STOP Cracking Your Joints Like THIS! (WARNING!)

If you are cracking your joints in your fingers, neck or back, you do not want to miss this video. I’ll show you the only safe way to crack your joints. The most common joints we target are the knuckles, neck, and back, but you want to make sure you do it right to avoid long term problems. I will sh

Are you someone who finds yourself  constantly cracking your knuckles only to have the urge to crack them again  even minutes later? How about your neck? What about your back? If so, you might be  a crack addict and I’m here to help. What’s up, guys, Jeff Cavaliere, Athleanx.

com. As  a physical therapist, there’s not a week that goes by that I don’t get asked whether or not cracking  your joints is even safe in the first place or damaging to your joints in the long run. Well,  today I’m going to answer that question for you once and for all and I’m going to use this to make  sure that you don’t take your cracks too far.

Well, have you ever heard that the reason  why you want to crack so badly is because you have air bubbles inside those joints that  just has to be relieved? Well, that’s actually not entirely accurate. You see, if I take out  this syringe and a little bit of this don’t ask, I can actually take you inside one of  those joints that you’re popping right now to show you exactly what’s happening. What this represents is actually the synovial fluid that bathes the joints of your body. And  though you thought the bubbles already existed, they actually don’t.

You’re creating the  bubbles by taking yourself through extended ranges of motion. So, if I took this syringe and  I pulled back on the fluid that’s inside here, you can see that I’m creating that negative  pressure that creates the bubbles. Well, the act of pulling back on the syringe is actually  pulling me into that extended range of motion, much like I would when I’m trying to  crack my knuckle and pull it backwards. So, the idea is maybe you’re not responding to a  need to crack, but you’re actually responding to a need to get into full range of motion. And that is an underlying problem that’s much deeper than just the need to make a pop in  your hands.

You see what your body is lacking is actually more range of motion long-term. Any  short-term pop is going to provide only that short-term relief and not the long-term relief  that you’re looking for, which is why your back cracking again in just minutes. So, the pop is  actually not the end goal, but more so the audible gratification that you’ve reached that range  of motion that you’re lacking right now. And of course, with all that accumulated  cracking, you got to ask yourself if you’re actually damaging your joints in the process. Well, possibly so, because how you’re cracking your joints right now actually matters  If you’re taking yourself through actual ranges of motion of the joints you’re trying to  pop, well then, it’s not so bad.

But if you’re creating all new ranges of motions and joints  that didn’t exist before, or you’re contorting yourself in different ways to achieve that pop,  well, I think you’re probably causing yourself some long-term damage. You may have heard the  risk of developing arthritis by cracking your knuckles. I’ll ease your mind a little bit  here, likely that’s not going to happen. However, creating joint instability and ligament  laxity can. If I were to take this finger here and move it through one of its normal ranges of  motion at one of these distal phalangeal joints, I’m going to be okay because it’s meant to be  extended, it’s meant to flex.

If that’s how you’re cracking your knuckles right now,  no problem. As a matter of fact, you can even twist this joint because it has some rotation  ability in it. However, when you start to do this, you combine the twisting with the flexing and the  side bending. Well, you’re now creating ranges of motion that really don’t exist in that joint. And what you’re doing is creating some of that laxity in the joint and the tendons and the  ligaments that support it.

That could create some instability and maybe even some swelling  in the short term. Continue to do that over and over and over again and you might be in for some  long-term discomfort. So how can you be sure that you’re doing it right with every joint that you’re  cracking right now? Well, let me show you. So, let’s start with you.

Nutcrackers out there. And it’s a good place to start because not doing this right probably has the most serious  of implications if you get it wrong. So, what I want you to understand is, again,  what range of motion are you likely restricted in? And when it comes to the neck,  there’s really only two; and that side bending or rotation. And even though your neck can flex  forward or extend backwards, they’re generally not the areas that you’re most restricted in.

You see rotation and side bending happens to be caused a little bit more from an overuse  of this. So how do we fix it? Well, try one at a time. Start with side bending. The way to do this is put one arm behind your back and then reach up and over the top  of your head just like that, and make sure you’re bringing your ear directly over towards  your shoulder.

And if you — see right there, you get a little bit of a pop at the end range  of motion for the same reasons we talked about before with the green liquid in the syringe. Now, if side bending doesn’t get you the crack that you’re looking for, then maybe you want to  explore rotation. So, what you do is you move yourself over to one side or the other side again,  all the way over as far as you can. But again, doing this in a way where your neck just moves  nice and smoothly, like it’s on a swivel. But what if you want to combine those two?

Others  might tell you that it’s actually a dangerous thing to do. I’m not one of them because again,  we’re utilizing ranges of motion that are normal for the cervical spine. So, if you’re going to  do this, though, don’t do this variation of the crack because this is called the head swivel and  you might just pull your whole damn head off. Not really. But again, it’s unnecessary.

Too much  force and sometimes prone to too much velocity. So instead, you just move your ear towards your  shoulder and then you use the over pressure on the chin itself. So, you go into that side bending  and then you use the extra over force there. But the idea here though, is you’re exploring normal  ranges of motion, making this safe to do. Now, if it’s your back that’s in need  of the crack, what can we do then?

Well, keep sitting where you’re probably sitting right  now, and I can help you to do that. We have to talk about two different areas of the back,  though, the upper back or the thoracic spine and then the lower back or the lumbar spine. And when we’re talking about that upper back, you could actually take that chair you’re sitting  in right now and establish extension back this way because you tend to get way too rounded these  days and rotation through the thoracic spine. So, let’s work on rotation first. If you  want to get rotation sitting nice and tall, you take your back arm, you hook it on  the back of your chair however well you can.

And from that point, you now take your  opposite arm reach across to the opposite leg, you’re going to pull back here and push through  that arm and create that rotation, which you’re going to feel that pop if it’s present higher  up in that upper middle portion of your back. Now, if you want to work on that extension loss  that you have, which oftentimes is what people really, really lack. Then what you want to do is  put your hands up here around your neck. Keep them nice and high, round the shoulders out a little  bit like that and then lean back over the back of your chair, using it sort of as the fulcrum  point for helping you to get that extension loss that you have right now. If you have the point  further up than the chair