Cracking of the Spine – Tension Relief or Pain & Suffering Increase?
Cracking joints is the action of manipulating a joint (or multiple joints) to the point of producing a cracking or popping sound. Twisting and turning forcefully through the spine and the neck, making it crack in order to relieve chronic pain and discomfort is very common practice. Interestingly however, is that although cracking may provide an immediate relief, it over time causes more frequent chronic bouts of pain and discomfort, and over time leads to spinal and joint deviation, debilitating pain and increased risk of biomechanical injury (injury to the spine and or joints).
When manipulating the spinal column or neck (upper spine), the cracking sound that we hear comes from the cavities within the synovial fluid collapsing and releasing gas bubbles. These cavities of synovial fluid sit between each of the vertebrae of the spine. People commonly believe that the cracking they hear relieves pressure created by tense muscles, ligaments and tight joints, as it does give a feeling of relief. However the extra mobility that is gained which gives that feeling of relief and the impression that the built-up tension has been released is actually caused by the hyper-mobilization of an already relaxed and tension-free muscle, ligament and joint area.
Imagine for a moment a chain hanging comprised of several links. Along this chain, some of the links have been reinforced (tense-filled) while some have been weakened (over-stretched). Now imagine that we twist this chain from top to bottom till links start to give way. Which links do you think will give first? If we use this analogy of the chain to explain what happens with the spine, we can see that the process is similar when we forcefully twist our back to relieve tension.
The discomfort that is experienced prior to cracking is due to tension having built up in a particular group of muscles, ligaments and joints along the spine. This tension may have originated from excess pressure being placed upon this area through incorrect posture or incorrect lifting over an extended period or multiple repetitions.
See my post Good Posture and Strict Form for more information about this.
When we go to twist our spine to relieve the tension, the twisting does nothing to relieve this build up at the point of tension, but to the contrary, sustains it and in most cases develops the tension further.
The muscles, ligaments and joints along the spine that carry tension do so due to constant pressure being placed upon them, which requires them to be continuously engaged, resulting in them becoming rigid and inflexible. In contrary, the muscles, ligaments and joints that aren’t required to maintain our posture and assist in movement (due to our tense muscles carrying the full burden); these muscles never become engaged and due to their inactivity remain relaxed and flexible.
When the individual then goes to twist the spine to relieve the tension from the tension filled muscles, ligaments and joint area, the muscles, ligaments and joints that actually become elongated (stretched) are the already relaxed muscles, ligaments and joints. The reason we hear the crack is because the area along the spine where the relaxed muscles, ligaments and joints become stretched stretch beyond their normal range of motion, causing the relaxed vertebrae (joint) of the spine to separate slightly, releasing the gases between the vertebrae that create the cracking sound.
Over time, as you might imagine the continuously stretched muscles, ligaments and joints become over-stretched, weaker and further more inactive due the imbalance around the corresponding vertebrae, while the muscles, ligaments and joints holding the tension become tenser due to more activity in order to compensate.
Eventually, these muscle, ligament and joint imbalances become so great that the spine noticeably deviates from its natural curvature, known as scoliosis, lordosis, or kyphosis). These postural deviations lead to further muscle imbalances and skeletal deviations throughout the body (i.e. pelvic, knee, shoulder deviation) through continuous overcompensation in posture and movement.
However, there are ways to regain muscle symmetry and realignment of the spine and other skeletal deviations which will resolve the root problem rather than provide a temporary “spine twisting manipulation” band-aid in order to deal with the chronic pain and discomfort.
For more information on this, see my post Symmetrical Muscle Development.
With love, gratitude, presence and certainty,
Karl
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