have Ascending Yang. They have seizures,
hypertension very early in their lives. This is a reflection of paravertebrals that
are very tight. Remember, they are not conscious that these muscles are tight.
The Sinew Channels are not something that you are aware of. They are very
instinctual. When the body needs to do something, they tense up on their own.
Paravertebral muscles are very important in Releasing, or at least bringing
someone back to a state of relaxation, so they are not hyperextended,
hypertensive, hyperactive. They are not hyper-going ahead, too much Yang
energy. They have constant inflammation, constant Wind. Sometimes we do
that so that we can draw to our life the attention that we seek. Sometimes
107
0 New b g b d School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
children will become hyperextensive, hyper, because the mother is separating,
saying "go ahead, run, run" and the child realizes they don't want to run, they
want Mommy to embrace them, so the child decides to get sick. If I get sick
Mommy is going to come to me. So the child seems very weakly, ever since they
are very young. You might say that is Constitutional. What we are talking about
is the 8 Extra Channels, but the Sinew Channels will contribute to that. It also
relates to Divergent Channels because Divergent Channels are held into their
postures, into their bony structures. You have bones that are constantly in a state
of tremendous inflammation, so you develop childhood leukemia as a major way
of dealing with the issues of separation.
And you can see, as the paravertebrals travel around the area of BL 16 and
17, it begins to create the shoulder strap. It begins to wrap around the shoulders.
If s about using the shoulders to lift your arms, when you move your wing
muscles, the latissimus dorsi, liftingthose muscles up so you can bring your
hands even higher. You're becoming Atlas. You're trying to bring the Yang to its
fullest height, to Ascend, to travel upward into the world. People who have
tremendous number of patterns up here, your thoughts are up here, your
symptoms are up here, they usually have very tense muscles around the
latissimus dorsi, along the shoulder strap. They are carrying the weight of the
world upon their shouldm. That would be the metaphor of what they are trying
to do. You can see if I lift up my shoulders, the whole area around the clavicle
has to Release to allow that. If I am tensing up the clavicle I can prevent those
movements by being very Yin. Yin Sinews are where the muscle starts to go in.
In particular, as you will see, because we are talking about BL and KI,and KTs
relationship to the HT (see HT Sinew chart). The HT Sinew Binds everything in.
By Binding everything in, I can't Release this area coining up. If I tense up the
musdes here, I won't be able to bring my arms up. You can do this manually.
You can tense up the chest and try to lift up your arms and you notice that the
chest has to Release for the arms to be able to come up. So for some people who
have trouble raising their arms, if s not necessarily that they have a Tai Yang
problem, remember Tai Yang goes and pairs up with Shao Yin. They have the HT
Sinew Channel holding in this area that prevents the arms from being raised.
There is a mechanism that tries to control the hyperactivity that you have. And
sometimes if s by compensation. So I have hypertension. These muscles are
really tense here, but I also have angina. Not only do I have hypertension but I
also have Heart disease because the Heart is trying to compensate by trying to
control the Ascension of Ymg. Thafs why there is a tremendous amount of
tension building up around the chest muscles, compensation, trying to control.
The person who has hypertension notices that their shoulders always have
some type of pain. When you do the evaluation (raising the arm) they say "Yeah,
that hurts a lot," Tai Yang. They will say "Ican only raise up to here," (raising
the arm laterally, extended, to about shoulder level) because all these muscles
(upper chest) are tight Then I relax these muscles and the arms Release. But
when I relax these arm muscles, then I have to be willing to take on the weight of
the world. "Gee, I've just had my first Heart attack, I can't take on the weight of
the world." Or this (the upper chest) cramps up really acutely and you get your
firstmyocardial infarction, your first Heart attack. Again, a lot of these things we
108
?> New England School of AcnpHnctuireand Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
are not conscious of. Thafs the unfortunate part of it If s up to us as clinicians
to realize why, to use a Reichian term, the body armoring itself as a
compensation for some of the things that are going on in our lives,
unconsciously. Just realize that if there's something that's chronic, there's always
a Yin involvement and that means we have to evaluate the Yin Sinews to get a
dearer picture.
That's the shoulder strap, that's the Release of the shoulder girdle. If s like
you walk to, approach the area (target), now you are able to reach for the area
(extending fie arm out and forward) Small Intestine is obviously going to be
involved in here, and thafs just the raising of the arms, the lifting of the
latissimus dorsi. Lifting that area up and you can see that there is another
trajectory that comes up too (over the top of the shoulder). In her book she tends
to have more branches than you see in Deadman's book or in "The Essentials."
There is also the part that lifts up the face, the component thafs coming to
support the skull. I'm lifting up my head at the area of the mastoid, this area is
very Shao Yang, and lifting up the head. This is about lifting the head from
behind and what if s doing is lifting up your ability to look at and see the world.
It wraps around,if s a girdle that loops around the head, from the back, coming
back this way (up and over the head) but also coming to the front ( via the armpit
and up to the neck and face) this way, something that supports the head.
And in particular as it supports the head, you can see that if s meshing at the
region of the cheekbones. This is going to be the area that is often seen as the
meeting of the Yang Sinew Channels where it converges at the area of the
cheekbones, but also along the inner canthus of the eyes, the area of BL 1and BL
2. Also along the bridge of the nose would be a major area that we might be
using as a place of Release.
Here again, from Tai Yang it can go into Shoo Yang as it goes to the mastoid
region. It can go into Yang Ming as it goes along the bridge of the nose into the
area where the BL Meridian goes to, but also where the ST Meridian goes to as
well.
The Tai Yang Sinew Channel represents the Sinew Channel by which we are
becoming upright, by which we are dealing with stress. If s the major muscular
part of the body that deals with acute stress. It could be chronically stressed,
where ifs going to take on the challenges of the External world. That's the basic
component of the BL Sinew Channel. You can see by the signs and symptoms.
They talk about strain and the inability to support the little toe, (that again would
be very common with all of the Sinew Channels in describing a very physical
orientation of where it begins), pain and swelling of the heel, spasm or tension in
the popliteal region, spasm or tension in the neck, inability to raise the arms,
muscular discomfort in the axillary region,this tension in the side of my arms as
it prevents my arms from coming up, strained muscles in the supradavicular
region, this is a major area where a lot of the Yang Channels meet, ST 12, will be a
symptom that we will see a lot in Tendino-muscular theory.
109
0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C.Yuen 2003
Other symptoms can include where the person has a lot of stiffness usually
in the region of the shoulders. That's another symptom that can be added into
the Sinew Channels. This description is basically taken from Ellis and Wiseman's
book. These are things you can find in the books. Other things you can find in
other books are stiffness of the shoulders and stiffness of the spine because the
paravertebral muscles are affected. If s going to cause changes of the curvature
of the spine, scoliosis of the spine can happen. They are describingphysical
pains, but I'm trying to give you the inference of what it means beyond the
physical pain.-
We have groups that deal with Stomach Yin, the gastrocnemius area, the
lower region. We have things that deal with Spleen Yang in the area of the
gluteus and how the BL Sinew Channel is supporting that. We have that which
is dealing with the support of Kidney Yang in terms of the spine, the erector
muscles along the spine, things that are supporting the movement of Heart Qi as
it relates to the Stwo Yin of releasing the chest A lot of times looking from the
Sinew Channel perspective. You can see the occipital headaches. You can see
the temporal headaches to some degree though not as much because they are
usually closer to the eyes. You can see the frontal headaches as well as vertex
headaches because of its connection as it goes up along the side of the vertex. So
a lot of headaches.
Headaches are about moving ahead. That's the nature of Yang, to move
ahead. And when you are frustrated because you are not moving ahead, or you
are moving ahead too quickly, you develop these muscular tensions.
GB Sinew Channel
Not let's move into the second of the Sinew Channels which will be GB. The
GB Sinew Channel begins at the fourth toe, very similar to the context to the
Primary Channels. Like the BL Sinew Channel you can see that it is Binding
itself along the lateral malleolus around the area of GB 40. From there it too also
travels up into the area of the head of the fibula. This is how it meets up with Tai
Yang of the Bladder. And now what if s doing is embracing the knee cap,
embracing the base and the top of the knees. If s coming up along this way,
circulating this way along the bottom and top of the knee, trying to hold the
knees up.
The major role of holding the knees up is that if s to help draw the knees to
be able to move from side to side. Any of you who have ever seen children's legs
will notice a very unusual thing, which differs from your legs. If you look'at
their tibia, the area we associate with the Yin side, the Yin side is also very fleshy.
As they begin to become upright, as they begin to translocate themselves away
from the fetal position, from being a Yin position, they move all this Yin to the
Yang part of the body. There is a translocation of flesh from a fleshy area which
they have, to now become a bony area. Children will be very fleshy in their
entire legs, and then as soon as they develop the upright posture and they learn
to walk and they learn to make decisions, they begin to experience "no" from
their parents. They begin to experience conditional love, that there are certain
110
things that they can do and certain things that they cannot do. They have to
make choices and learn that there is a certain degree of morality. They can't just
do anything that they want, that would be Tai Yang. They have to temper,
control, they have to sometimes move sideways. They can't just move into
something head on. That's the reflection of where the fleshy part begins to move
into the lateral aspect. The whole purpose of the GB is rotational movement, that
I am able to step aside from something I am walking into. Gall Bladder makes
the decision. It alternates from side to side, as some of the Classical symptoms of
Gall Bladder suggest. Chills and fevers, intermittent symptoms usually suggest
Gall Bladderas well.
Gall Bladder in the Classical context relates to Bones. According to the Ling
Shu, Bladder controls the Sinews, Gall Bladder controls the Bones, Stomach
controls Blood. Triple Heater controls Qi,Large Intestine and Small Intestine
control the Bodily Ruids, Large Intestine relating more to the Thin Fluids and
Small Intestine relating more to the Thick Fluids, the Jin Ye.
When you look at Gall Bladder and the idea that it controls the Bones, the
idea that it is moving the flesh away from the tibia into the fibula, and that
movement occurs by the movement of GB 34. This whole idea of GI3 34 as being
a major component of dealing with the movement of Sinews to the Sinew side, to
the Yang side; and keeping Bone, Yin, on the Yin side. Anyone who begins to
develop neuropathy, difficulty in walking, will start to get flesh coming back to
the Yin side. As you have more flesh going to that area, you're going to feel
more weight holding down the Bone. You're going to feel more difficulty in
walking and moving through life. This is reflected early on, and also reflected in
the GB Sinew Channel. People that tend to have a little more flesh in this area
are people that tend to be very indecisive. They tend to side track. Their knees
are not hyperextended. There is a lot more twisting out with the knees bent, and
very Yin, moving in (sinking down). But yet the conflict is that we don' t want to
move in, you still want to move so your knees go out slightly but the knees are
bent, causing this area to develop more flesh. It also slows you down. That
would be the case of someone who has Damp Heat Bi Obstruction.
Let's say someone who comes in with a profile of a very active, very
engaging individual at one time in his or her life. They were involved in many
activities. They were very Tai Yang is the way we would describe their
musculature. They were too Tai Yang and caught up in a situation where they
had to decide that they had to slow down, and they don't want to do it. All of a
sudden one day they get acute nephritis. They get optic neuritis, one eye :
becomes blind. They get rushed into the hospital and diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis, MS. MS very often comes because you have all this heat building up
and now the body says "are you going to slow down or not?" Well, if you're not
going to slow down I'm going to make you very Damp. I'm going to dampen
that. I'm going to buckle your knees. I'm going to make you become
incapacitated so that you can't do anything any longer. I'm going to make you
become Damp Heat Bi Obstruction so that you have Wei atrophy Syndrome, a
reflection of a body that tells you to pay attention. You have to slow down. All
of a sudden the eyes, that Ymg that was so engaged in looking at the world, all of
I1l
0 New Fq&dSchool of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
a sudden shuts off acutely and then it manifests in the lower limbs. People with
MS begin to develop first maybe edema, fluid, in the medial aspect and then you
start to see the area around the lateral aspect becomes very mushy, very soft.
There is a loss of tonus and then you feel that some of that muscle is
translocating to the Yin side of the legs, MS.
This is a very crucial part because what is depositing this Dampness into this
area comes from the sacrum, from this whole area around GV 1. Those of you
who have studied the Classics, in the Su Wen remember that the sacrum holds
onto Phlegm/Dampness, Phlegm, which is very difficult to get rid of. Some of
you may already have lesions on the sacrum. That's the indecisiveness that you
have that is already building up to try to slow you down. That's why with these
individuals who come in with early onset of MS, you need to do Gua Sha over the
area, or Cupping over the area, so you Release some of that Dampness which
will then bring back a certain amount of strength, at least on a preventative level,
will prevent them from losing strength in their lower limbs.
While that might be important, keep in mind that you too have to teach them
that potentially the disease they are getting is a response to a life style where
they really need to slow down. For many of us we might think,why should I
slow down because I am not doing a lot? Some of us might think, relatively
speaking, we are doing a lot, while we don't think we are doing a lot, but the
body is telling us to the contrary.
When you look at this context, you have the supporting of the knees, which
allows for the movement of the legs from side to side, making choices. It also
goes along the top of the knees, traveling into Yang Ming, into the Xi CleftPoint
of Stomach, ST 34. Many times we see it going higher and higher into the area of
ST 32, the area relating to the Crouching Rabbit (Point name). This area is
supporting the knees, and this area is the relationship of the knees to the sacrum.
I mean this not in a Kidney or Bladder point of view, but rotational movement of
the knees is heavily related to the sacrum. Conditions involving Damp Heat in
the Lower Burner which are affectingthe musculo-skeletalregion, as in the case
of Damp Heat Bi Syndrome, and MS, is very often related to the sacrum. So the
Sinew Channel is giving you dues about some of these holding areas, Binding
areas, which need to be Released, and that's going to be looking at the sacrum.
From the sacrum it continues to travel up the side of the body, along the
flanks, from the end of the floating rib upward. As it reaches the border of the
breast, if s really at the lower border of the breast, some of us might say LY 14,
but again everyone's breast size is different so you are looking at the lower
border of the breast. You go sideways to that. That's where it begins to wrap
around and come to the front. One part comes up along the sides and continues
to go up. The other part comes around the front and continues upward.
Where if s coming up, if s going into ST 12, so the clavicular region becomes a
major Binding. I mention that as general for the Tendino-muscular Meridians.
Thafs why when you do Gua Sha on ST 12it Releases a lot of Wei Qt that might
be Binding up in the area of the breast You might have fibrocystic breasts. You
might have Wei Qi binding up in your shoulder, frozen shoulder. Any of the
112
Sinew Channels, especially the Yang Sinew Channels of the legs, ST 12 is a major
area.
Then it goes behind the ears and goes on a side-ways trajectory into GV 20.
It goes up to the back of the ears and moves sideways into GV 20. There is a
trajectory that travels down from the apex of the ear as it comes down into the
area that is the meeting for the Yang Sinew Channels, SI 18, or into the base of the
cheekbones before going up into the lateral aspect of the eyes, the outer canthus
of the eyes, the region of GB 1. If s a very broad area we are looking at. In some
books they will have an extension that ends at ST 8, Shao Yang connecting with
Yang Ming. Those are generally temporal headaches that can go into the eyes but
also can go into the forehead becoming Yang Ming headaches. Later on this
afternoonwhen we look at some of the herbal treatments for Sinew Channels
you will see some of the correlations between Shoo Yaw and Yang Ming, and Tai
Yang and Shao Yang, and so forth.
The purpose of the GB Sinew Meridian is to allow bodily choices, movement

