With the angling of the needle with/against a channel, is there still an emphasis of also aiming for and connecting with the acupoint? For example, the He Sea points are all relatively deep in the muscle. It seems you would have to insert above or below the point to reach it with an angled insertion. Or do we localize the acupoint on the skin and angle with/against from that point?
Hi Jonathan,
In most cases you should aim for the point where it usually is defined (at the surface of the skin). In general the idea is that practically you not only will hit one small defined spot directly under the point exactly with the tip of your needle. When you insert (a little bit deeper) you literally will drive a longer part of the needle into and along a short distance of the meridian in the chosen direction or angle at the (wider) area of the original point location.
From my in-person courses (at least here in Europe) I very often observe the participants needling not deep enough but inserting the needles too superficially. Depending on the amount of tissue under the point area you can insert quite deeply and achieve the above effect. In every case where the angle of the needle will change because of gravity as you move the limb the needle will not be deep enough. As an example for those points where there is more tissue (like for example LI11, St36 and so on) using 30 mm needles you can with an average sized person insert between 15 and 20 mm deep. For overweight people (more fatty tissue) in general you would insert more deeply. For small or skinny persons less.
Do not forget the other technical aspects of tonification and sedation I lectured as they will also have an important effect.
Andreas
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