I didn't get a pop, but it was a nice deep stretch that felt good.

My mom has an inversion table. I wonder if I could sneak over there with a vibrator. It would be very awkward if she came home early. lol

K8kate, interesting discussion.

I agree there is a strong psychological link to joint cracking in the form of an obsessive compulsive disorder.

However, I strongly believe there are also physical aspects with joint cracking. As a long time joint cracker you cannot always quit joint cracking like you quit sucking your thumb or smoking. Of course I am very happy it worked for you like that!

I am very interested in those underlying issues you name. A few points to ponder about:

Some report their diet seems to have an influence on joint cracking desire.

Joint cracking seems to have a genetic component.

Joint cracking does do something seemingly irreversible to your liagments which foster joint cracking desire.

Joint cracking can seriously reduce your quality of life.

Smoking makes those that are addicted to it feel good. They enjoy the experience. Joint crackers with physical implications do not crack to feel good, they crack to not feel bad, to mobilize their joints, etc. They feel physical pain when not cracking. Because of the negative liagment-loop the more you crack, the more you want to crack. The pain only goes away for a little while, it comes back in quicker and quicker cycles the more you crack. The converse arguments holds: Exercise strengthening your muscles / tendons / liagments does help stabilize joints and thus reduce joint pressure pains.

Being submersed in warmth seems to reduce joint pressure.

Will power alone will only work on joints with the following properties:

The joint must not crack on normal daily movements you cannot possibly prevent. The joint only cracks with a special "move" or "stretch" you can make yourself aware of.E.g. my "ankles" do not seem to fit into this pattern. Minimal, normal unconscious movements suffice, I am often surprised when they pop. Unless I put my feet in casts, it will be pretty much impossible to avoid these unintended "surprise" cracks. As long as the joint cracking related physical properties of my ankles are not treated, reversed or undone, I thus doubt I'll ever be able to minimize their cracking to a level where I'm not bothered by them.

All in all, does this sound like an ordinary "habit" in all cases? I think not. Hence this forum and sub-section. 🙂

Of course joint popping can be a simple habit, too. Most people can pick up knuckle cracking and more if they really want to and are bored or whatever. Not everyone needs to use the "advanced" sections.

That sounds awesome! The other day I had a pretty similar experience. I woke up, and immediately my neck felt stiff and sore, and I couldn't really move it towards my left hand side.

I tried heat, ice, massage: nothing worked, and it was really getting me down. I then, at the end of my tether, decided to crack it.

I cupped my chin with my left hand and grabbed the hair on the back of my head with my right.

I pulled it, much harder than I usually do, and got 7 really deep cracks, all the way from the base of my neck to the tip. They started off as big clunks, and progressed to smaller and smaller high pitched pops up the neck. It felt incredible! My neck was then fine for the rest of the day 🙂

K8kate, thanks for sharing your success story. Congratulations. How long ago have you stopped? How many days, months, years has it been?

Could you elaborate what you did that helped you to stop? Was it sheer will power or did you do anything to help ease the transition?

Personally, besides obvious will power, I learned the following helps:

If a day is messed up a day is messed up, start anew with "stopping" when you get out of bed in the morning. It is easier to continue not to crack if you have not done so for a while. 8 hours or so is a start! Relaxation of any sort, do stuff you really like which help you relax. Physical exercise which doesn't induce cracking. For ankles and toes e.g. jogging helps. I recommend fitness clubs for otherwise hard to train muscles / tendons. If you feel a very strong cracking desire in a specific joint, try to wiggle the joint a little bit. Not enough to get it to crack! Just a little bit to get the tendons to loosen up a little. Warmth: Hot shower, bath, sauna.

I'm allergic to nuts, but I don't think that has had any bearing on my joint cracking seeing as I've had it all my life, whereas the cracking is only 4 years or so. It would be interesting if we could get a doctor on this site, maybe they could help a little bit.

@twid:

Any time I eat dairy, of any kind, in the afternoon or evening, I regret it. I sit there in bed for hours with the uncontrollable NEED to crack my ankles, feet, and toes. Sometimes advil will help, sometimes not. I don't know why this is a problem, but it's annoying as h**l.

twid, very interesting, let's continue discussion on allergies as a cause for joint cracking pressure.

That ncr video looked good, but at the same time terrifying! I'm not sure I'd want a guy shoving a balloon up my nose, no matter how good it was for me. :oops:

Yes, although it takes quite a while. When I gave up cracking, it took about 1 month to stop feeling the need. But obviously there must have been something there, or else I wouldn't still be posting on this site! 😄

Thank you for warmth welcome. My pleasure to make professional and helpful post=)

Macona, nice to meet you! I'm glad you found us, happy browsing and posting. 🙂

I crack this daily, either how you are saying to do so, or:

Lay on my back and interlock my fingers behind base of head and do a "sit up" with only my head.

Or, I am in a sitting position, and I look down at my chest and use my hand and place it on my jaw. I force my chin/head back further down and it pops all of my c-spine.

Sorry for the mess! 😞

I deleted a bunch of spam topics. Our movie-loving spam users seem to be drawn to "Off-Topic", at least spam seems mostly contained there. If anyone feels he / she is up to the task to help me moderate this site, please apply via PM. I'd be happy to hear from you!

I will look into options to better protect this site from spam in the future. Current software is unfortunately outdated, so my current options are very limited other than moderating this site much more strictly.

I'm 25 and I've been popping my joints since I was about five. I pop my knuckles 3 different ways, my elbows, neck, back, knees, ankles, and my toes. No problems as of yet after 20 years of popping my joints.