from side to side to allow us to go from one place to another, especially relating
to not only the sacrum but also relating to intestinal problems. Alternating
between constipation and diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome can be seen as part
of GB. Sometimes I am able to let it go, sometimes I can't, constipation and
diarrhea, a1ternating situations. Alternating dulls and fever is the Classical
description of what is involved with Shao Yang. When we evaluate this, a lot of
times it will show up in Yang Ming. Thafs why I am making that intestinal
example, because a lot of times Gall Bladder can travel into the ST and from there
create a lot of signs and symptoms of spastic colon, relating to the gut that is. In
other words the fascia lata is the muscle group we are looking at, this whole idea
of bending and flexing the thighs. This whole group of muscles, if you
remember we talked about the GB coming this way (medially), when it comes
this way it moves toward Yang Ming, if s going to have an affect all along here
into the colon. That's how it can affect spastic colon. Someone who has irritable
bowel syndrome might be very sensitive along these ST Points above the knees
and slightly behind the knees. They might have trigger Points, nodules that are
found in those particular areas. That means if s coining from Gall Bladder, not
Stomach. If s manifesting in ST but you have to treat GB to Release i t
You also have where the insertion is going into the foramen, from the
connection at GB 30 into GV 1,from the side of the hips as it goes into GV 1. As
it goes into that area if s going past GB 30. As if s going into that area if s going
inside the pelvis, so what you want to do is palpate the area of BL 31,32,33,34,
palpate that area for nodules. If you find nodules in those areas, most likely it is
already affecting the rotator musdes of the hips. It means when you do the
evaluation, the reason why they are able to go all the way down one way or the
other is because the hips are rotated slightly above the table. Thafs the only
reason they are able to do so. So already we know that there is a holding in the
sacrum. You Release the sacrum, and that compensation from the hip begins to
relax. The whole idea is that if you have lesions on the sacrum, ifs going to
develop into Damp Heat in the Lower Burner. And while I mentioned MS.
which brings to our intellectual mind a more serious condition, it could be
113
@ New Ek&d School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
something as simple as when someone gets Damp Heat in the lower region,
where their legs always feel very hot and burning, and always feel very heavy.
They go to all the doctors and there is nothing clinically significant to say that
there is something wrong with them. There is no inflammation that they are
detecting.
When you are sitting ina chair and you want to move your legs out this way
(separating the knees), sideways, if you tense up your sacrum and you put a lot
of weight on your sacrum, when you by to move your legs out, you're going to
find that if s very hard to move your legs out without your sacrum relaxing.
When the sacrum relaxes there is greater leeway. Tensing up the sacrum means
you are tensing up the gluteus. You can't let the gluteus relax. You push down
the sacrum, squeeze the gluteus and it makes it harder for you to rotate your legs
out. Relax it and the legs can spread out easier. Those of you who have trouble
doing the lotus position in yoga usually have a lot of tension, not necessarily in
the groin which you might feel when you do stretching, but a lot of holding is in
the sacrum.
This is the idea that you have one foot in the door and one foot out. I'm not
sure if I can go there yet. I am not sure if I want to go there yet, very SJwo Yang,
Gall Bladder related issues. If we look at this trajectory, this is very dose to the
sciaticnerve. The whole idea of sciatica, as something that can radiate from the
area of the sacrum, in most diagrams (of the (2%Sinew Channel) if s relatively
small, but if s really a big area here. It can go from this area of the sacrum and
can radiate downward along the side of the leg, sciatica, where you can have
pain, numbness, something that radiates, Heat, Wind, Cold. A lot of times when
you have that radiating condition, because it is in the pelvis, it will affect the BL
Sinew Channel, which, long term, can affect the Kidneys and the liver, because it
affects the Yin Channels, which can cause urinary tract infections as well. If the
urinary tract infection is coming from GB rather than the BL, it will be very
sensitive, not on the popliteal region, but very sensitive above and below the
knees, and very sensitive around the sacrum. If they are very sensitive at the
base of the gluteus, then you know that the urinary tract infection is coming from
the BL Sinew, from the Sinew Meridian point of view.. From a TCM point of
view you can think of many other options for that.
The treatment would involve those major Binding areas. Included in that
would be GB 39,40, and treating the Jing Well Point, GB 44. Also included in this
treatment would be ST 32,34. You might also be using ST 36. Treatment will
include Bl31 to 34. If you are following TCM's approach you would just use BL
32 because it is the most popular of the four Points that TCM likes to use. ,You
have GB 25, the end of the floating ribs as it goes into this region. And then you
have the area of the lower border of the breast, which is very dose to GB 22 in
that area. It's more of a region, not a Point. As it goes up, ST 12. As it goes
toward the apex of the ear before it makes that loop to go down, GB 8. As it goes
up into the forehead, that would be going into G V 20. Then as it descends
downward into the cheeks, into the area of SI 18, as well as into the area of GB 1.
These are some of the major palpating Points if you don't want to palpate the
entire Meridian, these are areas you can look at.
114
@ New England Schoolof Acupunctureand Jeffrey C.Yuen 2003
GB, as it loops around the ribs, is responsible for bringing the ribs up. It
raises the ribs. It opens the intercostal spaces. It spreads the ribs. A lot of times
in martial arts, this is one of the muscles they squeeze and tense up because they
want to keep the ribs dose together so that the muscles between the ribs get
sealed, so that they can take blows to their rib cage without hurting themselves.
When the ribs are open, there is greater likelihood of Internal injury. They
strengthen all these musdes, so when the musdes go in, they go behind the ribs,
so you can take blows to the front part of the body, the sternum and rib cage. A
lot of them will have very tight GB Sinew Meridian issues. They might have
irritable bowel syndrome. They might notice they have sciatica from all those
years of training. They might blame it on the horse stance. But it could come
from the tension that they get in their rib cage. Unfortunately they might get
nodules. Some of us have lesions along the intercostal space. Those lesions
reflect tension that builds up along the GI3 Sinew, some of which is coming from
the sacrum.
As it goes upward into this area, into ST 12, (and over the shoulder) it will
have an effect on the upper trapezius, GB 21. The trapezius affects the chin
muscles. The trapezius affects the shoulder blade muscles. This area, as it goes
in the occipital region and comes up to the ears, going along the traps, this is the
area of chewing, jaw movement. Someone who is "chewing" with their mouth
all the time, will get pressure in the temporalis, migraine headaches. How you
know that is look at an animal that is eating all the time. Look at the skull of an
orangutan. If s indented in because they are always eating. Imagine all of you
talking all the time. Some of you do that, this (area)is being fired. If you talk too
much, you get migraine headaches. If you lock your jaws, you get TMJ. You're
going to get migraine headaches. You might Needle this area to Release the TMJ.
You might also notice that when you Release this area (sacrum) all of a sudden
the TMJ disappears. Keep that in mind. When we worked with Mary yesterday,
we Released the lower region and she talked about it Releasing her headache. So
the lower region can definitely reciprocate in the upper region. You don't have
to treat locally. There are many ways to Release areas in the body.
In terms of the basic symptoms: inability to support the fourth toe, strain or
sprain of the outer aspect of the knees, inability to extend or bend the knees. We
talked about, not really even bending, but moving the knee sideways, is what we
are interested in, sideways, both ways, going in or out. Spasm of the popliteal
region, that spasm they are referring to is where it has spasms that often come
from the upper back, almost like sciatica. There may be strain in the anter$r
pelvic region. This area of the sacrum can be involved, and how the sacrum
affects the intestines, which is why I made the analogy of someone who has
colitis. A person can also have pain along the lateral costal region, pain in the
davicle, pain along the side of the neck or the side of the chest, or along the flank.
We are just descriÂ¥binvery anatomical symptom along the trajectory, which is
very simplistic. One of the things, which you should be aware of, is that it can
cause spasms in the intestines. It can cause spasms that are in the upper thighs,
in terms of the inner thighs. If I lock my knees in all the time, there are going to
be spasms taking place in the inner thighs.
They also talk about when a person turns in one direction, that eye that is
related to that direction, so I am turning to the left side, the left eye seems to get a
pull in it The left eye is affected when you turn to the left. When you turn right,
the right eye is affected. Also related to the GB Sinew Channel generally means
that you have a hard time opening the eyes, that is, looking to that particular
side. The eye that is related to the side that you are looking at has difficulty
opening. Thafs generally what is referred to here.
So migraine headaches, and TMJ are part of GB Sinew Channels as well as
having lesions in the sacrum, lesions in the flanks.
ST Sinew Channel
The ST Sinew Channel has a massive band, that goes upward along the third
and into the second and fourth toe, that travels up the domum of the foot going
to ST 42. From there it moves along the tibia, the shin along the front, the medial
as well as the lateral side. As it comes up, it essentially goes to the Eyes of the
Knee. There are actually two branches here. It goes up to ST 35, the Eye of the
Knee. From there it continues to travel up until it reaches the region of the
pelvis. In some diagrams, it is depicted as one trajectory. It is really two
trajectories that go to the knee and all the way until it reaches the inguinal crease.
So you can say it reaches the area related to ST 30. Also, as it goes up it readies
the area of the GB Meridian, particularly GB 27 and 28. The ST can Transverse
itself here from Yang Ming into Shao Yang.
First look at the lower part of it, primarily around the tibia. The muscles
attached to the tibia are not very massive. They are responsible for bringing the
foot out and for bringing the foot up. Bring the pressure into the dorsum of the
foot, pressing the toes down, that would be part of the ST'S trajectory. As I press
the toes down, if s like I'm trying to stop. I'm trying to break the motion.
Generally when you stop and put on the brakes, it brakes this way but rather
than necessarily always going in, when you brake you are really walking out
sideways. There is that lateral aspect So when you brake, it is really out and
down,sideways and down. ST controlling BL ifyou want to look at it in that
context.
It is this particular muscle that is very often responsible for ballerinas
standing on their toes, as you begin to push down hard onto the pads, and lift up
onto the toes. In ballet what you arc trying to lift up is the middle three toes,
second, third and fourth toes. You're not trying to lift up the little toe. And a lot
of times, as you try to lift up the first three toes, and you squeeze yourself into
ballet shoes, or those of you who love to wear very pointed shoes, you want
these areas to push up, so even though you are not a ballerina, you may love to
wear high heeled shoes. You want to be like a ballerina. You want to raise that
foot up. So what happens is that the toes get squeezed, the foot gets raised, and
the big toe gets squeezed out. You get bunions. Ballerinas get bunions. People
who wear high heeled shoes have bunions. That is excessive stress placed on the
ST Sinew Channel.
116
@ New England School of Acnpnnctnre and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
What happens is that as you are doing this (pushing up) to your feet, you are
not giving the feet the support that you want. As you start to do this, raising it,
eventually this area flattens out. You develop flat feet What is the nature of flat
feet? You can't walk fast. What is the nature of Ymg Ming. It tries to prevent
you from walking too fast. The arch begins to settle down. When you do
something too much, what happens? There is no other option but to relax and
settle down. So even though it might look very bony, you can't walk too fast
with flat feet.
You can imagine already this, (standing on his toes, pointing to the gluteus)
the gluteus. You don't see much in the gluteus component, but when you do
this, it not only squeezes Tai Yang (indicating from the glutens up to the lower
back), when you lift, it comes in (toward GV 1). It pushes things in. It means you
develop more fissures. You have internal piles. They don't prolapse like the BL.
They are inside. You have internal polyps. You may develop intestinal polyps
as the extreme of that. And that all comes from the way you are arching your
feet up.
Very commonly, individuals who have incontinence, if they are squeezing
this in (around GV I), that's pushing right into CV 3. You always feel like you
have to urinate. You'd say "I have a weak bladder." But upon palpation, you
don't really have a weak BL. You have the tibialis being very tight Very often
because it is so bony, it is hard to feel this area, but how you would know that is
that the dorsum of the foot, ST 42, usually is very bony, and around it the
muscles are really tight and bundle up around that. There are bunions. Most
likely if you have bunions, you might already have a weak bladder. You might
already have rectal fissures, or intestinal polyps. You might have constipation.
Not alternating as in GB,but you have constipation.
That's the first aspect, the fact that it goes into the quadriceps, as it goes into
the front of the body, as it moves along the front into the quadriceps. Remember
the quadriceps are responsible for straightening the knees and flexing the thighs.
When you walk up a flight of stairs and you complain about difficulty going up,
or it is hard for you to get up from a seated position. When you get up from a
seated position, Tai Ymg has to move, but then Y a w Ming also has to embrace
yourself. So it holds your body in place as you are getting up. If this area of the
quadriceps is weak, you'll always feel that you can get up but you can't hold
your weight and you'll want to fall down. As you climb up the stairs, it is this
area that tenses to hold your weight. It lifts you up, so that when you find it is
hard walking up the steps, very often it is this area around here (the quadriceps)
that usually begins to have flacadity.
It is those areas that keep you literally wheelchair bound, a lot of times.
Those are the areas you want to Needle, or that region. Look for the area that is
most flacad. You want the Needle to get puckered up in those particular areas.
Because it is responsible for its relationship to the knee,it tries to straighten your
knees. If s also part of why when I get up I can't get my knees to straighten up to
get me all the way up. And then you f e d the weight of everything, the
117
New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Ynen 2003
heaviness, and you always pop back down. What you'll eventually do is hurt
your back muscles by straining your neck. You'll do this to draw yourself up
and then you'll complain about headaches that always are in the back of your
neck. When you are climbing up the stairs you notice those people that have that
posture, when climbing up they throw their head up to have the strength to
climb up. That's all related to the ST Sinew Meridian.
A lot of times when that continues the knees lock in. Locked knees or
someone whose knees are knocking. That could be because of something that
has violated the area of the genitalia. Kind of like the old image of the librarian's
knees. People who wore skirts and are embarrassed that you are looking at their
legs and then they knock their knees in. When you do that you create a lot of
tension along here (the medial aspect of the thighs). And when you do this, the
Stomach goes in, you get constipated. For those of you who study Wing Chung
(?), all this energy (bends his knees and brings them toward each other) gets pent
up in this area. What you are doing is exercising one Sinew always at the
expense of another. Sometimes this is unconscious because of sexual
molestation. They don't want this area to open so they are going to bring the
knees inward.
It continues to go into the region of the pelvis, as we get into the iliacus
muscle, which originates at the ileum (? iliac crest) and extends into the sacrum
(? femur). That relationship between this region and even though you don't see
it there is a relationship to Gall Bladder. You can probably see it better in
Deadman's book where it makes a connection of this going back toward GB 30.
As it goes back to GB 30 it makes a connection with the sacrum. From a
muscular point of view you are looking at the iliacus which inserts into the top of
the femur, the top of the thigh. That area has an affect on the ileocecal valve. If
if s tight, or if it begins to get too tight, it causes fermentation and alters
microflora. If it tightens really quickly, which is what usually happens with the
Yang Sinew Channels, you get sudden low back pain around the sacrum. Also
you feel a little tension along the front of the body and all of a sudden you feel
sudden low back pain. It will also interfere with the Blood that the Stomach that
is said to control. Even though we are looking at Sinews, the Blood is kept from
reaching this region of the head, the eyes. From a Sinew Meridian point of view,
dark rings underneath the eyes is due to a Sinew Meridian insufficiency because
of Excess. A Sinew insufficiency above, because of an Excess in the iliacus
muscle, in the area of the iliacus as it goes from the pelvis into the sacrum. It will
prevent the circulation from reaching the top of the head. When the body tries to
move it up, you get nausea, vomiting. When it tries to get the energy up, but it's
not reaching above, and you get dark rings underneath the eyes. And interesting
enough, it comes in people who eat a lot of raw foods, which irritates the
ileocecal valve. These people generally get dark rings under the eyes and are
inclined to nausea and vomiting which we can look at from a Sinew Meridian
point of view.
From there it goes into the abdominal rectus, so that's a major area, a major
Sinew band. The abdominal rectos, that "washboard" muscle is what holds the
pelvis up and makes the pelvic alignment with the thoraac cavity, the rib cage.
118
@ New England School of Acupunctureand Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
Depending on how you are contracting, consciously or unconsciously, the
abdominal rectus muscle can cause either a squeezing of the Internal Organs, if
you unconsciously squeeze, all the Internal Organs begin to get a astringed and
that can produce a lot of heat in the Internal Organs. Or you can let that
washboard expand out, a potbelly, which means all the Organs get pushed
down, which very often will cause shortness of breath. If this comes down it
pulls the Lungs, and the Lungs can't get a very deep breath. Down does not
mean deep, as I expand this (the lower abdomen), the ribcage contracts. When
the ribcage contracts you have shortness of breath. You see that with Qi
Deficiency pFople, shortness of breath and a lot of Accumulations in the
abdominal cavity.
Thafs why a lot of times you see why the abdominal rectus area becomes
flabby during pregnancy. In the first trimester these muscles actually start to
weaken themselves, paving the way to allow the pelvis, the uterus, to expand. If
this contracts and is very tight, you will have a miscarriage or you will have birth
defects. The abdominal rectus has to relax for pregnancy. The abdominal rectus
has to not allow itself to develop Heat. Yang Ming cannot develop Heat. If it
develops Heat, it consumes Spleen Qi and you have a miscarriage. Stomach
Heat will cause potential birth defects.
Then it goes to the next major muscle, the SCM muscle, as it goes up the
clavicle. You see that there is that side trajectory that goes along GB 30, also
there is a part that goes into the area around GV 9. As it goes to the SCM region,
the SCM is the major mediator between the area of the back of the skull and the
region associated with the rib cage. I should say that it affects the SCM.
Obviously the trajectory is not the SCM muscles. If s more along the thyroid
glands than anything else, or the carotid artery. The idea is that the Stomach will
definitely have an affect on the SCM muscle in terms of the movement of the
head going forward and backwards. Tai Yang lifts up the head, Shoo Yang rotates
the head, Yang Ming brings the head forward and backward especially in bracing
the head, stopping the movement of the head. What Meridian would be
involved when you get whiplash, ST Sinew Meridian. When you get whiplash
you are not controlling wobbling of the head, the ST Sinew Channel is involved.
Whiplash usually deals a lot with that
ST Sinew Meridian is also the contraction of the sinus cavity to allow for
sinus drainage. If the muscles are tight, it might prevent the Release of sinus
congestion. Thafs the whole idea of the SCM muscle and its relationship to the
sinus and its relationship to immunity. The major Point to Release that from a
Sinew Meridian perspective is not ST 12but ST 13. If you want to Release the
sinus region you want to use ST 13in Sinew Meridian language.
It goes to the cheekbones, and then goes to the inner canthus of the eye, BL 1,
making the connection to Tai Yang, then goes to the side making the connection
to S h o Yang (?) at SI 18 (? Tai Yang) at the cheekbones (? Shao Yang).
Signs and symptoms are signs and symptoms related to pain along the
trajectory. I did not want to itemize all that because I did not want to be
119
0 New E n @ d School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
redundant. Pain can be along the middle, second or fourth toe. If you have a
hammer toe that could be seen as a ST Sinew Meridian Excess. If s pulling. If
you have a hammer toe, you bring it to its future, and slowly with a little amount
of resistance, get it to move, move, move and finally it Releases. That's how you
work with hammer toes.
It can involve bunions, pain in the big toe, pain or spasms along the dorsum
of the foot, the inguinal region. You can also have abdominal spasms. Generally
it is abdominal spasms that radiate, Wind, that goes up to the throat so you feel
nauseous, vomiting. As it goes into the area of the cheekbones it can create Heat,
Heat producing Wind, sudden deviation of the mouth, Bell's Palsy which affects
the eyes, and very often can affect the side of the head. It comes from Wind, but
it also can come from Heat It can come from the fact that Stomach controls
Blood. To expel Wind, you have to move Blood. Stomach controls Blood. This
is very different. You are not looking at Uver, which you might do from a TCM
perspective.
It also says that the ST Meridian can produce a condition where the eyes
cannot open. The eyes feel very heavy, heaviness of the eyes, insufficiency of Wei
Qz traveling to the eyes. It can also cause the eyes to stay wide awake, Classical
symptoms of Yin Qmo and Yang QMo. You can always have Counterflow Qi, Qi
Counterflow in the Vessels, loss of voice as it goes into the region of the throat
and also this idea of Throat Bi, throat Obstruction, the sensation like something is
stuck in the throat. So a lot of the Liver signs and symptoms that we think of in
TCM, will be part of ST Sinew Meridian. Bell's Palsy, plum pit throat, pain along
the inguinal/ genital region will be seen as part of ST Sinew Meridian.
Question: [inaudible] ..the trajectory that goes to GV 9 ...
JCY: The symptoms here would be where the person has some type of spasms
along the middle of their back. This connection with the side from Gall Bladder
to Tai Yang is really part of thistrajectory. The person, as they try to rotate the
body, coming from Gall Bladder, into the side of their vertebrae, find that there is
not much movement. They can't really twist and turn their trunk so much.
That's seen usually as a ST Sinew Meridian problem, where it originated in the
Gall Bladder and Transversed to the Stomach.
At the rate we're going, we might not cover all of the Sinew Channels, as you
see I have only done three of the Leg Meridians. What I'd like to do, because I
want to give you more practical applications, is to conclude with the Arm Sinew
Channels of the Yang,and then move into some clinical applications and do
those six Releases that I mentioned yesterday. In terms of the Meridians you can
study that on your own. All textbooks will have that. I just want to remind you
that not all textbooks will have the same trajectory. Changes and the subtleties
are minor, but some of them are minor enough that it will not give you dues as
to why you have those particular signs and symptoms. I recommend that
whatever books you have that have the Sinew Meridian trajectories, compare
them so that you get a better sense of their pathways.
120
@ New England School ofAcupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
Sinew Releases
Tai Yang BL
I'd like to begin by demonstrating some of the basic Sinew Releases. I'd like
to demonstrate a Release from each one of the zones, from Tai Yang, Shao Yang,
Yang Ming, Tai Yin, Shao Yin and Jue Yin. I want to remind everyone that within
the Sinew Releases, there are about a 108 of them. So there are quite a lot of these
Releases. What we are trying to look at are some of the very important ones that
are Releasing the major Sinew areas of the body.
The first one is a Tai Yang Release, which will Release the lower back and at
the same time will Release some of the relationship to the scapula. We'll have
Mary on her stomach. In general, when you are doing a Tai Yang Release, and
with this particular Release we are releasing the paravertebral muscles, and at
the same time, we're going to be Releasing the scapula region as well. What
she's going to do is place her hands back here like this (palm out, at the level of
the lower back). When you have her hands like this you are already elevating
the scapula as compared to this (with the palm against the lower back). She
could also do that (palm in) which would also be an elevation of the scapula.
This one (palm in) is a little bit more demanding than this one (palm out). You
always start out small. The idea here is that someone has trouble raising their
arms (extended, out to the side), and a lot of times it's because it's being held
here (in the upper back). And even though we're putting it into a Shao Yin
position, with the bending of the elbow, nevertheless it is going to Release Tai
Yang. What I'm going to do is have her turn her hands (palms out, at the small of
the back), and you could do both sides at the same time. You could have both
hands like this (palms out). If she lifts up her head, now the whole paravertebral
muscles are being contracted. This will be the future, where essentially your
head is being thrown back and you can't really look forward. At the same time
you can't reach forward. If I push my hands back like this (palms out, at the
small of the back) it means I cannot reach forward either. Notice that when
people do this over time, compensation will be right at the region where the
shoulder starts to come in, and when the shoulder starts to come in, it starts to
come in (contracting from the shoulder forward to the chest) and that contraction
is reflective of the Heart and Kidney. Tai Yang affects Shao Yin. It means that
someone who finds they are having a hard time reaching out to the world might
compensate for that inability to move their arms by having the shoulders come
in. So they always feel pain and tension along here (anterior aspect of shoulder
and upper chest). And that can develop into angina.
Ok, so we'll just do one side here. This would be kind of like the future, it
means I am pushing my arms even further and further back so I can't bring my
arms forward. The whole idea of having the elbows relaxed is that she can adjust
to it if she finds it is sensitive. We're going to bring her back to the past (moving
the elbow forward, toward the table, as she lies face down). This whole scapula
area is going to release. During the time that we're doing this, I'm going to have
her keep her head up. What some of you could do, if someone is having trouble
with that (keeping their head up), you can elevate it by putting a book
121
0 New Ek&d %boo1 of Acupuncm and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
underneath her head. You can always place a book underneath the chin if that
helps to create the contraction you want on the paravertebral muscles. Ideally,
what I would do is put a book and then some type of towel underneath that
(between the book and her chin). What she could do is put a lot of pressure on
the book and the towel so that she creates a greater contraction over this region.
If s already being lifted up. Notice if I held my head up like this, and I push
down on it (against the holding), tremendous tension is created in the back of the
trapezius. You can do this yourself. Put your hand on your chin, press down on
that, and you feel the tension gripping along the traps. That can then eventually
Release the traps, too, if you are doing it in that context. Someone who is always
very tight around there (upper back, between the scapulae, that's what you can
do. Have them go one way (backward), at the same time go the other way
(forward). Just keep on doing that and then, without the book, slowly Release
the head.
I'm going to let you raise your head (to Mary) at your own leisure. You are
going to go into the futureby lifting this like so (moving her elbow behind her),
again I'm cradling her (holding her elbow), I'm allowing this, you can hold her
hands (on top of hers, at the small of the bade) just so that you get a sense of how
her body is reacting and moving. As she goes to the future, which is toward the
paravertebral muscles, it means that she is preventing her arms from even
extending out (forward). As I am going this way I am preventing my arms from
coming forward, thafs the future (going backward) and someone who has a
hard time going this way (forward)means they can't even go out that way (arm
fully extended forward) at all. It means that everything is being held back like
this.
Here (extending his arm behind him), bend it (hand behind back) so that she
can adjust her shoulders if she needs to. Then, as she goes to the future, you're
going to bring her back to the past. She creates a tremendous amount of force
against my forearm (toward her spine), as much as she can. Later on, if I was to
let go, her arms would go that way (medially, toward her spine). Now she is
going to come towards the table three inches (forward), maintaining the pressure
against my arms. Are you giving up? Push me back one. When I say giving up, I
don't mean that she is using a lot of force, but when I feel that she is no longer
pushing my hands, thafs when she is giving up. The force is relative. They
don't have to use a tremendous amount of force. Come toward the table. Take a
deep breath. Come toward the table three inches. You see, now she is
maintaining a steady pressure against my forearm (against the posterior aspect
of her elbow). Now lift me back one. Remember gravity is helping her. You are
not going against gravity. She is really going toward gravity even thoughshe is
going against gravity by pushing against my hand. Come toward the table three
inches. Push me back one. First take a deep breath. Come toward the table
three inches. Push me back one. She is always in control of the movement. You
are not pushing her at all. If you push her you can injure her. She's controlling.
If the body finds it is very painful to do something they are not going to do it.
Come toward the table three inches. Push me back one. Come toward the table
three inches. Push me back one. Toward the table three inches. Push back one.
122
@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 20CB
Let it Release (elbow moves all the way down, or forward, to the table). Now lift
me up and let it Release.
(Moving her arm forward and backward, easily), I didn't show you this
before, but you can measure the range of motion. A lot of times this is where
some people hold their arms (midway within the full range). They can't bring it
all the way back. Now she can do a lot better than me. I can't put my arm that
far back. You Release the whole scapular region of her arms, which is part of Tai
Yfirig If she brought her head up she would also Release the trapezius. If she
had gone UkeThis (flex the toes forward), and push down, she would have also
released some of the gluteus. She is now articulating the Tai Ymg Meridian on a
very physical level. That means I can take it one step, do a little at a time.
Here's the ankle. I can say that she is going to be stepping down into my
hand (cradlingthe ball of her foot), so my hand is resistant. So she is stepping
down into my hand. Remember that the idea of Shao Yang is that when one
presses down (theheel), the other (the ball of the foot) lifts up (when she is
walking). So she is trying to push down with this (the ball of her foot), as this
(the heel) is going to go in (up)like that. That's her movement. As this is going
down (the ball of the foot), it is creating the tension that is along the lateral
malleolus. So I can easily have her go into the future, where she is always
grinding the heel of her foot, having heel spurs over time. She is pushing hard
into my hands (with her heel), and slowly rock it back and forth ("up and
down") where eventually this (the front of the foot) Releases and then you'll find
that the whole achilles tendon will Release.
Someone came to me and they had swelling around the achilles tendon. We
would take that and Release it by having them push down, push (their heel)
against my palms. She is pushing hard in my palms. When you palpate, all
these tendons (in the ankle) will tighten up in this whole area. As she is pushing
down, she keeps that pressure as she comes toward her gluteus (the opposite
direction) one inch. She is moving toward her gluteus one inch and pushing it
back a half inch. If s a small area, so we just do very gentle rocking. Come
toward the gluteus. As she comes toward the glutens, she is squeezing this
whole area (of the calf). If you palpate, this whole area is very tight. She is going
to push me back a half inch. I am not trying to pull her back (toward the
gluteus). I am just holding on to her, cradling her. Push against my hand. You
can see it when she's pressing down. Her whole leg has to be involved. She
would not be able to do that without the participation of the BL Sinew Channel.
And that would Release the area of the lateral ankle. I'm just showing you ways
to Release the Sinew Channel of the BL. .
BL also involves moving things out this way (angling her foot with the heel
medially, and the toes laterally). This way, and you can see that she has a raised
arch already. From that perspective there are a tremendous amount of issues for
her where it is going into the ST Sinew Channel. Everything is going into the
dorsum that is raised in here.
123
1New findand School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C.Yuen 2003
You can have her turn her feet like this (as described just above). Now she is
pressing down (with her heel, toward the table) and she is activating this side of
the Sinew Channel of the BL, as the Sinew Channel of the BL goes up (from the
lateral malleolus) and makes a connection with the head of the fibula. If she
pushes hard (extendingher foot), what I would do is put my arms like this (his
elbow on the table, against her mid-sole) and have her push against my arms.
My arm just serves dead weight. I'm not trying to go like this (extending his arm
from the elbow which would press against the lateral aspect of her foot, the BL
Channel)against her. What happens is actually she is coming against my arm,
the future, and she is slowly invited back to the past. Come back toward your
knees one inch, continuing to press against my forearm, and pushing me back a
halfan inch. By providing counter-resistancelike this, we cause her to stay
focused on that (the lateral aspect of the foot). If we did that for five minutes this
whole area (from the lateral malleolus up to the head of the fibula) would
Release for her. The way she would walk would be very different Since we did
one side you might notice that she walks slightly tilted to one side, because we
Released and relaxed one area of the body.
Are you clear how to apply this principle? If you understand this principle
you could come up with the 108Releases they have for the Sinew Releases.
JCY: Yes, that's Tai Yang connecting with Shao Yang. If she had occipital
headaches and it goes into migraines (pointing to the lateral aspect of her head),
you might want to look at that area as a holding area. Looking at her feet, most
of the tension is in Stomach. There are a lot of Stomach issues.
JCY: Right, all the muscles Binding up the dorsum of the foot If s almost like
she is so used to pressing down with these toes, so much that it has caused this
area (her high arch) to become very pronounced. The more you press down on
these toes, the more you are going to be elevating the dorsum of the foot When
you start elevating that, a tremendous amount of pressure gets placed into the
malleolus. You can also see in her that her lateral malleolus, while it is not very
pronounced, the medial malleolus is less pronounced. When you have a lesser
pronounced medial malleolus, relatively speaking, because most medial malleoli
are generally less pronounced than the lateral, in some people you'll see they
have virtually no m e bone (medial malleolus). That means calcification to help
support their weight. Where that calcification is going is right into the dohum of
the foot
Now we are going to do another one. This one I woudn't recommend for
everyone to do initially, because not everyone is ready for this kind of Release. It
is the Release of the occipital region as it goes into Tai Yang, since she had Gua
Sha in that area. What you would do is have her lift her head up. You place your
fist underneath her chin (with her chin on the back of his hand, and his fingers
curled underneath). She is not going to be pushing down on your hands so you
124
don't need to worry about her hurting your fist She is going to be going the
other way (posteriorly). That's the future. You are cradling the head (he places
his hand on the back of her head). She is going to push back against my palm.
I'll know if she is cheating, because my fist is underneath her chin. What I am
going to do is have her maintain pressure against my hands. Take a deep breath.
Come toward my fist, half an inch, maintaining the pressure against my hand (at
the back of her head). Sometimes you can do this with her lying on her back,
and it is a little easier. But what I'm doing will also will Release i t She is
controlling the tension. If she finds that it is causing too much tension, she can
always stop 3..Now come towards my hand, my hand is becoming a palm now,
and then slowly I am rolling my hands away from her chin. I am maintaining
contact with her chin. You can have your fingers underneath her chin. Chin
musdes control the eye muscles at BL 1. Come down toward your chin one inch,
then push me back (thepalm at the back of her head) a half inch. Do this
constantly with a rocking motion. What we are really doing is gently rocking her
head back and forth (forward and backward). She is doing it, I should say. Now
she is getting to the point where the muscles want to spasm. At that point you
can say "Release", (and her head drops forward). That's a Tai Yang Release. I
was going to show you just one, but I showed you a few of the techniques that
relate to Tai Yang.
JCY: Generally when you want to Release the major zones, like Tai Yang in
this case, you want to Release the major Sinews, like the paravertebrals. This is
one of the major ones.
JCY: The idea by doing this is that I am releasing BL and SI at the same time.
If she did the rocking of her head by herself, now that she is programmed, as she
is doing this herself, over time she will learn to be able to relax those areas
herself. The more you do it with them, the more they learn how to control those
musdes. Every time she thinks about tension in her neck, she just has to think
about those exercises and those areas become like jello. They will just relax for
her. That's where you empower your clients. Generally speaking you don't
have to do all of them. You want to do the major ones. Remember, that's done
after we do the evaluations of GV 4 and GV 14.
JCY: If a person can't move at all, thafs Jue Yin, complete paralysis. We'll
demonstrate Shao Yang right now. Shoo Yang deals with strokes. I'd like to get
Marty to come up so we can work on his hips.
Shao Yang G B
Please lie down on your back. Before I Release your hips, I'm going to do
some other work. Remember the GB Channel starts on the fourth toe, and it
125
@ New h g k d School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
comes up. As it comes along the side of the legs, it wants to embrace the knee,
trying to get the knee to invert inward. You can see with Marty that one of his
legs is out this way (the left is tilted laterally) and one is this way (the right being
tilted laterally). So already we know that there is greater ability to go out this
side (for the left to move laterally), but there is something that is restricting this
foot (the right) from turning out. That means that this would be the future for
him (moving the right foot medially), where he can't turn it out. This represents
his ability to go both ways (demonstrating with the left foot). But here (on the
right foot), there's something holding there. Part of the GB Sinew Channel is to
be able to move in,and also to move out.
So what we would do is have him go to the future (moving medially with the
right foot), and slowly bring him back to the past. Think of GB as windshield
wipers, that you are able to go back and forth with your feet. By Releasing here
(at the foot), we're going to move up to the hip area and Release the hip. I am
going to be dead weight (on the medial side of his foot). I am basically having
him push as hard as he can against my hand (his forearm is flat on the table,
against Marty's leg, and his hand is against the medial aspect of his foot), and as
he is doing it, I am going to ask him to do it, concentrating on the push coming
from his knees. He could push like this,pressing down with his toes, or using
his ankle muscles to do so. But, I'm going to ask him to go like this (moving
medially) into me, so his whole hip and knee is involved, and then we are going
to slowly bring him back to the past. I'm going to provide the counter-resistance,
with my arm here, and my hand here (on the medial aspect of Marty's foot, as
described above).
I'm going to ask him to push as hard as he can against my hand, with the
rotation in the knees and hips. In fact you could do this (placing his forearm on
the medial aspect of the foot, and his hand on the lateral aspect) if you want. As
long as you feel he is creating some degree of resistance. Then I am going to ask
him to come to the other side of the table (laterally) one inch, while maintaining
pressure against my hands, and push me back half an inch. Keeping the pressure
that you're pushing against me right now, come to the other side of the table
(laterally) one inch. As he's moving that one inch, I'm going to come into
(follow) that one inch. And push me back a half. Come toward the other side of
the table one inch. Push me back a half. Come toward the other side of the table.
Keep the pressure on me. One inch. Push me back a half. Come toward the
other side of the table one inch. Push me back a half. Come toward this side
(laterally) two inches. And push me back a half inch on the other side. Come
toward this hand two inches. Push me back half. So you are always maintaining
pressure on that side (the medial aspect). Come toward me two inches (JCY has
repositioned himself to the lateral side). So what I am doing is always reminding
him about the other part Right now I am having my hand like that (with his
forearm and hand along the lateral aspect of the calf) reminding him about his
knee. Push me back a half. I can feel the contraction in the knee. His hips are
not really participating that much, but we'll get that to participate a little later on.
Come to this side of the table two inches. As he goes two inches, my body is
following him. I am not pushing him two inches. I just want everyone to
remember that, because when you do that, you can injure someone. You just
126
have to move when he moves. Thafs why I made the analogy to Push Hands (as
in Tai fi). Push me back one. Come toward me two inches. If s beginning to
release. You can almost feel that there's something "jello-ing" out. Push me
back one. Come toward me two inches. Push me back one (medially). Come
toward me two inches.
Now there's another level of Release that he just made. Push me back one.
Some of you can probably see that his foot is very changed. Come toward me
two inches. The key here for the clinician, is patience. For some clinicians this is
already too long. Push me back one. Come toward me two inches. Push me
back one. And let it Release (drop laterally toward the table). Let it relax. Now
you can see the right foot is angled further out than the left one. How are you
doing? I saw you moving your hands. Do you have tension here (pointing to the
abdomen)?
Marty: No, I was feeling it more in the sacrum area.
JCY: If you think sciatica is from GB. It could be from BL. What I wanted to
do, for demonstration purposes, is to show you Shao Yang, where we were
Releasing his knees. Where we want to Release this part of the knees where the
GI3 goes in (to "embrace" the knee) and then by Releasing that, we want to get
eventually into the hip.
Now we are going to Release his hips. Now bend his (left)leg. He's going to
cross his legs (right leg over the left at the knees). Notice, before he had difficulty
turning his (right)foot that way (laterally). So this will be the future (medially,
toward Martyrsleft), and this will be the past (laterally, toward Martyrs right). It
was hard for him to rotate this part of his (right)hip to go that way (laterally).
So it means over time the hips will go that way (rotating medially), which will
cause the ankle to go the same way. The ankle is always a reflection of the hip.
What we want to do is Release his hip and bring the hip this way (laterally) .
He's going to go to the future, this way (medially), as we pull him back to the
past, the other way (laterally). He's going to get this part of the hip (the left hip)
to help him. As he crosses his leg he's going to feel the weight of this leg (right
leg) settle down into the other leg. His right leg is putting an amount of pressure
on the left leg so that as he puts pressure on it, the right leg and foot is going to
go down, as we lead him in the angle that is going across.
I'm going to go to the other side (Marty's left). He's going to go to thefuture,
very similar to the Release that we saw yesterday with the two legs apart. But
once you cross the legs, you're going to be working a lot more on the hip area,
and you're also working on the area of the spine.
I'm going to ask M a .to push against my chest (toward Martyrs left side)
with his legs. When he does this, he is obviously tensing upf because right now
his right leg is overriding his left leg. He can't use much of that left leg on me.
He's also going to bear the weight of his right leg on top of his left leg, so that
127
most of the muscles that are contracted are going to be coining from his pelvis, so
there is going to be some contractions in the front of the body, as well as from his
hips. This also will Release some of the Yang Mng issues as well. So as he
pushes against me as hard as he can,I'm also going to ask him to bear weight
down onto his left leg, maintaining pressure against me, he's going to come to
the other side (Marty's right) three inches (JCY has his right arm wrapped
around Marty's knee, extending to the right side of the knee, while he is sitting
on Marty's left side). Come to the other side, take a deep breath, maintain your
pressure against me, and maintain your pressure down into this left leg so you
might feel that this left leg is forced down, and the left heel might slide forward.
Maintain that, pushing down through the other leg. Come back. Keep the
pressure. Come toward the other side (right) of the table three inches
maintaining the pressure against me. Push me bade one. Come toward the other
side of the table three inches,maintaining the pressure against me. Push me
back one. Come down toward the other side of the table three inches. Push me
back one. Come down toward the other side of the table three inches. Push me
back one. Take a deep breath. Come down to the other side of the table five
inches. Push me back one. Come toward the other side of the table five inches.
Push me back one. Again if you don't want to use your chest, you can use your
hands. Toward the other side of the table five inches, keep the pressure against
my hands. Push me back one. You OK? Come toward the other side of the table
five inches. Push me back one. Five inches the other way, taking a deep breath.
Push me back one. Let it Release, let it relax, let it go. (Marty moves his furthest,
toward his right.)
What we have done is put a lot of pressure onto that hip (the right) to get this
side of the hip (the left) to relax, and now we are going to go the other way, to
get the other hip to relax. The reason why I didnftwant to Release the hip
(right)that is causing him the problem, yet, is that I want to make sure it is not
compensation. A lot of times the GB alternates from side to side.
JCY: His left hip. His problem is with the right, and I Released the right side
of the leg, but what happens is that when the right leg Releases, Shao Yang goes
here (the left hip) and then it goes there (the right hip). I don't want to do all
work on one side without doing alternating sides. That's the reason I did that.
Now we're going to work on the other hip. Now we cross this leg over (left
over right) and we are going to have him go that way (right). That's the future,
to bring him back to the past. Is everyone dear about strategies? Now he's
going to be against me this way (JCY sitting on Marly's right, with his right hand
bracing the left knee, and his left hand placed at the right knee), so this is going
to be easier for him because he has the weight of this hip (his left), which we
already released, so it is easier for him to put more pressure against me. While
he is putting pressure, I also want to remind him that he wants to be putting
pressure down into the opposite leg. Take a deep breath, and as he takes a deep
breath he is going to the opposite side (left) three inches. As he is going to the
opposite side, I am just following him. Then he is going to push me back one.
128
He takes a deep breath, goes to the opposite side three inches. Then he pushes
me back one. Inhale, move to the opposite side three inches. This time as he is
moving I'm just weight going into his legs, and then he's going to exhale and
push me back one. Then he's going to go to the opposite side three inches. Push
me back one. Opposite side three inches. Push me bade one. Take a deep breath
down five inches to the opposite side. While I am putting dead weight, 1do
want to remind everyone that you are trying to feel how his body is reacting,
where he is generating the force from. Push me back one. A lot of his force is
coming primarily from his chest. Come down five inches to the opposite side.
He's also stretching out that leg (right). That's why we're having him go down.
Push me back one. Come down towards the opposite side five inches as you
take a deep breath. How are you doing?
The body wants to spasm here. Push me back one. Good. Come toward the
table five inches. Push me back one. Down five inches. His pressure is still
steady against me. Push me back one. Come down toward the table five inches.
Let it Release. Let it relax (JCY leaning over the leg). Lift me up. Release. A lot
of work, huh? Do this for a moment (pull right knee back up, and cross left knee
over the right) and let's just see what is going on here (rocks knees left and right
over a (15-20Â°greater arch. We could have done this in the beginning to see
what's the flexibility rate and how much tension is being held by the lower back.
( JCY has him extend both legs, parallel). It wants to go back to almost a
habituation. That means there's something most likely in the upper part of the
body that's holding on to the hip. Remember what holds onto the hip is most
likely related to the flanks. That's where also he is using most of his effort to
move his legs. What we would want to do now is Release the flanks, the GB.
JC Y: How do you feel in terms of your hips?
Marty: It feels OK. I feel a lot along the GB, the muscles over here.
JCY: Any particular Point? ,
Marly: (indicates a Point on the lateral aspect of the upper leg)
JCY: That would be his trigger Point.

