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| When you "crack" your knuckles, you are actually pushing the joint back into or out of it's normal position. In either case, when a joint is push out of position the volume of space inside the joint increases. With this increase of space comes a decrease in pressure. Once the pressure in the joint decreases a bubble forms in the synovial fluid. The pressure in this cavity is lower than in the surrounding fluid. The fluid quickly rushes into the cavity. this sudden violent rush of fluid cause the cracking sound of knuckles. Once knuckles have been cracked it take about 15 or more minutes for the cavity to fill back up with fluid that's why knuckles can't be pooped twice in a row. In some joints the cracking sound is caused by the moving of ligaments stretching over the bone. Escaping gasses out of your knuckle seems pretty harmless right? Wrong. by cracking your knuckles, what you are doing is pushing the joint beyond it's physiological stop sign, or further than it's normal rage of movement. This puts undo stress on the ligaments and tendons that pull and stretch them a lot; Ligaments behave like little rubber bands. You can pull and stretch them a lot, but there not always going to return to normal size and one day they just might snap. |
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