Knuckle Cracking
 

Do you crack (pop) your joints? I've been trying to stop for a long time, but its a habit I can't seem to shake. I usually just pop the knuckle on each of my fingers, but my back pops accidently sometimes. I've also heard many conflicting stories... It causes arthritis (which I do not think is true), I've heard it relieves arthritis, I've heard it does nothing but release air in your joints. What is your experience with its outcome? Does it make you sore at all? Any pain? What have you heard?

I only crack my knuckles occasionally. It would seem that there is no definitive understanding of the physical mechanism that produces the crack, but its hypothesized that the sound occurs as a result of cavitation in join fluids. Yes, its an old wive's tale that cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis but if you do it a lot you are more likely to have hand swelling and lower grip strength.

I can also snap the tendons over my right wrist, the same hand I have a double-jointed thumb in. I don't do it too often, just to weird people out who have never seen it before, and it doesn't give me any problems.

I've found that cracking my joints actually relieves pain in them.

I can also crack every joint in each of my fingers, as well as the one for my thumb way back next to the wrist, and also the wrist itself. I know it's a really annoying habit for everyone around me, but it just feels so good. ;_;

I find that my knuckles don't crack as often then they used to. When I feel bored I need to do something with my hands so I end up cracking them.

Let's see. Yes.

I crack my neck several times a day. When I crack my fingers, I first grab the tip and I rotate it out to get a couple of pops, and then the standard push down. I also pop both joints of my thumb. I love it when someone cracks my back and end up popping my toes if I think about it. I've never cared for popping my wrists, but can do that, elbows, and knees.

My fingers actually start to hurt if I go too long without popping them, so there must be some physical reason for doing it.

Mikey, there's also a pull-out :p

For some reason, I can only do the pull out on my pinkies. It hurts a bit, but is also quite satisfying for an odd reason.

Also totally unrelated, but I don't get why the movies have these big macho guys cracking their knucks when they're threatening their opponents with a beat down. It doesn't really make you tough!

I crack my knuckles by bending them backwards occasionally. I've seen people do it by pulling on their fingers, which makes me cringe. I also crack my neck and back, which feels GRRRRRRREAT!

I crack my knuckles a few times a day, as well as my neck and one of my ankles. I crack my ankle because it seems to relieve the slight pain that I have in it.

You ever think of the possibility that the reason why they're hurting in the first place is because you crack them so much? :D

I used to do that a lot as well, but cut down on it years ago.

I used to crack my knuckles a lot back when I was in High School. I guess I've started to do it a lot less now as the years got on. There's no pain or anything like that, it just seems that joints that used to pop when I was younger don't pop anymore now......weird.....

Still, whenever I get a stiff neck, a good cracking roll or side-to-side action will make me feel a lot better. I can still crack the joints in my shoulders though, and doing so while my back is against a wall makes it that much more audible and weirds a lot of people out.

I used to be able to crack all finger and thumb joints. I can still crack my shoulders, neck, wrists and back. Cracking knuckles or joints doesn't hurt you or anything like that. At least, so far, I'm still good.

:beer:

I routinely crack every joint that I am capable of easily manipulating. This includes my fingers, toes, back, wrist, neck, elbow, ankles, knees, hip, and collarbone.

I only crack my fingers/knuckles as I can't get any of my other joints to do this. I've had a time where I tried to crack one but I couldn't get it, but it was like half-cracked because it felt like it needed to be and it hurt quite badly until I finally got it.

I crack my knuckles quite a bit, and it tends to be somewhat loud when I do. If I don't pop my knuckles for a while, my fingers seem out of place almost, yet it starts getting rather painful if I do it too many times during the day. However, whenever I try to crack any of my other joints, the attempt ends in failure and/or a greater pain than the one I was trying to relieve by cracking.

Well, I squeeze my hands really tight (especially at the joints) and they tend to crack pretty nicely. I don't do it because of pain, it's more of a habit when I'm stressed out.

I usually only crack my knucks, or other joints if i think of them specifically, so you can bet i just did a complete runthrough of my body reading this thread.

I've been known to crack all finger joints, the lower joint in my thumbs (in two directions) wrists, ankles, knees, elbows, shoulders, neck (only in one direction oddly enough), back, toes, pelvic bone ( i really need to stop that one, i'm sure i'm gonna paralyze myself one day due to carelessness) Sternum and nose if i'm lucky, and some others that only happen once in a while that i can't remember at the moment.

Man, i'm a mess. I really want to stop, but apparently i've inherited really loose joints from my mom. Often stuff just cracks by accident if i'm doing something physical. That's why i'm really counting on this stuff not causing arthritis in the long run.

I crack my fingers around fifteen times each time, I pull then, then crack the knuckles, then the lower fingers, it's excelent when the finger aren't responding at superhuman speed (gotta love FPS games...)

If I'm reminded or think of it, I HAVE to crack my knuckles. I saw this thread and automatically went to crack them. If I hear another person doing it, I have to do it. Otherwise, my joints start to feel stiff. Its a horrible psychological mindset... a weird one too... but I cant stop myself after I'm reminded of it.

I can't actually crack my knuckles; sure they bend the same but there's no satisfying crackle sound. Nor does it feel as good as when I do it to the upper joint of my thumbs (either bending them forwards or as if I was making a fist with the thumb tucked inside), or with my knees (almost every time I crouch down my knees crack). Asides from that I'm crack-free.

I was always told it was air in the joints; I never heard it had anything to do with arthritis.

EDIT: also, I forgot I can crack the bottom joint of my left thumb when I bend it backwards to my wrist (double jointed yay).

I cracked my knuckles as I opened this thread. Point being that I crack my knuckles (and only my knuckles) often.

I do...rarely. Not enough times to warrant a "Yes" vote. Speaking of cracking knuckles, I've known a guy before who cracked his knuckles and neck without even realising he did it. He'd do it, I'd tell him to stop, and he'd act oblivious. Weird, but very annoying. Arthritis waiting to happen, for him.

I crack my knuckles and fingers fairly often, but since "cheese" was an option in the poll I just couldn't ignore it. I used to crack my neck all the time too, but after talking to a chiropractor last summer I've made a real effort to cut back on that. It's interesting how cracking the neck loosens the muscles, but then causes them to overcompensate when tightening back, thus keeping the pain in a loop. I can't help it during tests or long drives though. Neck-cracking just relieves headaches and tension so well.

I crack my wrists, elbows, shoulders, and neck constantly but have never been able to crack my knuckles.

my boyfriend does it all the time, I really hate the sound of it.

I can only slightly crack mine if I stretch them.

I'm pretty loud and obnoxious when it comes to mine... 20 cracks from both hands, both cracks from the wrists, cracks from my shoulders, crack from my neck turning to the right, both ankle cracks, 8 from my toes, and one or two from my back from twisting or bending back. Worse pops are my jaw. Its uber annoying when the air just escapes into my ears somehow. :\ And yeah even my knee pops and that's pretty painful too.

YES. I know exactly how that is.