The Bojin Journal · The method

How Many Times Should You Work One Spot?

By Yu-Ting Lan, from Taiwan · 7 min read

A student once showed me her jaw after what she called "really working" a stubborn spot. It was faintly red and clearly annoyed, and when I asked how many passes she'd done, she genuinely didn't know. Somewhere past twenty, she guessed, because it hadn't felt different yet and she kept thinking one more would do it. That's the most common version of this mistake: assuming that if a spot isn't responding, the answer is always more.

So here's the idea before the detail: a spot has a reasonable number of passes that gives it a fair chance to respond, and that number is smaller than most people assume. Three to five slow, deliberate passes is a reliable range. Past that, without change, repetition stops being the answer and starts being the problem.

Why three to five, and not more

Tissue that's going to soften under a comfortable, working pass usually starts showing it within the first few tries, not the twentieth. Three passes gives a spot a real chance; five gives it a generous one. If nothing has shifted by then, the tissue isn't waiting for pass number twelve to suddenly respond. Something else about the approach, usually the angle or the pressure, needs to change instead of the count going up.

What happens past that point

Skin doesn't know the difference between "still working on this" and "already irritated." Once you're well past five passes on the same small spot, you're not giving tension more chances to ease; you're giving already-worked skin more friction it didn't need. That's exactly how a session that started gentle ends with a spot that's faintly red, tender to the touch, or sore the next day, the kind of outcome that has nothing to do with how much tension was actually there and everything to do with how many times the same spot got worked.

When a few extra passes are reasonable

This isn't a rigid rule that never bends. On a day when your jaw or shoulders are carrying more tension than usual, a spot might reasonably take six or seven passes instead of the typical three to five, and that's a fair adjustment to how tense you actually are that day. What matters is the intent behind it: extending the count because the spot is visibly, gradually easing and just needs a little more time, not because it hasn't moved at all and you're hoping repetition alone will eventually win.

Try the three-to-five rule

Use a little oil or your usual moisturizer, and pick one spot you know tends to hold tension, like the corner of your jaw.

1. Choose one tight spot Find a single tender spot, such as the corner of the jaw, and settle the tool there at a comfortable, working pressure.
2. Count three slow passes Work the spot for three slow, deliberate passes, then pause and notice whether it feels any different.
3. Add up to two more only if it's still changing If the spot is still visibly easing, add one or two more passes. If it feels the same as after pass three, stop there and adjust your angle or pressure instead of repeating.

Once you've practiced this pause-and-check habit a few times, you'll stop needing to count at all. The feel of a spot that's genuinely easing versus one that's stalled becomes obvious on its own.

An honest note

Counting passes won't make a spot ease that a gentler pressure or a better angle would have eased faster. It's a guardrail, not the technique itself, there to stop the natural instinct to keep pushing at something that isn't moving. The effect remains gentle and temporary, and still builds over repeated sessions rather than within one long one. Respecting a fair number of tries, then moving on, protects the skin you're trying to help.

Next time a spot resists you, count to five and then stop. If it hasn't changed by then, the answer was never going to be pass number twelve.

A stalled spot is often a speed or pressure problem; read how fast should you move and how hard should you actually press.

Yu-Ting Lan is a Taiwan-based international bojin instructor and the founder of Héhé Studio. She has taught her bojin method to more than a thousand students, from complete beginners to grandmothers, across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.