Do you crack anything?

[UZI Suicide]

I've developed a real bad habit of cracking my neck and back, real bad , like.. I do it all the time. If I don't do it for a little while my neck gets really sore, and then I crack it and it feels almost orgasmic.

 

I used to crack my fingers a lot but I pretty much quit that.

[Bruiser Chong]

My neck. Sometimes my back, but I try to avoid unncessary cracking. I've got a friend who sat in front of me in a class during my Junior year of high school; she'd periodically slowly turn side-to-side, cracking her back so loudly that I'd always question how she didn't need a cane or a wheelchair.

[Ace309]

A couple years of amateur wrestling did this to me.

 

I absentmindedly crack:

- Both elbows

- Both shoulders (one was dislocated several times, one just twinged a lot)

- My lower back

- My left wrist, which crackles because I snapped my arm

- Both knees

 

Also, my hips occasionally crack when I stand.

[Vyce]

My left big toe.

 

I don't know what the hell's wrong with it, but I can literally crack that thing at about a rate of once every minute or so. And it does it every time.

 

Which concerns me. I think by the time I hit sixty that fucking thing is just going to be paralyzed with arthritis.

[kkktookmybabyaway]

Knuckles, neck, back. Knees pop sometimes for no reason...

[fazzle]

I used to crack corn, but nobody cared.

[Jingus]

Almost every joint in my body makes a crack. I can get eighteen distinct individual sounds from my fingers alone. Aside from that I can crack my wrists, jawbone, elbows, shoulders, knees, ankles, toes, and pretty much my entire spinal column. Why yes, severely-to-crippling arthritis does run in my family, howdidyaknow?

[The Metal Maniac]

I can crack all of my toes.

 

And by "can", I really mean that curling my toes will make them crack. Guaranteed. Unless, of course, I just cracked them; I can only do it a few times in quick succession before they cease making noise.

 

I crack my knuckles too.

[Cuban Linx]

Pretty much every joint cracks for me, fingers, toes, neck, spine, ankles, knees, elbows, wrists, i'll be a walking advertisment for arthritis in the future. My shoulders and hips are about the only places on my body that don't crack regularly.

[Paul Stanley]

I crack my whip everytime one of the ladies doesn't have my daily bread.

[The Ill One]

I have double-jointed elbows so nine times out of ten they make a nice 'lil cracking. Knuckles and now my right knee cracks anytime it bends.

[CanadianChick]

My elbows and knees crack without me meaning to.

 

I crack my back and my neck. Feels good.

[Damaramu]

I don't think it causes arthiritis. I thought that was a myth.

 

Anyways I crack my hands fairly frequently. I do my back a lot. My neck I can't do, I can get it going good maybe once a week.

My knees if I've been sitting for a while. Sometimes my hips. I can do my knees and ankles sometimes by bending in place.

 

I know it's air buildup in the joints that makes the noice but why does it feel so good? And do you have to have that area in one position and inactive for a long period of time or is it just time that makes it buildup?

 

I wish I could crack everything at once. That would feel so good and sound so awesome.

[Guest Sturgis]

My thumbs.

 

If I crack anything else I'll be in pain for a while. I once cracked my back and was slightly paralized for a few seconds.

[Nighthawk]

Everything. I can crack my neck likes they do in the movies, no hands.

[Ted the Poster]

I can crack my ankles whenever since they're double-jointed. I prefer popping my neck though(with no hands as well); it helps relieve stress. For me anyway. Last year I went up to my seven year old cousin with her cat in my hands, and turned its head while cracking my ankle. Fun times.

[A Happy Medium]

I crack my knuckles frequently. Gave up on cracking my neck, for fear of nerve damage somehow.

 

My big toes crack on their own, but I can make them crack. They make it very hard to sneak around, though.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

If I clench a tight fist with my left hand, the knuckles on my first and middle fingers crack loudly every time.

[Dimensions]

I can crack....

 

All fingers

L/R Big Toes

Ankles

Back

Knees

Neck

and...my penis. (It's true, the joint right under the penis pops when it's pulled strongly by someone...nice reaction from the ladies).