JCY. When you are crossing the legs? What you are really doing is that as you
are crossing the legs, you are trying to cross the legs, and as you are pushing
down you are trying to straighten out the other leg. You are making sure that Tai
Yang is not going to compensate for Shoo Yang. It means that as this
(demonstrating with his left hip) is rotating (forward), to the side, what I am
doing is making sure that this leg (right) is going to go straight, and that it isn't
going to turn with me (the left hip). And that's why I have him push his weight
down into the leg that's underneath (right) and that as he is pushing, he is
straightening that leg out
129
going to bring this up like this (liftjng the right ankle which lowers the right
knee) and I'm going to ask him to go into the future. The future is that he is
turning this way (rotating his right knee medially). The future would be that he
is not able to turn that way anymore, so he has to stay that way, which means
that he is going to be pushing up against me thisway. He's going to be lifting his
leg up against me (JCY is sitting on the table, to Mae's right' behind hirn). And
as he is lifting his leg against me, we are going to go like this (rocking the lower
leg from the knee to the ankle, with the knee staying relatively stationary, and
the a&le moving up and down), so you know what the motion is. So he (his
whole right Gg) is coming toward his knees (as the ankle lifts up), away from his
knees (as the ankle lowers), toward his knees, away from his knees,
toward his knees, away from his knees. But his force will always be toward me,
not toward the knees. Are you clear about that?
Imagine that you want to lift me up. Lift me up from here. See, he's going
like this (separating his knees). If I let go, he's going to look like that (separating
the knees). Is everyone familiar with where his forceis? As he does that' I am
gomg to ask him to come' maintaining pressure against me, come toward his
inner thighs, one inch and then lift me back a half inch. So as he comes to his
inner thighs' I am going to help him by lifting up his (right)foot. Move toward
your inner thighs by rotating your knees, by going like this (lowering the right
knee, as the right ankle is raised). While he is doing that he is keeping his head
up. I h o w it's a lot of work. You don't have to lift it very hi6h, just the intent to
bring your head to your hip- Come toward your inner thighs three inches. Push
me back one. I 'm not mnsciously pushing down on him. I'm only dead weight.
I'm actually guiding him,so when I say go toward your knee, I am almost lifting
this (his right ankle) up to guide hirn, so he's doing it himself but I atn following
him along, to remind himI and then he's going to come back up toward me
(lifting his right knee) and then he's going to come back this way (lowering his
right ankle).
When I let go, see (his whole right leg lifts away h m his left leg), that's
where his mistance is. He's Qing to go like this (rotating the right leg laterally).
What I'm saying is that the motion that we want is this (rotating the knee
medially). And he lost that motion so he has to go like that (rotating the leg
laterally). So he's doing what we were doing before, like that (rotatingfoot and
leg laterally)Ibut now we are tricking the mind. Since he is (still) having a hard
(time rotating laterally), he did do it, but then he went back (habituation)- So
what we are doing now is, ''ht's have you go that way (medially) again, but this
time' instead of having him go this way (medially with the right knee and $oat)
we're having him go that way (laterally with the knee and foot). So maybe it will
trick his mind to go back this way (medially).
His foot is doing this (lifting his right ankle), while he is trying to go in like
this (lowering his right knee)to his (left) thigh. He is going right into CV 2' that's
why it is a LV/GB stretch So he's going to come toward his thigh. And then
he's going to push me back one. He's Releasing CV 2. Go toward CV 2 because
when you go like this (pulling medially on right thigh) and you squeeze,
everything is going toward your p e ~ e u meverything
, is going to you pubic
131
@ New E%gbdSchool of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Ywn 2003
bone, provided that the knees are relatively high up (pulled up to level of navel).
If the knees are relatively down, you're not going to get that. Now come back
and then Release (collapse whole leg), Release your head too.
This (rocking the right lower leg, lifting and lowering the right ankle with
the knee relatively stationary on top of the left knee, so that it rotates the upper
leg at the hip) is what we're trying to get at. Some people, when you bring them
closer (the knees toward the Aest), they are able to lift (the right ankle) higher.
The closer you get the more you'll get that stretch to go higher. As he brings
them (the knees) even higher, you will see that this (the ankle) will go higher.
The more you bring them (the knees) toward the navel h e , the higher this
(lower)leg is. And the higher you get this (the right ankle), the more you are
going to Release the flanksf the ribs. (Marty points to the lateral aspect ofhis
right knee.)
So he's feeling a lot of tension in the area of GB 34. We can also have him lilt
up his head to cause a lot of pressure here (in the flanks) to build up. That's
basically means that as he is doing this (lifting his head), he is going into the
future (in the opposite direction, down toward the table), pushing this way
(toward the table, Martyfsleft side) as you bring him s~owly,slowly, slowly this
way (toward Marty's right side). And that will Release the whole (322 area, the
whole flank Releases, complicated, 1 know.
I'm going to have him flip over on his stomach, and have him do one more.
Since this is the area (right hip) that's causing him the discomfort, I want him to
turn his head to the leftf and have his right cheek resting on the back of his left
hand. 2 l . b is also a S h o Ymg Release, in relationship to strokesfparalysis. The
assumption is that we are paralyzed on one side of the body. We can only move
one side of the body. My assumption is that he can only move the left side of the
body. He can't move his right. The right side is constricted. There is limited
motion on the right side.
So I'm going to ask Marty to first b ~ upg(back) his (left) elbow, so that it
comes up like this. Then hersgoing to breathe out and relax, a very simple
movement. He is just lifting up his elbows, exerasing the scapula, and then he's
going to relax. One more time, he comes up, then he's going to relax.
Now I'm going to ask him to do the same thing with his head. He's going to
take a deep breath, lift his head up off the table, and he's going to look over his
left shoulder. Then he's going to relax, and bring that back down.
Again, brvathe in. Look up toward his left shoulder, then breathe out a n d d a x
again. One more time, breathe in. Lift up. Taok over his left shoulder. Exhale,
and he relaxes.
Now I am going to ask him to do the same thing, but as he breathes in, he's
going to use his hand to support his head. He's going to bring his hand (up) to
lift up his head, to look over his left shoulder. Then he's going to breathe out
and relax. Now he's going to do that again. (JCY points to Mhrty's right hip
contracting.) He's going to breathe in, looking up over his left shoulder. Then
132
@ New Fagland School of Acnpmcture and Jeffxy C. Yuen 2003
he's going to exhale and relax. Now I'm going to tell him to extend as far back as
he can to look over the shoulder, a he breathes in. Notice he is already
unconsaously moving the opposite (right)leg, an area that we thought could not
mow at all. The brain is firing impulses to that leg. He's looking over (his left
shoulder). (Ilhe were standing) what's going to be the stabilizing foot (as he
looks over his left shoulder, to maintain his balance)? If I
'm going to go like this
(looking over his shoulder) noticer this (the foot on the opposite side) is what
stabilizes you. I'm not going to fall over. So when I look to one side it is the
opposite foot that stabilizes me. This (pointing to Marty's left shoulder) is the
side he can 5ove. But if I do this enough, causing impulses to fire, they are
going to go to the leg that is paralyzed, smding messages to that leg to start
moving again.
Now he is aware that he was unconsciously moving the (right)leg, so I'm
going to ask (of) him,that when he takes a deep breath, and breathes inr he's
going to lift his (right)leg up off the table, and with that, to create a tremendous
amount of stretch (contraction). He can actually feel my hands now palpating
the whole paravertebral region. This area is relatively relaxed (the right side of
his mid to upper back). This area (the left side of the back) is all banded up now.
Then as he exhales, relaxes and Releases, this whole area (the left side of the
back, and ? the right leg) relieves all the way into the tabler and begins to sponge
back out again, GB from one side to the other (pointingfrom the left shoulder to
the right hip). Why Gall Bladder and strokes? What is GaIl Bladdefs connection
to the Curious Organs, the brain. It's one of the Curious Organs. Thafs why I
said that if someone had a stroke, you're going to be working with GB.
What happens in the context of the stroke, if I put pressure here (on the left
shoulder) and I am resisting his movement, as he is going this way (lookingback
over his left shoulder), I am also going to ask him to create the counter-resistance
going back the opposite way (pressing against his own hand under his cheek).
He wants to go this way (up and back), but at the same time he's thinking like
this (pressing against his own hand under his cheek). With that wobbling back
and forth., the brain is going to be firing comtantly, and that's going to send a lot
more messages to that leg. So that this is going to rehabilitate someone who has
a stroke. I teach this to physical therapists. They do this with stroke victims.
They always report back that they get the most notable effects much faster than if
they just did physical therapy.
Question: Would that help with MSr if you did it with both sides?
JCX Yes.
Questiom What if they had a stroke and couldn't use the right arm?
JW Remember the whole idea of the Sinew Channels is that if y m don't

