Posts made by ZPitcher

I joined because while searching for a joints article to show my brother, I came across this site. I have to warn you, I often don't hang around sites too long. I can post as many as 1000 posts over a month long span, but for one reason or another tend to lose focus on the site sooner or later. Mostly it's just out of running out of new things to say I think. I can only go so long before saying everything I want to.

Anyway, I was interested in the site because I've long held interest in joints and stretching/manipulating them and muscles/tendons to achieve greater athletic results. I posted one reply and predictably have been drawn into posting more and more.

I think you've got something. I'm doublejointed all over my body. I think having that joint flexibility makes you more flexible but also injuryprone, meaning an increased ability to crack joints, and a reason to do so, as to avoid injury and manipulate joints to keep them in line.

I read an article for Yahoo from somewhere else, they'd gotten it from some health site, about how a new survey says people who crack their knuckles are actually LESS likely to get arthritis. I actually found this site while trying to re-find that article for someone. Unfortunately with Yahoo, they delete their articles regularly, so I have to try to find the source article.

So far, I've only been able to find these:

http://www.panix.com/~iayork/knuckles.html
http://www.orthop.washington.edu/uw/arthritis/tabID__3376/ItemID__179/PageID__335/Articles/Default.aspx
http://www.headache.net/webcast_transcript.asp?b=healthology&f=bodyaches&c=bodyaches_arthemail&spg=FLI

Also, as far as losing grip strength… I read that suggested too, but find it very hard to believe. I'm just 5'8", 160 lbs on a good day... but I have as much grip strength as about anyone I've ever met. I've frequently out-armwrestled people with a good foot and as much as 100+ lbs on me who were in main sports before (baseball, basketball, football). I have a nasty grip/handshake that's like a vice, and I've been cracking all joints in my body about as long as I can remember. Of course I also accompany my joint cracking with finger loosening/flexing/stretching exercises where the fingers get stretched back to loosen the tendons... but I certainly have a VERY hard time believing knuckle cracking hurts your grip inherently.

Wow. For the first time I seem unique here I pop out my shoulder at will, just by rotating it any number of different ways. I can just lift it to the side and then pull it towards the front of me, even while sitting down, and hear it pop. I can have it bent and just rotate it in front of me. I can even just rotate it around without seemingly moving anything else and make it pop/crack. Shoulders are definitely the most awesome joints

I find the easiest way is to just sit down, lock the ankles one behind the other, and straighten out the knees. Then flex the legs up as hard as possible, potentially popping hips, knees, and… shins?

I crack pretty much everything too. If your knuckles are hurting, you could try these exercises:

1. With your right hand, hold all 4 fingers in the left hand with it, and "mush" them together, possibly producing a crack or snap. Switch hands and do the same with the other hand. This straightens out those finger tendons.
2. Lock the hands in a prayer like motion with all fingers "overlapping" and the thumbs connecting while pointing towards your face. Then lock all the knuckles simultaneously as you bring the palms together and the thums naturally point straight up. This loosens the knuckles in both hands without putting significant stress on them or tightening tendons.
3. Right after doing this put both hands straight together, in another prayer like hand stance so each finger is straight up against the one for the other hand, including the thumbs. Then push the palms away so the fingers are still next to each other but the thumbs separate. This way the finger joints are effectively bent backwards, so that the whole tendons in both hands are loosened up. This may well not produce any pops or cracks, but isn't meant to. It's meant to bend those fingers back so they loosen up and the tendons are flexed/stretched/limbered.

It sounds like mine's about the same. Try lying down a couch on your side, facing towards the couch back. Then put the left hand on the small of the back pushing the midsection in firmly. You can also move the left leg back behind you, straightening it, so it further moves the spine. It can be done the other way too, just move so facing the other way, use the right hand to push on the back, and if using a leg, use the right one.

You can also stand with feet spread 2 feet apart or so, lift both elbows up slightly away in preparation, with 3 second delay or so to ready your body, then swivel the arms robot like around the side of the body that needs cracking.

I crack my ankles probably once every 1-2 days. I usually have shoes on when I do it. I can just be sitting down and then if the ankles are feeling stiff or too loose (probably because they're sprained or just "went out") I just point the feet so only the toes are touching the ground and push up with the heels. This pushes the ankles "up" and away from the body as the weight is solely on the toe tips. The ankles then pop. I can also do this when standing up, just by putting one leg's toe tip on the ground and doing the same thing, so the ankle pushes away. I find this helps if I hurt my ankles running in the outfield. It's like it puts pressure on the ankle and tightens up the joint, so injuries don't come from a loosened doublejointed ankle that's loosening up almost to the point of injury.

