I crack my knuckles quite often, mainly because they feel like they need to be cracked, I am sure you know the feeling. The way I normally crack my knuckles is just locking my fingers and stretching my arms, though I can often just move my fingers back without my other hand to crack them. Is this bad for me? I've looked at a couple pages (1) but I want you fellow smart people and knuckle crackers' opinions.
(I also roll my toes over and crack them, is this bad?)
My brother did that when he was about 14,15 years old.He did it three times a day.Nothing happened with his fingers.Nothing happened to his fingers after that.
It doesn't any real bad, but if done frequently over long time it will eventually affect the force of those joints. So I would suggest, don't overdo it.
i actually asked a doctor about this out of curiosity..he told me that basically..the worst it'll do is give you arthritis in those joints a few years earlier than when you would have them. But nothing bad like people commonly think so
It's not the bones anyway.. what does the popping sound is gas bubbles bursting and dispersing in the tissue, slowly accumulating again over time.
This is what I have found to be true. And also like others said before, the only real damage that can be done is if you force a crack. Like for instance, if one of your fingers isn't cracking, do not try to force it, or you may end up putting too much stress on that joint. I crack pretty much everything, but I try not to force them, especially when I crack my back. The more important the structure the joint is on, the more careful I would say you need to be when cracking. But as long as you do that, not much is gonna happen except for forming a bad habit I supposed (which some others find annoying, but oh well :P).
the worst it'll do is give you arthritis in those joints
It doesn't give you arthritis, but over time you will get swelling in the joint (especially the fluid inside the joint) and that will lead to the same type of symptoms that you would get from arthritis. Cracking knuckles isn't especially bad for you, but is probably best avoided if you can. Cracking your neck (as I or others I know do) can be very bad for you as you can easily hyperextend the ligaments around the neck vertebrae with cause the muscles to have to work harder to keep your neck up, which leads to more tension in those joints, which makes you feel like you have to crack it again...