activate the legs, you can't activate the arms. So you have to first get the legs to
move. When they start feeling sensation in the legs, it's only a matter of time
before the hands will start to develop greater capability. Once you get that (leg)
133
@ New EingIand SchooI of Ampunchire and J e f f ~ yC Yuen 2003
to move, you create counter resistance on that leg that is moving. As you put
counter-resistance on that leg that is moving, it's going to go back into the arm.
Question: So in this case it will affect the arm on the same side?
JCY: Yes. In that case he's going to turrt (hishead) over, and he's going to
look the other way. He's going to have the other (right)arm back there. And
he's going to move the leg that he has rehabilitated by lifting it up, and so forb.
It is going to start tensing up these (on the right) paravertebral muscles and is
going to tent%up his spine (pointing to the flanks), because it's really stretching
out like this (demonstratingwith the right arm raised and bent at the elbow,
pointing to lateral aspect of the chest on the right side). And then he's going to
start having sensation going back to the arm.
Question: When you had him raise his (right) leg, ...... (?) .... would you support
his leg?
JCE Right now he is doing it himself. Let's say he is having a lot of pain
dong here (pohtting to the area between the ribcage and the pelvis on the left). If
1 want to Release that, then 1want to create resistance ihere (pointing to the right
leg). What I really want now is to create resistance here (on the left side between
the ribcage and the pelvis) so I can help him open up his (right) hip. It is going
like this (indicatinga diagonal line from the left flank to the right hip). That's
why I had him do this (lifting his left elbow backward and up) so he would get
familiarwith this movement of coming up. So he has been programmed already-
and we're going to have him point his toes like this (extendinghis righi toes).
Imagine he is pointing his toes out, and as he does so, what I am going to have
him do, remember he was lifting it up, 1 am now going to ask him (his left elbow)
to go down. He's going to go down (the "fu~e''), and he's going to try to go
this way (liftmg up, the '*past". So to help him, the (right)leg is going to want to
get involved and the (right)hip is going to want to get involved. That's the only
way he can get to ihis (left) side, he has to get through the hips. He can't get to
the sides by coming here (to the right shoulder) and just going like that (crossing
over to the left shoulder). This goes like this (indicating a diagonal line from the
left shoulder, down to the right hip, extending down the right leg), GB always
goes from side to side.
He's going to press down into the table (with his left elbow). It's almost like
he canit lift up any more. IÂ he can't lift up any more, that's the future (down).
That's the past (up). So he goes into the future. What I am going to ask him to
do is press down on the table, and come up from the table while maintainihg
pressw toward the table. My hands (onehand placed on his elbow, and the
other hand on the back of the shoulder) are just feeling what he is doing. It's
harder to create counter-resistance d e s s he is turned over. Push me back. Push
back down to the table one. Come up toward the scapula. My counter-resistance
to him is going to be my arms (JCYptions his arm between Martyrselbow and
the table). I am cutting the gap. Continue pushing against my hands. Come up
towards this scapula two in&es. Push down one. Keeping that pressure that's
pushing down, come up here two inches. Push back one. Come back two inches
(while JCY follows Marty's movement upward, with his arm under Marty's
elbow). Point the toes. Lift the foot. Push back one. Come toward this
(indicateshis scapular region) two inches. Back one. Let it Release (dropping
both the right leg and the left elbow). This is good already (demonstrating
relatively free movement of the left shoulder, lifting and dropping the elbow).
You can see this. This is Released. See how this is (lifting and dropping the right
leg). Just let it go.
Normally what you do when you are doing this (lifting and dropping the
right leg) yoti want to see how much it ripples here (in the right hip) and you see
there is still a holding area (massagingthe lateral aspect of the hip). The reason I
am saying this is, when I lift up his foot and I do this wobbling (holding the
entire right leg, and shaking it slightly up and down, as well as slightly from side
to side), what I am trying to get at is, where am I feeling that the rippling begins
to stop. If s going to be right here (around GB 30). That becomes the Point that
you will now treat with the Chiseling Technique. You will Release it with GB 44.
You will treat the A h Shi Points that he found for us, like GB 31. And you will
treat what he felt in the flanks on the same side with the Ah Shi Points as well.
JCY: How do you feel?
Marty: Lying down like that, it feels fine. But in the process of getting off the
table, I can still feel it right in here (lateral aspect of his right hip). It has been like
that for the past week.
JCY: Still holding there. You can also see there is a certain degree of
compensation there (pointing to the right shoulder). He would still do the basic
Release, is that Release (rotating the right leg laterally). You actually did really
well. And then all of a sudden, after we did the hip, it went right back (the
limitation of movement for his right foot turning out, laterally). So we have to
work that out.
Marty: I had a question about doing this myself. When I was trying to think
about when it was bothering me the most, it has been when I'm standing, rather
than sitting, and mainly just moving forward, not moving sideways
JCY: So if s coming from Tai Yang. You have to Release Tai Yang. You need to
do what I was doing before, with her. That means if s coming from Tai Yang.
This (the lateral aspect of the right hip) is the A h Shi,but if s coining from Tai
Yang. It means you have to Release Tai Yang. When you did this on your own,
was it able to Release in terms of GV 4 yesterday?
Marty: Partially, but the hip didn't release.
JCY: Do the Tai Yang Release with the feet that we talked about.
Marty: Doing the Acupuncture with it would probably make it more effective.
JCY: Doing the Acupuncture from the Sinew point of view it would be. From
a massage point of view, they would say no, the Releases will get rid of i t
135
1New Ehghd School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
Yang Ming, do we have any volunteers? (Gay lies down on her back.) With
Yang Ming, remember, it is the whole abdominal rectus that we want to Release.
What you are trying to get at is making this area (indicating the lower abdomen)
very tense, and then releasing that (pointsgenerally to the upper abdomen). The
easiest way of doing that (positions her so that her knees are raised with the
knees together) is knock-knees. When you knock your knees together, this area
(lower abdomen) begins to tense up slightly. And then, she is going to cross her
arms like this (across her chest, with each hand on her opposite shoulder) which
means she is tensing up the chest muscles. Her knees are going to be pulled,
knocked together like so. And as you begin to lift the knees up (lifting the feet
off the table) toward her abdomen (fetalposition), like you are doing sit-ups, so
to speak, but with the legs out like that (the feet well separated). That's knock
knees. If I go like that (lifting his knee) and I bring my knees in (angled medially,
with the foot angled laterally), if s tensing up as I'm doing like this. This is now
contracting the abdominal rectus muscles. So press your knees together, and
think of it going into this movement (separating the feet). The abdominal rectus
muscles are slightly tight. If you want to make it very tight, if she lifts up her
head it becomes very tight, but we don't want to do that right now. That's very
uncomfortable, especially if if s the very first tune. If I went like this (with the
knees raised, feet separated, and the arms crossed, holding the opposite
shoulders, with my head in and my chin to my chest, this whole area (the
abdominal rectus) will damp together like a bowl, very Rerz Mai, very
introverted, coming toward your center, ST center, Yang Ming. Everything is
coming in. Everything is squeezing in. We want to relax the abdominal rectos.
This means that as this area is going like this (contracting), and as she is pushing
this way (separating her feet), then if she's not able to do that (separate her feet),
this would be the future (with the feet together). And this would be the past
(with the feet apart). She goes into the future, squeezing her knees together
really tight, damping this really tight, ankles really tight (together), squeezing
the hands really tight. Then she's going to open up to the past.
JCY: This Releases the abdominal rectus, so if s usually for an Excess, not for a
weakness. Weakness would be very flaccid. If if s very flaccid you want to
tighten i t If you want to tighten it, you want it more like where she is knocking
her knees (with feet separated, to start). This will make it tight. It's almost like
there is a different context for that. You all learned Tai ]i, right? Bend yo& knees
(demonstrating at he stands, with feet shoulder width). What does it do for your
stomach. It relaxes your stomach. If I told you to bring your knees together and
bend your knees (with the feet together), it still relaxes your stomach. If I told
you to start having your knees knock together (with the feet shoulder width).
This won't relax your stomach any longer, unless you are overweight, then you
might not notice. It starts to tighten up the pelvic region. Now starts to go down
(sinkingand bending his knees). As you go down and down and down, which is
what she is doing, bringing it (her knees) in (up)and keeping the tension here
136
@ New England School of Acupunctureand Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
(medial aspect of the thighs), it starts to tighten up the whole abdominal rectus
region. As she is doing this (crossing her arms and holding her shoulders) and
squeezing here, this whole area (abdominalrectus) becomes very tight. Those
yogi&who are able to swallow (pull) their stomach in, how they practice for that
is precisely this technique. Practice constantly going down, and as they go
down, they squeeze until they get their gut to go in and up. They have that belly
where you almost don't see the abdominal rectus muscle at all. If s very tight.
What we are doing is the same thing, getting her to come into this (knees and
ankles together) and squeeze here (medial aspect of the thighs) so that we can
eventually get her to strengthen this area here (abdominal rectus). Thafs what
we are doing.
This is going to be where she is maintaining her pressure (medial aspect of
knees). Gravity helps me now (with her knees pulled up, above her). Gravity is
putting weight on her whole body. When I was standing, gravity is going this
way (upperbody to lower body), it is not going that way (from anterior to
posterior). Everything is going down toward her stomach. What you are doing
is exactly what she is doing now. She tries to keep the pressure toward here
(medially at the knees), while she's going to slowly open out (separating the
feet). Do one side at a time. I am just embracing her knees (JCY positions
himself, sitting on the table, to her right). I'm going to tell her to squeeze the
knees together. So she's knocking the knees together. As she squeezes the knees
together (starting with the feet together, and then moving the feet apart, keeping
the knees together), squeeze your knees together, keep that squeeze as you come
toward me three inches (referringto her feet moving laterally, actually doing
both sides at once). Take a deep breath and do that. Come back toward the
knees one inch. Breathe in. Push the legs out, with the knees squeezing, three
inches. Now are the knees touching? Now you got it. Come back one.
At all tunes she is going this way (moving the legs medially). While all the
forces are damping, and sometimes, if you have someone who is very
comfortable with you, you can actually place something in the middle they are
reminded they are always squeezing something in the middle (between the
lower legs). She should be always squeezing her knees together. As she
squeezes her knees together, she is opening toward me three inches (with her
feet), maintaining the pressure of the knees squeezed together, squeezing her
arms against her shoulders, squeezing, squeezing, not her ankles, just her knees.
You're almost like this (pressing the knees together). As you are squeezing them,
on one leg you're going to slowly go out like that moving the right foot out
laterally). Actually if s both legs. Then you're going to come back. And each
time you are doing it, you constantly squeezing so it always feels like it wants to
go this way (medially). Very slow motion, if s like this (keeping the knees
together, and moving the feet laterally, then moving the feet medially, with each
change in direction moving further laterally than medially). The way her toes
are is right (heel at a right angle). She wants to have the dorsum of the foot up.
Some people will hold her like this (with the palm underneath the arch)and do
this (press against the knee with the other hand). This would be traction. IfI am
doing this for colitis, that would be traction for someone who has colitis. She's
doing it herself. Push. Maintain the pressure here (on the medial aspect of her
137
0 New EagIaod School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
arch). If s tricky for the brain. What you are doing is you want to push all your
weight this way (positioningher with her knees andher f eet together). At the
same time you are doing, that you want to go out the other way (separating the
feet). It takes a while for the brain to catch on. If s a challenge. If the brain
knows it, the brain can control it. If the brain can control it, once you program it
into the person, they are able to do it by thinking about it, the motion that is, by
themselves. That's what I meant by biofeedback. Squeeze my hand (positioned
between her ankles). Thafs the pressure you want to always keep. As you're
squeezing this hand, come toward this elbow (placed at her knee), keeping the
squeeze intent. Thafs it. Come up the other way. Take deep breaths with that.
Yang Ming is a very hard, if not powerful Release. So she's pushing force this
way (laterally knee and foot), she's coming toward me three inches,and push me
back one (medially). Push me back one. Coining out toward me three inchesby
turning you leg out, rather than your knee. Come back toward me one. Release
(her.knees and ankles go back together). (Thenhe moves the ankle medially and
laterally, back and forth, in a relaxed manner.) Where did you feel it the most?
She's pressing around the area of ST 30. That would be her holding pattern.
Question: Didn't you want her to keep the knees together?