I'd probably have to go with shoulders too, but the lower back and elbows would be up there as well. Shoulders "pop" pretty easy and it never seems like you can "mis-pop" them, popping/cracking always adds to flexibility and limber-ness. Maybe it's because I like baseball pitching so much though…

Interesting. I'm neither, I voted Peroutka :lol: I lean right on moral issues, left on economic. I couldn't vote for Kerry because of abortion, couldn't vote for Bush because of the Iraq war and his economic big-business supporting policies. I wish Republicans could manage the "moral" aspect of government as far as abortion/stem cell etc. stuff and Democrats could manage the economic aspect with wars and business. :lol:

I've noticed myself the neck is one of the few joints that's easier to make hurt or get stiff if not cracked correctly, and is harder to crack. When I crack it, I tend to just do so without hands. I lean the head left or right to make it crack, and on the rare occasions I use hands I put one hand under the chin and the other on the top side of the head, so it's steadied. I try to be pretty careful when doing so, and have a careful delay before cracking it, where I ready to do so. The neck obviously is going to be the most delicate and dangerous joint to crack, and should be done so with more care then any of the others.

I got into it when I first got into boxing and sports back in elementary school. I found it kept my body limber along with a vast array of stretching exercises. For me it became just an automatic "limbering" activity. I often catch myself unconsciously cracking my fingers just by clenching my fists if I suspect a strenuous activity or event is going to occur. I have such good finger dexterity I can drum with my fingers so that each touches down in consecutive order making a loud noise on any given solid object, so each finger in order comes down 3 or 4 times a second.

If I have a really stiff back, I tend to lie down a couch or equivalent, then lie down sideways, usually to the left side, and if so use my left arm to push the lower back in while I rotate the torso the other way.

A favorite way is to just be standing up, then spread the feet about 2 feet directly apart, and swing a roundhouse like arm movement with the fist one way so the torso swivels, letting the arm pull the torso around to the side. I'll also often do this by pushing in at the small of the back with the other hand while doing it.

I also crack it just by leaning backwards so I'm bent over backwards at at least a 90 degree angle. I've even had my hands touch the floor before. I'll even lean straight backwards like that sometimes and then after a second or so let an arm swing over strong across the body so it effectively turns the back left/right while bent over backwards, getting several cracks. I don't do this too often and have to be careful and deliberate when doing it. Basically this is the same as the above, but while bent over backwards.

I can also crack it just by sitting on a chair, scooting forward in the seat, and pushing in at the small of the back with the left hand to push the midsection forward.

In my life, I can't remember ever having a back injury, and I think exercises like this have contributed to it.

I can do it pretty consistently. I just arch the shoulders and elbows back so they're more behind my body and feel a crack there. If I stretch like that enough I can follow it up with arm rotations and torso swivels until the whole upper body feels utterly flexible, even if I just had a muscle pull or something else. If you arch the back backwards until you're almost bent over backwards, then I can see popping those back vertebrae. I'll even twist while bent over backwards like that so the vertebrae become very flexible. When I used to do that more consistently in the past, I had a greater amount of back muscle, and I'm sure exercises like that played a part in it.

I notice I have remarkable dexterity when consistently popping the fingers. I play multiple sports like baseball, basketball, and football very consistently and type a lot. I stopped cracking for a month or so when I heard the old wives tale that it causes arthritis, and began noticing immediate losses in my dexterity for sports and typing. I also felt more pressure and tendon problems, stiffness, and was constantly having to avoid the habit I'd built up. Since having found out it's not bad via a Yahoo news article I'm happily cracking again and enjoying the increased dexterity. I do notice if I do it too much or sometimes a certain wrong way, it can result in tendon stiffness for the fingers. This is why when I crack I also have another exercise where I put both hands together like a praying motion so the fingertips are together, then push the palms away so the fingers are stretched. I believe this keeps the cracking from causing tendon stiffness. Anyway, I definitely believe cracking provides added dexterity, providing it's not overused.

I can crack my elbows just by rotating my forearms a certain way. Sometimes I just extend the arms and make the elbow joints push "up", and sometimes rotate both forearms outward. The safe way I do it for my right elbow if the elbow is feeling tender is to cup the right elbow with the left hand and extend the right arm all the way out slowly with the palm facing up and away from the body. I can also pop them by pulling the arm all the way behind the back and pushing down on the elbow with the other arm. In fact, I can even pop it just by using the fingers of my left hand and "tightening"/massaging the joint a certain way.

I practice baseball pitching a lot and am completely double-jointed, making me more flexible but also more injury prone. I've had no serious arm injuries the last few years since I developed a system of joint cracking and stretching to limber up the joints and muscles, but since getting away from it recently have had to go back to it. Anyway, when I feel that elbow hurting massaging the elbow to make it pop generally is a major factor in the recovery. Today for example, I really messed the elbow up so bad it was swelling up near the area during a softball game where I was in the outfield. I requested a move to the infield during the informal game but no one would swap. Anyway, I played through it and really messed myself up. Now just hours later my elbow is feeling good enough that I'll probably play on it again tomorrow, due to my long-time system involving elbow popping.

I believe strategic manipulation of joints (I don't really have a "system" so much as just knowing what my body/joints feel like and how to manipulate them to achieve results) is key in making rapid recoveries from injury, which is why I pop my elbows and other joints. I believe it also keeps them more limber and effective in multiple activities including sports (I play baseball, basketball, and football every chance I get and even armwrestling, jogging, volleyball, and other activities occasionally as well) and typing. Despite years of typing in awkward positions at 60+ wpm (laying down with feet propped sideways on a chair or desk, a favorite position) I have zero arthritis or finger problems, I believe because of my cracking practices.