[Youth N Asia]

I crack my knuckles and back all the time. Also crack my toes, ankles, and knees when they need it.

 

I can't bring myself to crack my neck on purpose.

[Art Sandusky]

I crack my knuckles regularly, but that's about it. I make sure every joint on me pops at least once when I'm stretching before dancing.

[ISportsFan]

Knuckles, elbows, neck, back, ankles, toes, and knees for sure. There may be others that I crack without noticing.

 

Jason

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

If you do like to crack your knuckles, someone is bound to have said to you: "You'll get arthritis if you keep doing that!" Is there any truth in what they say or are they just annoyed by the sound of your popping knuckles?

 

If you are a knuckle-cracker, in spite of all your friends' warnings, you'll be relieved to hear that there is no clinical evidence that your habit causes arthritis in the fingers or the hand.1 Studies of people with osteoarthritis in their knuckles show they are no more likely to have cracked their knuckles earlier in life than people who did not develop the condition. However, the bad news is that there is some evidence that people who habitually crack their knuckles have decreased hand function, such as reduced ability to grip tightly.2

 

So, why doesn't something that seems so unhealthy cause arthritis? The answer lies in biomechanics.

 

The mechanism by which extreme pulling or twisting of the knuckle joint can produce clicking noises is as follows:

 

When the knuckle joint is deformed, the pressure in the joint decreases, and a carbon dioxide-filled cavity (a bubble) forms in the fluid in the joint (known as synovial fluid). As the pressure in the cavity is lower, the fluid then quickly rushes into the cavity and it is this sudden implosion that causes the noise. But is the repeated popping of tiny CO2 bubbles enough to cause damage to the joints? Analysis suggests that it's not. The energy of the cracking sound is estimated at 0.07mJ/mm3, while the energy required to cause cartilage damage is probably about 10 times greater than that (at around 1.0 mJ/mm3).3

 

So, it appears that you can crack on without increasing your risk of arthritis. But you may well be affecting your hand in other ways, such as reducing your ability to grip objects tightly. Perhaps the best advice is to listen to your friends after all.

 

1. Swezey R., Swezey S. WJM 1975; 122:377-9

2. Castellanos J., Alxelrod D. Ann Rheum Dis. 1990 Nov;49(11):957.

3. Edward Wild. Student British Medical Journal web page: www.studentbmj.com/back_issues/1201/life/477.html

 

I think people that don't like the sound of it, made that myth up. My back cracks all the time, but I think it's just fucked up. I can't touch my toes without feeling pain/hearing it crack.

[Vern Gagne]

My right wrist cracks everytime. Same with my right shoulder when I move my arm.

[nl5xsk1]

Fingers. Wrists. Shoulders. Neck. Jaw. Back. Ankles. Knees. Toes, but just my big toes and the ones that are right next to them.

 

I used to crack corn, but nobody cared.

fazzle, that's the funniest thing I've read on TSM in a long fucking time.

[eiker_ir]

my neck i crack all the time, Wolverine style.

 

my knuckles, fingers and wrists.

 

sometimes i do a matrix neo pose to crack my back, gets a nice reaction.

[Jingus]

and...my penis. (It's true, the joint right under the penis pops when it's pulled strongly by someone...nice reaction from the ladies).

Now THAT'S just bloodyawful wrongness.

[Dimensions]

and...my penis. (It's true, the joint right under the penis pops when it's pulled strongly by someone...nice reaction from the ladies).

Now THAT'S just bloodyawful wrongness.

Can nobody else do this?

 

All my friends up here in college I've asked (about 6) can.

[Twisted Intestine]

and...my penis. (It's true, the joint right under the penis pops when it's pulled strongly by someone...nice reaction from the ladies).

Now THAT'S just bloodyawful wrongness.

Can nobody else do this?

 

All my friends up here in college I've asked (about 6) can.

I think I know what you're talking about, and think I've done it once or twice...

 

Not something I'd try to make a routine though.

[treble]

Pretty much just my fingers and my 3 middle toes on both feet. After I broke my leg a few years ago, my knee would crack everytime I moved it once the cast came off. That went away after a few months, but it'll still crack every once in a while. Anything else that cracks is by accident.