JCY: If s important especially if you are working both knees. She started to let
them (the.knees) come apart, and s-iwe I was fw i n g on one side, 1kind of let
that happen. But generally the knees stay locked in. As I am knocking my knees
I am really using my abdominal muscles to try to push out the lower part of my
legs. That becomes a Ymg Ming Release. This is, by the way, the most powerful
Release for someone who has been molested. They will generally cry. They will
have a lot of emotions that come out. What you are doing is forcing a lot of Qi,
especially Wd Qj, to go into the lower pelvic region. There is another Ysng Ming
Release in which you basically lift the hips up off the table. When the lifted hips
come off the table, you are putting dead weight against the hips (ASIS). The
person is pushing against your hands, they push and push, it's almost like a
pelvic rock (back and forth). Finally they Release. That whole pelvic region will
then Release. That's a very powerful one for releasing ST 30. Thafs what you
would do as well. Thafs a Yang Ming Release.
Yang Ming Release also involves Releasing the area of the SCM muscle,
because we talked about the SCM muscle. The S W muscle is very easy to
Release, because it is about Releasing the insertion of the SCM muscle at the
clavicle. If the head turnsto the side, you can see the SCM myscle. It is very
pronounced, the whole band. What is it telling us? If she presses her head to
one side of the table, the SCM muscle will be a pronounced. So we want to relax
this area, or we want to get this area more activated. She basically is going to
maintain pressure toward one side of the table, and slowly she is rocking her
head back and forth. She is controlling it.
Lefs say I am trying to Release one side (her left). I am going to ask her to
rest her head on my hands (cradling either side of her head). She's pressing here
(intohis left hand, on her left side, with JCY positioned behind her head). You
138
@ New England School of Acupuncture and JeffreyC Yuen 2003
want to strengthen this (left SCM) so we make it very flaccid, while this (right
SCM) is pronounced.
She's going to press against my (left) hand. You don't say - "use more
force.'' This is the force they can control, thafs the force you want If you ask
them to use a lot of force they could have a headache. As she maintains pressure
against my (left) hand, I'm going to ask her to come toward my right hand,
maintaining the pressure against my other hand. The brain has to kind of figure
it out. Push back down to the left hand one inch. Push me back one inch. You
all can see thfs whole (right)SCM is tensing up. As it tenses up it is going to
allow for that side (left) to -me stronger. All my hand is doing is guiding her.
As I gently touch one side of the head, she is going to go to that side of the head.
As I touch the other side, she's going to come back to the other side. At all times
she maintains pressure on the side where the ear is being touched. Divergent
Channels. (?)
She is using a lot of her chest muscles for this. How I know that is when you
do this a lot, you begin tosense the entire body, whichmusdes arereally
compensating. I'm just rocking her. She's doing all the movement herself. I'm
not pushing her head one way or the other. What you don't want to see is any
pressure from the gut. If they are squeezing from the gut, you know the person
is going to get a headache after this, Running Piglet Qi. And relax. (JCY rocks
her head loosely from left to right, back and forth.) Thafs how you know it is
Released a little.
JCY: How do you feel?

