The usual techniques used are palpation, feeling, pressing and tapping, etc.

Palpation: To use fingers or palm to feel the forehead, four limbs, chest and abdomen skin to understand whether the local skin is cold or feverish and moist or dry.

Feeling: To use fingers or palm to feel the chest, abdomen and four limbs of the patient to see if there are superficial pain and lumps as well as the shape and size of the lumps.
 
Slight pressure: To use hand slightly press the chest, abdomen, four limbs and lumps to know the boundary, texture and movement of the lumps as well as the degree and nature of local swelling.
 
Heavy pressure: To press heavily the morbid region to detect whether there is pain in the deep layer and whether there is suppuration, etc.
 
Tapping: To use hand to tap certain regions of the patient to produce tapping sound and waving sensation or vibration to decide the nature and degree of pathological changes. Tapping is either direct or indirect. Direct tapping means that the doctor uses his or her hand to directly tap the superficial regions of the patient; indirect tapping means that the doctor puts his or her left palm over the surface of the patient's body and uses his or her right fist to tap the left hand dorsum. While tapping, the doctor asks the patient about the sensation to decide the location and degree of disease.
 
The methods mentioned above emphasize on different aspects in performing palpation. However, they are used in combination. The usual order is palpating and feeling first, then pressing and finally tapping, which are performed from light degree to the heavy, from the superficial to the deep layer, from distal region to the proximal and from the upper part to the lower.