Naohui

What is TE13?

TE13 (Naohui) is a point on the back of the upper arm, on the Triple Energizer channel, at the rear edge of the deltoid muscle.

Its Chinese name, Naohui, is usually translated as "Upper Arm Convergence". Classical texts describe it as a meeting place of the Triple Energizer channel with the Yang Linking Vessel, and some add a link to the Large Intestine channel. In traditional practice it was used mainly for local problems: a stiff or aching shoulder, a heavy arm, and swellings in the neck and armpit region.

Here is the honest verdict. TE13 has a long history in acupuncture texts, but a long history is not evidence that pressing it works, and it is not evidence that pressing it is safe for you. We found no human trial that tested TE13 on its own for any condition. What exists is broader, weaker research on acupressure and massage for shoulder and arm pain, mostly small, short and unblinded, meaning people knew which treatment they were getting.

So treat TE13 as what it is: a comfortable spot of self-massage over a big arm muscle. Firm thumb pressure on a tight deltoid may feel good and may briefly ease local tension. That is a reasonable thing to want. It is not a treatment for a torn rotator cuff, a frozen shoulder, a thyroid problem, or a lump in your neck or armpit.

On this page, "evidence grade" describes what human research shows, and "traditional tier" describes how firmly a point sits in classical teaching. TE13 scores low on the first and middling on the second. Everything described here is self-applied finger pressure only. We never give needling, moxibustion or cupping instructions, because those belong to a trained practitioner and not to a reference page.

Where is TE13 and how do you find it?

TE13 sits on the back of the upper arm, roughly a hand's width below the bony tip of the shoulder, at the rear border of the deltoid muscle.

• Find the shoulder tip. Run your opposite hand over the top of your shoulder until you feel the hard shelf of bone, the acromion. The point is well below this, not on it.
• Drop behind the shoulder. Just behind and below that bony tip is a soft dip. Classical texts place TE14 there. TE13 lies further down the arm from this dip.
• Measure down the back of the arm. Texts put TE13 three cun below that shoulder dip. Three cun is about four of your own thumb-widths, or roughly 6 to 7 cm on most adults.
• Use the elbow as a guide. Imagine a line from the bony point of your elbow at the back (the olecranon) up to the shoulder dip. TE13 sits on that line, in the upper third.
• Feel for the muscle edge. The deltoid is the rounded cap of muscle over the shoulder. TE13 is at its rear lower border, where the bulge softens into the back of the arm.
• Check with a tender spot. Press slowly along that border. Most people find one spot that feels firmer or slightly tender. That is close enough for self-massage.

Sources agree on the general area and differ slightly on the exact spot. What is agreed is this: back of the upper arm, below the shoulder tip, at the posterior deltoid border. You do not need pinpoint accuracy for finger pressure.

Reach it with the opposite hand, thumb pressing from behind or fingers curling round the arm. A mirror helps the first time. Do not confuse TE13 with LI14, which sits on the outer front edge of the same muscle, or with TE14 in the shoulder dip itself.

How do you apply pressure to TE13?

1. Sit and relax the arm. Let the working arm hang loose at your side or rest in your lap. A tensed deltoid is hard to press into usefully.
2. Reach across. Bring your opposite hand over or around to the back of the upper arm and settle your thumb pad on the spot you found.
3. Sink in slowly. Take three or four seconds to build pressure. Aim for firm but comfortable, around 4 or 5 out of 10, where 10 is pain you want to pull away from.
4. Hold steady. Keep the pressure for 30 to 60 seconds while breathing normally. Holding your breath tightens the shoulder you are trying to loosen.
5. Or make small circles. Instead of a static hold, move the skin and muscle in slow small circles for about a minute. Move the muscle, do not scrub the skin.
6. Release and repeat. Ease off over a couple of seconds. Rest, then repeat two or three times on that arm.
7. Add gentle movement. After releasing, roll the shoulder slowly a few times. Movement after massage often feels better than massage alone.

Frequency: two or three sessions a day is plenty, and a total of a few minutes per arm. More pressure for longer does not buy more benefit and does buy bruising.

Stop straight away if you get sharp pain, pins and needles, numbness, or any shooting sensation running down toward the hand. Nerves run through the upper arm, and these signals mean you are compressing something that does not want compressing. Stop also if the skin feels hot, the area swells, or soreness lasts more than a day.

Use fingers only. Never use a hard tool, a corner of furniture or your bodyweight against a wall on this spot, and never break the skin.

What is TE13 traditionally used for?

• Shoulder and upper arm pain. This is the main traditional use and the most plausible one, since the point sits directly on the deltoid. Human evidence is indirect: small, mostly unblinded trials of acupressure and massage for shoulder pain report modest short-term relief, with no trial isolating TE13. Expect temporary easing of muscle tension, not repair of a damaged joint.
• A stiff or heavy-feeling arm. Classical texts describe inability to lift the arm. Self-massage over a tight deltoid may make movement feel easier for a while. No controlled study has tested this at TE13.
• Neck swellings and goitre. Older texts list TE13 for goitre (thyroid swelling) and scrofula (swollen neck glands). There is no modern evidence of any effect on either, and both need medical assessment. Do not press on a lump or use this point in place of seeing a doctor.
• Armpit and side-of-chest discomfort. Some sources mention local pain along the channel. Evidence here is absent; this is tradition alone.
• General relaxation. Slow, firm self-massage anywhere tends to feel calming and may lower perceived tension briefly. That effect is real but not specific to TE13; the same applies to rubbing almost any sore muscle.