Gay: If s better (pointing to the left SCM). It was tight there before. But I did
feel like I was doing it mostly with my chest.
JCY: What that means is that this tightness is being held by your chest. When
you Release your chest you Release the tightness. By forcing it to relax, you
know where the body will compensate for that relaxation. You will tell us where
-the
-
.. -Ah Shi vf, and @ ~ f
-. . s to be in your chest. ThatPoint will then Rele-
going
the SCM muscle. Most likely if s going to be a Point along the ST Sinew
Meridian, Yang Ming.
Question: Where were your hands?
JCY: One hand was along side of her ear. That's the side that I'm asking her
to put most of the pressure on (left). And the other one (right)is just cradling her
skull. So as I give this side (right) a little squeeze, then she starts moving to this
side (right). Then as I touch this side (left) a little, then she's going to come back
to that side. At all time's she is maintaining pressure where the ear is (left). It
looks like you are rocking her head, but she's rocking herself. All you are doing
is giving her the guidance to do so. A little bit more dramatic than cranial-sacral.
139
@ New Ek&d School of A c u p and
~ Jeffrey C Yuen 24KJ3
JCY: She wanted to work on this (left) side. We wanted this side (left) to have
no capability of anything. This (left SC-M)all begins to sag. Then ,she starts
creating pressure (strain) there (left SCM). When she puts pressure there, it starts
to tense up a little, even though there is a sag. Then she is doing this (moving
head left and right). This area (left SCM) begins to tense up, but as it is tensing
up, as she is going both ways, it begins to also relax at the same time. What
happens is, as it tenses up, that's when you know which musde she is using to
help her tense up. And in her case, I was feeling it mostly coming from her chest.
Sometimes you'll feel like it might be coming from the back. As you are holding
her head, you'll also feel like the back of her head is moving. You know then
tihat they are using the back muscles. Sometimesyou'll feel along the back that
she is damping her teeth. If she's damping her teeth, mostly like the stomach
muscles (in the abdomen) are going to be involved. You know from that subtle
feeling which musde is going to be involved. Those are going to be the Release
muscles. If s not uncommon that the tightness that we find on the SCM muscles,
if she goes to that Point that she found on her chest, if we touch that Point, that
should Release that whole SCM muscles. Just as you might be doing if you are
doing palpation on one area ix@ swing if another Point d l R e l e e that Paint.
If s just that she is telling us what that Point is. We don't have to look for the
Point any longer.
Question: {inaudible]
JCY: In other words, if I turn her this way (to the right), it might seem that I
am making this more tight (left SCM), so I can relax this, which you can do. The
only reason we are not doing that is that as I was trying to get her to relax, as I
was turning her head, it seemed like both S C M areas actually were pretty Â£lacud
That's the reason why. Indeed if you look at it, and you see it really all bundled
up, then you would do it the other way. You would definitely go into it this way
(turned to the right) so this (left SCM) becomes the future, really all tense, and
slowly moving her back to the past. It seemed there was a lot more flacadity in
this area rather than tightness.
JCY: The compensation from the chest is what we would think of as being
referred from the chest. $hthat Point that' s compensating in the chest is that
trigger Point that we would Needle. What Point was that? What area?
Gay: It felt like my whole chest.
JCY: When we were doing the abdomen, it was ST 30,I believe.
Question: How would you work with Bell's Palsy?
JCY: Bell's Palsy of someone's facial muscles? Again, what you want to look
a t is one side is not moving,and .he other side you might stillhave some control
over. So you work on the side that you can control. There is always that criss-
cross. Let's say they puff up their mouth. Usually you have one area that opens
140
up, they can't control it. So fins area (side) that they are able to squeeze, you
squeeze this area more, as you separate ( r e opening the jaw) this area wider. So
as you squeeze one,and separate the other more widely. As one side gets very
tense, it starts transferring to the other side. As that relaxes, all of a sudden there
isatremendousamountofimpulsethatgoestotheoppositeside.Itaddbethe
eyes too. The eyes, again, they have ahard time dosing then-eyes, or if their eyes
are already dosed, they have a hard time opening them. If they have a hard time
opening fee eye, and theeyes are closed, then you fust go to the future. Have
them squeeze their eye even harder. Then you say, "Slowly let that Release a
little." And that way you are- them back to thepast H their eyes stay
open^ then you say *!want your eyes to open even wider? And if they can't,
thenyou stretch their eyes for them a little, But they participate where they try
to dilate both of their eyes. Again, it's from flie future,back to the past
JCY; If this Oeft SCM) is tight, by turning it to erne (flie right) side, you are
making it more pronounced. The tightness means it is drawing it to one aide,
because the SCM anchorsinto the &vide. If s not so much for rotational
purposes,ifs more or less when we rotate we make it very pfonounced.
itttuawi-ritt
Question: [inaudible] * ^i
~ ~ ? * v yid
--..-LA
7
She described it as tight, but evaluationit was flaccid and that's the
reasonwhy I moved it to that (left side, because therewas a flaccidity on that
side. What the gentleman over there was asking (suggesting)before was that we
should be turning (to the right)one side, because yes, that would be the aide that
would bring it to a stateof total tension to Release i t But she was a d d @
flaccid, so even though it was bght it's tightbecause it is already flaodd. Ifyou
have an area that is already flacdd?the body can try to tighten it up, and so she
might have the subjective sensation of tightness, but when you look at it through
evaluation, the musde itself seems by palpation, or by looking, very spongy.
That means thereis an underlying Deficiency,even though they feel the
sensation of tightness. 4 -.
Wa),4^f^t
familiar with Dao Yin exercises will know that these are exercises that basically
were about how you can stretch and make the body become supple through
therapeutic awareness of the movement as you are doing them. They are very
similar to Qi Gong exercises. In fact, many authors would say that the precursor
to @ Gung was Dm Yin # 5 1 . The word ~ a$o you are all familiar with.
This is a term that appears in the Su Wen. The word Qi Gong does not appear in
the Su Wen. It has the character for D m 3 ,"the way," which of course can be
more than just "the way." Underneath it you have the character for Cun $ ,in
terms of a measure, like when you say "This is five Cun from the lateral
malleolus or the medial malleol~s.'~ That's the word you are looking at. So what
you are doing is measuring the Duo as you look at the character for "bow"
3 and the radical next to it, 1, which means "arrow." So as you stretch your
body like a bow and arrow, and Release the body, you are able to measure the
amount of light, the amount of Duo, that's in your body. So Dao Yin was this
early idea of what one might think of as Daoist yoga exercises. They became the
precursor of what eventually became known as Qi Gong.
So as they were stretching the body, and they came to realize certain basic
principles of the Dao, and that principle is Yin and Yang. Which means that if
you take something and you bring it into a state of total tension, Yang, you can
then induce it to become Yin. That's the whole symbol of Yin and Yang. When
something reaches extreme, if s going to take on their counterpart. And that's
what we are doing. We are taking something to the total state of contraction, or
flexion or extension for that matter, and we are trying to return it back to its
opposite end, if s Yh and Yang end. The way we have been doing most of these
Sinew Releases is within a very Yin state, with the body lying down on the table,
with the knees bent, with the elbows bent, so if s starting from the Yin Sinews to
Release it back out to the Yang Sinews.
Some of the participants here have made the association that these exerases
are similar to osteopathic techniques. They might also be very similar to
neuromuscular techniques, to Sotai. They are also similar to Feldenkrias. There
are similarities, definitely. In terms of the actual history of them, they originate
from the Duo Yin exercises. They became Sinew Releases. A lot of it was
contributed to by Martial Art traditions. A lot of Martial Art traditions knew that
if someone had sprained an area, to help heal the area, rather than simply
thinking of compresses, we can bring the area that is very painful into a greater
state of contraction, which does not necessarily mean more pain. In some cases it
did mean initially more pain, so the body released that pain. That was where
they developed some of these exercises.
Yin Sinew Channels
Let's move on and look at some of the Yang Sinew Channels. The Yung leg
ones are the most important. That's why we spent a lot of time explaining them,
according to the Tendino-muscular theory, the three Yang of the Legs are the
most important of the Sinew Channels, especially for acute conditions. Their
trajectories are very elaborate. Their trajectories require a greater amount of
Release than any of the other Sinew Channels. In fact, even though we are just
looking at the remaining Yaw Sinews, the Yin Sinews are relatively simple. They
are not very elaborate in terms of their trajectory. The arms basically home into
the chest. The LU goes in this fashion (offscreen). The HT comes in and
embraces this way, as well as going into the breast bone. This is what the HT
tends to do. The PC also embraces, but it is more above and below, rather than
the entire rib cage. When you look at the LV, it goes up into the area of the navel
as it goes up from LV 1, that is. When you look at the K& it goes up into the area
of the navel, and then it goes into the spine. When you look at the SP, it goes into
the area of the navel ,and then it goes and it loops around the rib cage, so the SP
is connected to the Lungs there. They are relatively simple. The Yang Sinew
Channels are the most important.
SI Sinew Channel
If we look at the SI, you can see in this particular trajectory that is beginning
at the little finger. It travels from the little finger up into the wrist and into the
elbow and into the subscapular region. Where it is trying to make most of its
connection is into the area of the triceps. It is responsible for the elbow
straightening itself out That's Tai Yaw, to be able extend the arms out is to
extend the elbows out. That's the function, primarily, of the triceps, to be able to
straighten the elbows. In doing so, it opposes the biceps. The triceps primarily,
interesting enough, in their relationship to the Small Intestine, further Separates
the Pure from the Impure. What I mean by that is, earlier I mentioned the
Stomach prioritizes in digesting amino aads. While we looked at the ST, we
looked at it in context to the BL Sinew Meridian. We said that the gastrocnemius
muscle is the first muscle that the body will go to if it needs additional amino
adds, because that's the basic fuel of Wei Qi. Fluid is produced by the Stomach,
that goes and becomes Wei Qi. Wei Qi circulates to the Sinews. The first Sinew
that needs it the most is the BL. So it goes to the BL Sinew Meridian. By the time
foodgoes to the Small Intestine, which has the capability of digesting, not only
amino aads, but also it further Separates. It Separates fat and sugar. Interesting
enough, when people have problems with sugar metabolism, they very often
have weaknesses in the triceps. They have flaccidity in the triceps: the triceps,
the Small Intestine, the further Separation of the Pure from the Impure.
Not only do they have trouble in the tricepsl the trouble usually extends all
the way into the latissimus dorsi, into the area of subscapular region as well.
These are people who, when they eat a lot of sugar, they say they feel heavy. The
heaviness is usually in the lower aspect of the arms, in the area of SI Sinew,
Meridian. A lot of times if you stimulate SI 10, all of a sudden the heaviness that
they feel from eating sugar, the Dampness they feel, will disappear. They'll feel
better. They'll feel peppier.
That's the first major configuration we have with SI. The area it Binds into is
SI 6, SI 5. That's one area, so we might just be palpating that region. We don't
necessarily have to palpate the entire trajectory. Of course if s always going to
Bind around the He Sea Point So in this case, like with BL 40, if s going to Bind
at the area related to SI 8, Xiao Hai, Lesser Sea. It also Binds around the region in
143
@ New Englad School ofAcupuncture and Jeffrey C.Yuen 2003
the shoulder area, that is SI 9. That's a major area we might palpate to see the
integrity of the SI Sinew Meridian before it goes into the region of the scapula.
As it goes into the scapula, remember the muscle of the scapula, the
subscapularis, its particular role is to allow the shoulder blades to slide across, to
glide across the rib cage. That's the whole role of the subscapularis muscle, to
allow the scapula to move toward the rib cage. If s also what allows the arms to
be raised above the shoulders. So when I want to bring my arms above the
shoulder, a lot of that is under the auspices of this region of the scapular area.
Again, we showed you how to Release that. If you bring your arms to the back
(with the hands meeting at the lower back)/ you are essentially causing tension in
that area, especially if you push it (the elbows) all the way back. If I push it all
the way back, I am moving the rib cage toward the back. So you can see how, if
someone does a lot of this over time, they can have an "emphysema chest", the
barrel chest. So likewise, if you have emphysema, you want to bring this (the
upper arm) back in (forward)so that this area (the chest) which is swollen begins
to collapse. As it collapses, it collects airback again. They are able to breathe in,
instead of always puffing out air.
Then it moves into the area directly behind the ears, GB 12, the mastoid.
From there it loops around the ears, and if you look at Deadman's book, you'll
see it does not have the loop top and bottom (above and below the ear), it just
has the upper loop. In Tina Song's book, she has both the upper loops that come
this way and the lower loop that comes that way. We can see that if you are
looking the upper and lower loop, it too can communicate with SI 18. Where it
ends is said to be at the top of the head at GB 13or ST 8, depending on which
tradition you come from.
The major component of the SI is that it allows you to reach further. If I

