Is Cracking Joints Bad for You?

You’ve always loved crack­ing your fin­gers – even though every time you do, you hear a nag­ging voice in your head say­ing, ​“Don’t crack your knuck­les or you’ll get arthritis.”

But is crack­ing joints actu­al­ly bad for you?

You can rejoice if you’re a habit­u­al knuck­le crack­er. That old warn­ing is just a myth.

In fact, you can usu­al­ly crack or pop oth­er joints, like those in your wrists, neck, or back, with­out affect­ing func­tion or caus­ing seri­ous prob­lems (although you might annoy peo­ple around you with the sound). 

Why Joint Crack­ing Feels So Good

There are a few rea­sons why crack­ing or pop­ping joints is so satisfying.

One is that it increas­es your joint’s range of motion. Anoth­er has to do with syn­ovial flu­id, which is a thick liq­uid between your joints that cush­ions and lubri­cates the joints.

Gas bub­bles can build up in the syn­ovial flu­id. Crack­ing a joint caus­es a change in pres­sure, which pops the bub­bles. When this hap­pens, your brain responds by releas­ing a bit of dopamine (known as the ​“feel good” hormone).

The Dos and Don’ts of Joint Cracking

Crack­ing joints may be gen­er­al­ly safe, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any risks involved. If you don’t crack a joint cor­rect­ly, you could injure your lig­a­ments (tis­sues that con­nect your bones to one anoth­er) or make an exist­ing prob­lem worse.

This is espe­cial­ly true if you’re try­ing to crack your neck or back. Incor­rect crack­ing could lead to mus­cle strain or more seri­ous prob­lems, like her­ni­at­ed discs, bro­ken ribs, or pinched nerves.

Here’s what to do and what not to do when it comes to crack­ing your back or neck.

Do

• Start exer­cis­es with a pro­fes­sion­al like a phys­io­ther­a­pist to learn prop­er form
• Stretch slow­ly and gently
• Only hold a stretch for a few seconds
• Start slow – if you want to increase how long you hold a stretch, do so gradually
• Stop if you feel intense pain

Don’t

• Have some­one who isn’t a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al try to crack your joint
• Twist your jaw or grab your head and jaw
• Stretch beyond your com­fort level
• Crack your back if you have a spine or neck injury, can­cer of the spine, mod­er­ate or severe osteo­poro­sis, are at high risk for a stroke, or are in the third trimester of pregnancy

Safe Ways to Crack and Pop Your Joints

Here are some stretch­es you can do instead of crack­ing your own neck and back.

Stretch­es to Crack Your Back

Cat Cow (some­times called Cat Camel)

1. Start on all fours with your knees and hands hip-width apart. Make sure your knees are under your hips and your wrists are under your shoulders.
2. Get into ​“cat” posi­tion. Breathe in and round your back by push­ing your spine upward. Draw your bel­ly but­ton into your spine and keep your head tucked down. Hold for 5 seconds.
3. Move into ​“cow” posi­tion. Breathe in and arch your back, while drop­ping your stom­ach to the ground and mov­ing your head to look upward. Hold for 5 seconds.
4. Repeat 10 times in each direction.

Foam Roller Stretch

1. Put a foam roller on the ground horizontally.
2. Lay down and rest your back against the top of the roller while keep­ing your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. Put your hands behind your neck (or across your chest if that hurts your shoulders).
3. Inhale deeply. When you breathe out, extend your back over the roller, toward the ground.
4. Hold for 5 seconds.
5. Repeat 20 times.

Stand­ing Back Twist

1. Stand with your feet and hips fac­ing for­ward. Keep your feet shoul­der-width apart.
2. With your feet and hips fac­ing for­ward, slow­ly twist your upper body to the left. 
3. Hold for a few sec­onds and return to center.
4. Do the same move­ment on your right.

Also read: The Aging Spine

Stretch­es to Crack Your Neck

Foam Roller Stretch

1. Lie on your back. Keep your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. 
2. Put a foam roller behind your head, rest­ing it in the arch of your neck.
3. Slow­ly turn your head from side to side. Pause at the end of every turn.
4. Turn your head as far as you can while remain­ing comfortable.
5. Repeat 10 to 15 times on both sides.

Chi­ro­prac­tic Adjustments

Adjust­ments are treat­ments where a chi­ro­prac­tor (a spe­cial­ist who treats the ner­vous sys­tem and mus­cu­loskele­tal prob­lems like joint pain) gen­tly realigns your joints. This improves your range of motion and decreas­es pain.

Dur­ing treat­ment, the chi­ro­prac­tor applies con­trolled pres­sure to the joint and moves it beyond its nor­mal range of motion. As they move your joints, you may hear pop­ping or crack­ing sounds. Don’t be alarmed if the noise is loud­er than you would expect – it doesn’t mean that any­thing is wrong.

You might hear adjust­ments referred to as ​“manip­u­la­tions.” The thought of manip­u­lat­ing a joint might be a bit scary, but it’s noth­ing to fear. Adjust­ments cause lit­tle to no pain, like what you may feel after exer­cis­ing. Minor side effects like sore­ness are tem­po­rary. It’s very rare to have seri­ous side effects or complications.

Also read: Phys­i­cal Ther­a­py and Chi­ro­prac­tic Care – What’s the Difference?

When to Get Care From an Expert

While crack­ing your joints because you like doing so typ­i­cal­ly won’t cause issues, feel­ing like you need to crack them could be a red flag. Crack­ing or pop­ping a joint offers tem­po­rary relief, but it doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly solve the under­ly­ing problem.

You may want to get med­ical care if you have symp­toms like:

• Pain that doesn’t go away 
• Chron­ic stiff­ness or tension
• Pop­ping or crack­ing your joint makes it feel worse
• Numb­ness, tin­gling, blur­ry vision, or headaches 
• Neck pain with a severe headache
• Fever or chills

These could be signs of prob­lems, like an injury or bad habits like sit­ting for long peri­ods of time, that bring on pain. Once your provider finds out why you’re hav­ing pain, they can help you treat the issue or make lifestyle adjust­ments so that you no longer con­stant­ly feel the need to crack or pop a joint.

But in the mean­time – snap, crack­le, and pop away!

Also read: Under­stand­ing Pain Man­age­ment Options

Don’t ignore per­sis­tent joint dis­com­fort or the con­stant urge to crack your joints. If you’re expe­ri­enc­ing ongo­ing pain, stiff­ness, or feel com­pelled to crack your joints through­out the day, sched­ule an appoint­ment with a Duly Health and Care ortho­pe­dic spe­cial­ist who can eval­u­ate your joint health and iden­ti­fy any under­ly­ing problems. 

For those seek­ing nat­ur­al pain relief and improved mobil­i­ty, our expe­ri­enced chi­ro­prac­tors offer gen­tle adjust­ments and per­son­al­ized treat­ment plans to address joint dys­func­tion at its source. Take con­trol of your joint health today and sched­ule an appoint­ment to get last­ing relief.