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Should you stop cracking your knuckles?

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Re: Should you stop cracking your knuckles?

#71
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get wrist pain as soon as I use anything taller than Apple’s flat Magic Keyboard and touchpad. I’ve used this combo for like a decade now and never experience fatigue. Once, I bought a fancy mechanical keyboard and I returned it within a few weeks as it immediately caused me wrist pain. You can scoff at low travel and membranes all you want, but less movement = less fatigue, so I think they’re amazing. Never though…

Get a wrist rest to raise the hight of your wrist to match the keyboard, it does wonders.

Everyone’s anatomy is different: wrist rests give me significant wrist pain and stiffness in minutes. I either need my wrists a touch lower than the keyboard (I’m okay resting on the desk if the keyboard is thin) or I must hold them elevated without resting them at all (if the keyboard thicker) which always makes me feel like an old-fashioned typist :)

Re: Should you stop cracking your knuckles?

#72

Within a few minutes of picking up a guitar my fingers start to stiffen up, I crack them and then all is well, been doing this for 30 odd years now and the joints of my hands are some of the few which don't cause me problems at this point in my life. I never could crack my knuckles before I started playing guitar and if I stop playing for a few weeks, I cease being able to crack my knuckles. These articles on knuckle…

there are 2 type of cracking. from guitar i have same, its ok, some fluid goes out because ur tendons are longer and there is some space. something like that (i am not medical person ofc).

then there is 'forced' cracking, which will be more difficult to do because its actually going to crack things that are un healthy. it destroy some soft crap between the bones.

both are not healthy but first is much less destructive and wont lead to chronic issues as fast/often as the later which much more often has that result later..

the second forced one u rly need to put some pressure or pull them hard etc its not about getting rid of that stiffness u talk about.

i did that for 15 years and my fingers/hands are fine. (stopped playin so that also went away eventually, mostly)

Re: Should you stop cracking your knuckles?

#75

This is good to read about, and nice that it has and research referenced. It's interesting to know that it's gas collapsing. And nothing to do with the bone rubbing. And it makes you wonder what chiropractors are actually doing when they're popping your back... It's probably not doing anything to help you with your pain. And it's probably not actually adjusting anything.

If a chiropractor could adjust something by pushing on your bone, imagine what tripping and falling would do.

This can definitely happen, I had a like crooked hip for a few days after I bumped into a table while lifting something. I dont think this could ever result in something good though like chiropractors claim.

Re: Should you stop cracking your knuckles?

#76
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like wrist pain can have many different causes. I'm a climber and programmer, and I had pretty bad wrist pain for a bit. Went to the physical therapist, and after poking around a bit, she was like "yeah idk if this is actually a wrist issue. I think it might be referred pain from a pinched nerve higher up". Told me to try and sit with better posture, and gave me some tendon glide exercises. Wrist pain went awa…

[flagged]

No, it really doesn’t.

Re: Should you stop cracking your knuckles?

#77
I'm in my 60's, and I crack my knuckles dozens if not hundreds of times a day. I started very young, and I do every joint on both hands, every finger joint all the way up to the wrist. This is my hands while I deep think, and I think a lot. I'll do one hand, then the other, and go back to the first hand and repeat.

Due to this habit, I have researched the cause of the crack, and this article is absolutely nothing new whatsoever. The same information I've been reading for 50 years, since I was first "ordered" to stop.

For the record: zero issues. Zero ramifications beyond "stop that!" verbalized endlessly through out my life.

"No."

Re: Should you stop cracking your knuckles?

#78

This is a bit weird, but I started getting mild wrist pain from computer use in college, and I credit two things with reversing it. One was rock climbing which strengthened my forearms and wrists, and the other was developing a habit of cracking my wrist joints. I stopped rock climbing many years ago but I continue to crack my wrists to this day. The habit causes me to flex and stretch my wrists every so often while…

I get wrist pain as soon as I use anything taller than Apple’s flat Magic Keyboard and touchpad. I’ve used this combo for like a decade now and never experience fatigue. Once, I bought a fancy mechanical keyboard and I returned it within a few weeks as it immediately caused me wrist pain. You can scoff at low travel and membranes all you want, but less movement = less fatigue, so I think they’re amazing. Never though…

Yeah, I also love this particular aspect of this keyboard.

Re: Should you stop cracking your knuckles?

#79
So, I can crack the 2nd and 3rd joints of my fingers just by flexing them. My thumbs don't crack, but I can push the first joint through the range of motion until it locks and pushes the knuckle out the palm side. I can also push my shoulders out of their sockets, getting about another 2 inches of reach. Are my fingers and shoulders just strangely double jointed or is this something different?
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