A fair summary: tradition gives TE13 a local, musculoskeletal job, and nothing in the research contradicts that modest claim or confirms it. The point has not been tested on its own in people.

If shoulder pain has lasted more than a few weeks, keeps you awake, follows a fall, or comes with weakness, self-massage is not the answer you need. Causes such as rotator cuff tears, frozen shoulder and referred neck pain all need an examination before any self-treatment plan makes sense.

Are there tips for using TE13 effectively?

• Warm the muscle first. A warm shower or two minutes of slow arm swings makes the deltoid softer and the pressure more comfortable.
• Hunt for the tender band, not the textbook dot. On a muscle this size, the spot that feels tight is more useful than a measurement to the millimetre.
• Support the working arm. Rest your elbow on a table or cushion so the shoulder can fully let go while you press.
• Press on the exhale. Sinking in as you breathe out keeps you from bracing and makes firm pressure feel less harsh.
• Do both arms. Shoulder tension is rarely one-sided. Treating both sides also stops you over-working the sore one.
• Pair it with movement. Follow each session with slow shoulder rolls or a gentle reach overhead. Most people get more out of massage plus movement than massage alone.
• Keep a simple diary. Note pain out of 10 before and after, for two weeks. If nothing has shifted, the point is not the tool for your problem.
• Fix the cause too. Laptop height, a heavy shoulder bag and overhead gym work cause more deltoid pain than any missing acupressure point.
• Keep sessions short. A few minutes is enough. Long, grinding sessions leave the area bruised and sore the next day.
• Check your skin first. Look at the area before you press. Rashes, broken skin, moles that have changed, or new swelling mean hands off and a word with your doctor.

One honest expectation to set: any relief from TE13 is likely to be mild and short-lived, the sort you get from rubbing a tight muscle. That can still be worth two minutes of your day. It is not a substitute for strengthening exercises, physiotherapy or a proper diagnosis when pain is persistent.

What do people get wrong with TE13?

• Expecting a cure. The commonest error. TE13 will not cure a frozen shoulder, a rotator cuff tear, arthritis or a thyroid condition, and no acupressure point cures anything.
• Pressing the shoulder tip instead. Landing on the hard acromion at the top of the shoulder, rather than the soft muscle border several centimetres down the arm.
• Confusing it with its neighbours. TE14 sits in the dip behind the shoulder tip and LI14 on the front outer edge of the deltoid. TE13 is lower and further back than TE14.
• Going too hard. Grinding a thumbnail or a knuckle into the arm causes bruising and next-day soreness without any extra benefit.
• Pressing through nerve signals. Tingling, numbness or shooting pain toward the hand means stop, not push harder. Those are nerve warnings.
• Massaging a lump. Some people read the old goitre and swollen-gland uses and start rubbing a neck or armpit lump. Any new lump needs a doctor, not pressure.
• Using it to postpone care. Shoulder pain after a fall, pain with fever, or an arm that is weak or will not lift needs assessment the same week.
• Treating a referred pain locally. Shoulder and upper arm pain often comes from the neck. Rubbing the arm will not help if the source is a neck joint or nerve.
• Turning it into a needling experiment. Reading that a study needled a point is not an instruction. Nothing on this page involves anything that breaks the skin.
• Giving up on everything else. People stop their physiotherapy exercises once they find a point. The exercises have far better evidence behind them.

What does the research on TE13 actually say?

There is essentially nothing. We found no published human trial that tested TE13 (Naohui) on its own, by acupressure or any other method, for shoulder pain, goitre, swollen glands or anything else. That is not a gap we can paper over, and we will not invent a study or a citation to fill it.

What exists sits one step away from the point. There is a body of small trials on acupressure and massage for shoulder and neck pain in office workers, older adults and stroke survivors. Several report short-term reductions in pain scores. Almost all are small, run for a few weeks at most, and cannot blind participants, who know perfectly well whether someone is pressing their arm. Expectation and attention explain a meaningful share of such results.

Acupuncture research on shoulder pain is larger but also mixed, and it usually tests multi-point prescriptions rather than single points. When TE13 appears at all, it appears inside a combination, so no conclusion can be pinned to it. Those studies also used needles, which is a different intervention from the finger pressure described here.

It is worth noting the contrast with PC6 and nausea, where repeated controlled trials, including in pregnancy sickness and post-operative nausea, do support a real if modest effect. That is roughly the strongest case in the whole acupressure literature. TE13 is nowhere near it, and saying so is the only honest option.

What this means in practice: treat TE13 as self-massage over a muscle with a traditional name attached. Judge it by how your own shoulder feels over a couple of weeks, not by any claim of proven benefit. If your symptom is anything other than ordinary muscle tightness, the sensible next step is a clinician rather than a point.