wanted to reach for something and this is where it is, just beyond my reach,
what can I do to make sure that I can reach it. I pull my head back. See that
pulling of the head, from the mastoid? If I bring my mastoid back, notice if I
tense up my mastoid, 1won't be able to get there. Release the mastoid and it
goes forward. Release of this ai-ea allows the arms to have further reach. Now
you understand the idea of why if s going to this area, so it pulls my head back
so I have a greater reach forward. Are there any questions about SI Sinew
Meridian? We could spend one whole day on the SI Meridian. A lot of these
Meridians actually have a lot of information.
In terms of signs and symptoms, as we would expect, there are going to be

symptoms relating to the trajectory: the strain and the inability to support the
little finger, pain along the medial aspect of the elbows, the Yin aspect of the
upper arms and the axillary area, the armpit area. That's because of its
connection as it comes up into this region of the body. You can have axillary
pain that extends over the back, over to the scapula and neck region. There
could be pain, and tinnitus in the ears, that might extend all the way to the
submandibular region, the need to dose the eyes for a while, to get them to
focus, squinting of the eyes, spasm or tension of the neck resulting in atrophy, or
swelling of the neck. SI in Chinese Medicine is responsible for collecting fluids.
That's one of the functions according to the Ling Shu, that it collects fluids. Here
144
0 New England School ofAcupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
if s primarily about fluids that are collected from the facial muscles, or from the
face, that deposits into the neck, so SI can be used to treat goiters.
For those of you who were not in our earlier classes, just a reminder, in terms
of Meridian theory, not Zang Fu theory, Bladder controls the Sinews. Gall
Bladder controls the Bones. Stomach controls Blood. Small Intestine controls Ye,
Fluids. Triple Heater controls Qi. Large Intestine controls ]in, also Fluids. Small
Intestine deals with Fluids that are very hormonal, thick, Ye, thyroids, goiters.
That's why we have that context. They also talk about the Small Intestine as
collecting Fluids from the face.
You can see the relationship between the goiter, the neck, the thyroid, and
the eyes. A lot of times when you squint your eyes, feel where it is pulling on the
top of the forehead. That's where your SI Channel is converging on the top of
your head. It might be GB 13. It might be ST 8. Some of you might feel it
somewhere else. That's the area they are referring to.
Let's move into Shao Yang, Triple Heater.
Question: Would that be used for all kinds of tinnitus?

