Hi all,

This is my first post here. I am a 28yo habitual back and neck cracker which I do routinely each night before bed, though this is something I've only done for around the last year. As a teen I cracked my knuckles, fingers, and toes but for some reason I gradually stopped this. I remember I got into cracking my neck around the age of 21 for a few years, and after stopping for a couple of years I'm back into doing my neck and back. The reason I do it is a mix of habit as I said, and for that amazing rush of relief and relaxation you get after a good crack.

My techniques are usually done flat on my back. One is laying flat on my back and stretching one side of my hip down while leaning to the opposite side. Another is laying flat on my back and pulling my knees to my chest. My third back technique is sitting up with my legs out straight and twisting/bending my upper body over to the side (for lower back). One of my neck techniques is laying flat on my back, lace my fingers behind my head and roll my chin towards my chest. My other neck technique is laying flat on my back, I press the back of my head into the mattress and kind of stretch each shoulder down in turn - this one is like a neck stretching/popping on each side - feels great.

Now I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I wanted to talk about neck and back cracking during and after an o****m. Without getting into detail, I've found that at that special moment (and around the 10 seconds following it) that my spine and neck muscles relax to such a point that I can crack areas of my back and neck not possible before. The combination of these two sensations is amazing.

It is similar to another thread I read here about smoking pot and back cracking, where a couple of people said the pot relaxes their back muscles - though an o****m is far more relaxing on the back muscles in my opinion (I also smoke a lot of pot).

The only problem is that as I'm currently living the single life it's becoming a bad habit, and I can imagine how strange it would look to a new partner 8O :lol:

Cheers.