JCY: With the tinnitus, in terms of the Sinew Channels, if s related to SI if if s
acute. If if s chronic that means you have SI and the Yin pair, the Ht. The HT
would deal with chronic tinnitus. If if s acute, generally it is loud pitched. If it is
chronic it is dull pitched. Generally speaking, they relate mostly to SI within the
Sinew Meridian perspective.
TH Sinew Channel
When we look at TH, what we are looking at again is this trajectory that is
beginning at the fourth finger and travels into the area of the wrist. A major area
where it Binds is around TH 4, TH 5. So you can be palpating that area to see if
that area is very sensitive, rather than palpating the entire Channel. It also
begins to Bind itself at the He Sea, TH 10in this case. The Celestial Well is the
name of that Point. It moves along the deltoid muscles, and as it moves along
the deltoid it is obviously going into the area of the clavicle, traveling into the
Great Bulge, ST 5 and ST 6 region, this area of the face, the Great Welcoming, Da
Ying, ST 5, ST 6 area. From there it travels into the area of TH 23, GB1, around
the outer canthus of the eyes. From there it travels into the temples, and from the
temples it goes up to the top of the head where it meets up with, in most .*
traditions, GB 13, in others it meets up with ST 8. The important thing here is,
while it is not shown in this particular chart, that as it reaches the angle of the
mandible, as it reaches ST 6, there is a branch that separates and goes directly to
the root of the tongue. Then the other part goes to the front of the ear. There is
one that actually goes internally to the root of the tongue. That brings one of the
Classical symptoms of the Sinew Channel of TH where someone has difficulty
swallowing, often referred to in terms of Classical language, as "curled tongue."
So when they say that, it is just a metaphor for difficulty in swallowing.
145
Also the person feels a lot of fatigue, since TH controls Qi. They can have a
lot of fatigue. When you look at this context of TH,they are also looking at the
relationship, even though you are seeing it from the side, that if s responsible for
the rotation of the arms, this rotation of the arms in the shoulders. Rotation of
the arms is rooted a lot in the wing muscles, the teres minor in particular. The
teres minor originates at the base of the scapula, very dose to the spine, and it
inserts into the area of SI 9, very dose to where the TH is coming up into, and it
connects with that. That's what allows for the rotation of the arms, turning the
arms. Generally, you'll find that when you have a TH Sinew Meridian problem,
the person has trouble with energy. They feel fatigued. Sometimes they might
have a loss of appetite. There are always a lot of digestive symptoms. What you
might think of today as Deficient Spleen Qi. They have reduced appetite,
lethargy, weakness of the four limbs. They have weight gain, weight changes,
very erratic. They can generally be more susceptible to lingering infections, the
idea of Triple Heater dealing with Latent Heat, latent infections. That's
represented a lot in the context of SI 9 and its relationship to TH. So that is also
related to GB 21, and remember the idea of GB 12 and TH 17. Those are major
areas that would be useful for someone who is suffering from Spleen Qi
Deficiency as defined by TCM, but as treated by the TH Sinew Meridian.
Anything that is Qi Deficient means that in Sinew Meridian treatment, they will
treat TH, because Triple Heater controls Qi. So they will be treating TH 17, GI3
12, SI 9. They will evaluate and see how things are rotating in the body. If things
are having difficulty rotating, they will Release that by Sinew Releases. They
will also use ST 6, where the branch goes to the ears, but not to the tongue.
There's strain and inability to support the ring finger, pain or strain along the
course of the Sinew Channel, inability to raise the arms, in particular rotation of
the arms, difficulty turning the neck, again rotation of the neck, and difficulty
opening the mouth, the jaw, TMJ.
The other symptoms include difficulty in swallowing or having a "curled
tongue", fatigue, sometimes depending on what text you are reading, they will
add these symptoms in. Just trying to give you the basis of some of those.
Here are these symptoms, all of you should have been able to write, because it is
along the trajectory. The jaw, this is along the trajectory. There is nothing
fascinatingabout those symptoms.
That brings us to the last Sinew Channel in our discussion, at least in terms
of trajectory, and then what I'd like to do is randomly take some cases from
Giovanni and talk about how you would treat it from a Sinew Meridian
perspective.
LI Sinew Channel
U,colon: the symptoms are relatively similar, along the trajectory, spasm,
stiffness, pain or strain along the course of the Channel Sinews, inability to raise
the arms,inability to support weight. They always say that because, again, it is a
translation problem. A certain word can mean something related to the arms
and how difficult it is as the arms are raised. But here ifs difficulty in holding,
146
@ New England School of Acnpnncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
lot more signs and symptoms related to the region that the GB Sinew Channel
travels to.
If you look at Yang Ming, you are looking in particular at the deltoids, just as
we saw with the TH.The deltoid relationship has a lot to do with the collar
bone. It relates to the collar bone as it goes from the collar bone to LI 14. The
deltoid is what basically puts the cap on top of the shoulder. It caps the
shoulders, and a lot of h e s when the deltoid is weak, you have inability to not
only raise the arms,but to support weight that's applied to the arms. When
someone hasweakness lifting something, it is usually coming from the deltoids,
when the arms are extended. Chronic weakness in the deltoids, in this area that
is capping, generally suggests that there is JA moving into the LU, pleurisy. Or
you have bronchitis. A lot of people who have chronic bronchitis usually have
very weak deltoid muscles. Again, a Sinew Meridian undemtanding that
translates into so-called physical diseases.
From the perspective of Chinese Medicine, you would have Hot Phlegm.
Yang Ming deals with Heat. Deltoids being chronically weak means you have
Hot Phlegm conditions. We would say that bronchitis and pleurisy is due to Hot
Phlegm. Those are Western diseases, but you still have to diagnose it within
Chinese medid terminology.
It also goes into the scapular region, that's 51 12. As it goes into the
subscapdaris, that's the muscle that allows the shoulder blade to glide over the
rib cage. So within U,becaw it is Yang Mingr some of the symptoms you might
get wmld be dizziness. What you have is Heat rushing to the head, so you get
dizziness, Heat trapped in this area around the side (andback of shoulder). It
will affectthe Shu Points along the side (of the spine). They can cause
palpitations, bleeding gums, chest pains. In other words/ from a mechanical
point of view, the sliding of the subscapularis will actually exert an influence
over the rib cage, which will then massage the Heart. That's why they can have a
direct influence over cardiova@ar health. The sukapularis is responsible for
arculation to a greater degree, the relationship between Yang Ming of Large
Intestine and Stomach, Blood.
Also the relationship between Large Intestines and Lungs, Metal, and its
effect over respiration. And Large Intestine's direct connection to itself, which is
bodily Fluids, in this case, F l ~ that
d is Hot, that has now become Phlegm, Hot
Phlegm. So when you read some of these other textbooks, espeaally if you read
Chinese ones, they might say that Large Intestine Sinew Channels treat Hot
Phlegm. And you might wonder, where is that coming &om? So I hope tKat at
least explains. A lot of the booksr to be safe, will just give you the physial
symptoms: spasms, stiffness, pain or strain along the wurse of the Channel, or
the course Sinew, inability to raise the arms. We talked about what they are
referring to, not just difficulty raising the arms, but holding something, inability
to turn the neck to the left or the right. So this is very simplistic. It doesn't tell
you about the Hot Phlegm, the dizziness, the bleeding gums, the palpitations.
You should be able to understand where those symptoms are coming from.
Once you understand as it goes here, that it's going to have an affect over the Shu
148
@ New England S c b l of A c n m and Jeffrey C. Ywn 2003
Needling this area with a dull h n t a l headache. Treating thatf and palpating
and probably finding out it's more along the area of GB 1area. Ifs frontalrbut
it's more lateral. We will palpate the epigastric region, and find the sensitive Ah
Shi Points along there. We would also/ at the same timet notice that it might be
moving to Yang Ming because of the red points around the center. From Shao
Yang it might be moving to Yang Ming. Or maybe it went from Yang Ming into
Sho Yang. We don't know that. We do know that there is GB and ST Sinew
Meridian involved. The predominant presentation is, however, Wind Damp.
There is not enough to tell us it is Heatt with the exception of the red dots on the
tongue. So we would treat Sho Yangr and palpate Yang Ming to see if there was
any connection to hat. That means if I am not going to look at Yang Ming then I
d l just use the Confluent. The Confluent Point will be SI 18. I'm going to be
treating GB 44. I'm going to be treating the area of the Ah Shi which is the dull
frontal headache, and that would then treat &t particular condition within a
Sinew Meridian discussion. Are we clear? That's a simple one.
A forty-two year old man was under treatment for asthma when he caught a
cold. He is being treated for asthma. His symptoms included shivering, occipital
headachet sneezing, cough and breathlessness. His pulse was floating. His
tongue was usually very swollen and his asthma was due to Damp Phlegm
obstructing the Lung. He's giving us his asthma presentation.
Here again the shiveringt the occipital headache, the sneezing, and coughing
can be due to Tai Yang, because Tai Yang is occipital. Cold can cause s h i v e ~ g .
Wind can cause that too. Sneezing can be due to Wind. Nothing suggests Wind
Damp except if you look at the asthma aspect, which means that there is
underlying Dampness already.
Coughing would mean that this is no longer mild. This is severe. That
means I am going to be treating BL and SI for this particular person within Sinew
Meridian treatment/ because we have chest involvement and breathlessness.
That could be due to his asthma. The fact that we do have his a s h a as a
complication, we can also say that the Bladderr as well as Small Intestine, might
have moved into Shao Yin, KI and also the m. In particular, it is most likely the
KI. We can say that this Damp Phlegm obstructing the Lungs, from our point of
view, could be due to the fact that Kidneys are not a n c h o ~ Wd
g Qir so that the
Wei Qi gets pent up in the chest, and allows the Fluid that is in the chest to bind
up with the W b Qz, not developing necessarily into Hot Phlegm but just Damp
Phlegm. We know that Wei Qi is also produced by Stomach Fluid. How we
wodd treat this particular condition would be treating BL and SI, and to treat the
asthma part, by adding the KI Sinew Meridian treatment. So palpate BL, SIJand
at the same time treat KI. At the same time we might look at where BL and SI
meett and where they meet is BL ll? the BL 41 region. We might do Cupping on
h t area and Needle that area/ and because of the so-called Wind Cold partxwe
would do Moxibustion on the area.
1 9
@ New hgland S c b l of Acnpmcture and Jeffrey C Yuen XK3.3
At the same time BL 67' SI 1' and palpate the major meetings where it
bundles its energy. Maybe palpate BL 64' BL 40' and BL 36. We palpate all of
those regionsf and if they are tender' and since they are tight' since it is Wind
Cold, we are going to do Moxibustion on those areas. That would be the
treatment for this partidar condition.
Here's ~II interesting one. A forty-five year old man has been diagnosed as
sufferingfrom multiple sclerosist MS, only a few months earlier- The first
symptom of his condition was numbness of the I& arm' tingling of the limbs
and around the mouth, dizziness and heaviness of the head and legs. He also
feels very tired. His pulse was slippery' but also we&. His tongue was swollen
with a sticky yellow coat inside a Stomach crack. That gives us clues as to
potentially what might have been the precursor to some of these issues here.
In this case' we are looking at the numbness of the left arm' tingling of the
limbs and around the mouth' and the dizzjness. What we have is a situation
where Wei Qi is not circulating to the head and to the extremities. If Wki Qi is not
circulating, it is stuck somewhere' either the chest or in the lower abdomen. If
the Wei Qi doesn't a r d a t e to the extremities' you can have numbness of the
extremities. In this casef the left arm' so you might say left is Yang. So it gives
us a few more dues, tingling of the limbs. What is happening is Blood is trying
to bring some of the Wei Qi out there. When Blood moves it out there' and Wei
Qi is resistant to it, you have Defiaent Blood producing Wind. So Wk QI is not
moving. Blood tries to move itt but it's not staying there' so you can have
tingling of the limbs. And of course it's trying to move it to the face' which is
also why it's also around the mouth. Not enough Wei Qz goes to the headf you
fed dcuy. The head of come because Wei Qi is Upright' it Ascends. You feel
heaviness of the head' so it's not Dampnessfeven though with the Pulse in
Giovanrti, he is suggesting it is Dampness' because the Pulse is Slippery. And
the legs' there is heaviness of the head and heaviness of the legs. Wei Qi is also
not travelling to the lower limbs. If the limbs are not getting enough Wei Qi it is
going to feel numb. It is going to feel Deficient, in the sense you don't feel much
circulation. What we have to determine is where is that Wei Qi trapped. It tells
YOU already. There is a sticky yellow coating inside the Stomach area of the
tongue. W~ Qi is trapped in the Stomach. Wei Qz is trapped in the region of the
gut. If the Wei Qi traps itselÂin the region of the Stomach' it depletes Spleen Qi
and it causes Dampness to accumulate' and that's why the pulse appears to be
slippq.
This is a person who probably has a long time history of a Yang Ming'
Stomach condition. Long term would suggest that it's chronic. It's moved into
the Spleen. !3T and SP Sinew Meridian will be used to treat this particular
person. I would be Needling SP 1' ST 45. I would be palpating ST and SP. I
would do Yang Ming Releases on the person. I would do Tai Yin Releases on the
person' to try to gain that energy that is trapped in the Stomach, to move it back
out into the extremities. That's what you're going to do-
151
@ New Fagland School of Acupwhue and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
JCY: Most likely it has been chronic, yes. You might look where LI and St
meet. That would be the ST 12 area and also treat that.
JCY: If I used herbs? No, if you are using herbs, you would use the herbs to
mimic the Tendino-muscular treatment You would be using herbs to open up
Yang Ming,and herbs to open up the relationship between Stomach and Spleen.
In general, herbs that affect Sinew Meridians are herbs that are Spicy, herbs that
are Warming. The reason why Warming, is because Warming mirrors Wei Qi.
What we are doing is redirecting the Wei Qi that is trapped in the Stomach, even
though it might seem that there was Heat in there, we're moving that Wei Qi
trapped in the Stomach, outward.
So the principal herb would be Bai Zhi, Angelica Dahurica which has a LU
ST affinity. It opens the sinus region. It has that affinity with Yang Ming. That's
what is going to bring some of this out. If s going to move to the four limbs. It's
going to deal with the heaviness the person feels in his head. That's not the only
herb you would begin to look at. The fact that if s chronic means it has affected
the Spleen, so what you want to do is open up the middle abdomen and get
some of the Qz moving that is stuck in the middle abdomen, in the area of the
Stomach. In this case you might want to move it, and lefs say you suspect Heat,
so you might use something like Citrus Aurantium, Zhi Shi. Just that Zhi Shi is
not Spicy, if s Bitter and Cold, so you need to add Spicy to it. So the Zhi Shi
would be fried in ginger, which would now give it a Spicy quality, and that will
start moving circulation into the middle burner, and move some of that Heat out
of the middle burner as well.
Here's another one. A fifty-one year old woman has been suffering from
Parkinson's Disease for two years. Her main problem was a tremor of the head,
which she tried to stop by bending her head forward. So she's bending her head
forward to try to stop it, so again what is this idea that controls the movement of
the head going forward and backward? This idea of bracing the head is Yang
Ming. If s the whiplash. So she's bending her head forward. She's bringing it
into a Yin state to prevent something frombeing very Yang. She sometimes feels
that her tremors started from the lower back, running all the way up the spine to
the head. Apart from this, she had few other symptoms. She felt tired easily.
Her vision was sometimes blurred. She has been prescribed drugs, which
produce side effects, such as dry mouth and tunnel vision. She is a very tense
person with a very strong sense of responsibility, probably deriving from a very
strict upbringing. Her tongue was Pale and Thin,while her Pulse was Choppy.
From a TCM point of view, this is going to be seen as a Blood Deficiency with Qi
Deficiency, and they are thinking of Parkinson's, as related to tremors ,with
Liver.
152
fm
From our point of view, first of all, as sheisbeing described/the condition
seems to start from the lower back, nmning up the spine to the head. So that can
suggesttous thatweatelooking ataTaiYmgcondition, theBL. TheBLalsoas
it goes to communicate with its Tin Ymg pair, the Sir She feeb tiled easily and
her vision is sometimes blurred. That still, to us, could be part of BL BL goes to
(he eyes, so it has nothing to do with LV. You wouldn't necessarily think of it
as LV. The fact that she has had it for two years would mean that it involves the
Yin Channel as well, the HT as well as the KI, To*Ymg relationship to Shoo Yin,
BL, KI,St and HI". They give us the side effects of the dry mouth and the tunnel
vision, but again w e will want to treat that Justbecause they are taking drugs
doesn't mean that we don't treat that, because it is still an adverse reaction.
The person tends to be very tense. That tension that they are feehng could be
Wei Qi going into the Heart causing a certain degree of irritability, causing a
certain degree of restlessness, even though they tell us feat the tongue is Pale and
Thin. The tongue is Pale because Wei Qis i trapped in the chest When Wei Qi is
trapped in the chest,what happens with the External presentation? You're not
going to see much. WeiQt that is trapped in the chest can cause the tongue to be
Pale. Win Qitrapped in the chestmight cause the area in the front of the tongue
to be slightly Red. He's not describing that here. He's also saying that the
tongue is Thin. Many of us thinkthat is Blood Deficiency. But Thinness can also
mean that Blood is not circulating to the extremities to create .,.,and that can be
WCT'Q;trappingBloodfrommovingfromtheHeart.Itcancausethetongueto
be Thin as well. This could also make her Pulse become Choppy' rather than
thinkingofChoppybeingaBloodDefidencyPulse.Sohowwewouldtreatthis
particular person is we would palpate the H
12. If we Release the Wri Qi
I',KI, SI/ BL. We would look at
where they meet HT and Kt meet around the throat BL and SImcet around SI
the chest, then that will brhg drculation all the
way back to the extremities, in particular Blood, to contain the Wind that is
shaking at the extremities,,Parkmson'sDisease. Blood is not going to the
extremities, and as a result, it cannot control the Wind that is trapped on the
extremities. That Wind comes from TaiYang.
You can take any of these patterns that you have in TCM and apply Sinew
Meridian treatments to i t And I guarantee ym?l get, if not better, the same
effects as you would get with TCh$ provided you did the Sinew Releases,
especially GV 4 and GV 14. If you don't do that, Oven you can't get Wti Qi to
behave the way you want it to behave, because there is something blocking it,
namely the two major centers, Â£> 4 and Du 14. -
I guess we're going to end at this point I had other cases,but you can look
at any cases, and should be able to come up with the same, or similar analogies.
B Sine
BL Sinew Channel
ST Sinew Channel
LI Sinew Chan
SI Sinew Channel TH Sinew Channel

P Sine
w Channel
PC Sinew Channel
HT Sinew Channel
Sinew

Treating Headaches with Meridian Release Techniques

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Treating Headaches with Meridian Release Techniques

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Now we're going to go this way (rocking head with reference to axis tilted to

OK, are there any questions.

Patient: Yes it is there around BL 1.

So we'll meet again tomorrow and wish everyone a good night.

Any other questions from yesterday?

Sometimes you can have a situation where someone doesn't want to be

@ New England School ofAcupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003

@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003

0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003

There is the context of Wei Qi in relationship to its functions. That brings us

If it is chfonic, it means the Yin pair is affected. It might be severe. Severity

Lefs begin our discussion of the Channel System in terms of their

@ New E q k d School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003

In terms of the question before, what does An Mo mean? An Mo ^?%

Then it continues along the paravertebrals. We talked about what the

@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003

The purpose of the GB Sinew Meridian is to allow bodily choices, movement

Marly: (indicates a Point on the lateral aspect of the upper leg)

JCY: That would be his trigger Point.

JW Remember the whole idea of the Sinew Channels is that if y m don't

Question: Didn't you want her to keep the knees together?

JCY: How do you feel?

The major component of the SI is that it allows you to reach further. If I

In terms of signs and symptoms, as we would expect, there are going to be

Question: Would that be used for all kinds of tinnitus?

SI Sinew Channel TH Sinew Channel

You might also like