Help ! Popping Joints
 

Hey everyone! Can anyone telling me what to do about my popping joints? My joints have been popping for as long as I can remember. The joinst in my fingers, wrist, kneck, shoulders, knees, ankles and my chest too (this is more recent-past 4-6 months). I drink alot of water and I do my stretches as much as possible and have been exercising. (a friend suggested I build more muscles around the joint area to take some pressure off!) Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong in my training? Stretching? Am I just gettin old? (I know I'm not- haha) Is it a more serious problem I've been ignoring my whole life and will it affect my training in the future?
Thanks all!

I wouldn't worry too much about them. The popping in a joint is technically known as "cavitation," and it is the result of a sudden decrease of pressure within the joint capsule as the ligaments stretch.

The only caveat would be that sometimes a joint that is frequently popping becomes hypermobile because it is trying to compensate for another joint that is not moving.

If you are concerned, it would be worth a visit to a chiropractic physician to see what's what.

Avery

Hey Avery thanks for writting back. I'm just curious. What can a chiropractor do for me? Will it solve the popping permanently of is it something I'll have to keep doing? With all the stretches we do. Does that eventually make the popping go away?

Peace

Hi.
I agree that "popping" noise in and of itself, without pain, instabiltiy or swelling, is probably not serious.
I would point out, though, that too MUCH flexibility can be a problem. In order to protect joints, there needs to be a balance between strength and flexibility--if you want to train in a martial art, having the flexibility of an advanced yoga practitioner without strong muscles may be risking injury.
In terms of your practice, best regardless of age is to warm up, then stretch, before class, and to stretch again and cool down after class.

cheers
janet

If the popping is due to some joints getting hypermobile to compensate for nearby joints that are immobile, then the chiropractor could get the stuck joints moving again, which should reduce the popping in the other joints. If there is a muscle imbalance or weakness compromising the joint integrity, he or she could figure out which ones need to be strengthened and have you do some exercises to fix it.

Avery

popping joints
 

Thanks for the advice Janet. I'm little more confused. I thought the warm up was the stretching. What do yo do to warm up before you stretch?

Peace,

Makes sense to me I'll try one and see what happens. Thanks Avery!

Peace,

Re: popping joints
 

For warming up my body, I sometimes do a bunch of rocking back and forth onto my back from a seated position. I may then do ten to twenty consecutive forward rolls then the same number of backward rolls. Stretching in and of themselves do not warm my body up at all...

Personally, I don't do any "real" stretching of my major muscle groups before class; just a few, easy stretches to get the kinks worked out. I reserve my heavy-duty stretching for after class when my body is warmed up, usually while I'm folding my hakama and immediately afterwards.

-- Jun

Pop! Pop! Pop!
 

Somewhere in the twilight of my youthful adult life, I do remember there were good days and bad days for snap, crackle and pop of my body's physiology. I had attibuted it to lack of sleep, bad diet, and sometimes the demon Alcohol ... (My reference being the Kinks song not the AA)

It wasn't until I reached my fortys that it became painfull, and almost intolerable. At that time, I modified my diet, started to take vitamins regularly, and stretched all day to work out the stiffness I thought was the cause of this hip, knee, shoulder, ankel .... on and on ... noise.

Never did tame down to more than a crackle.

When I was diagnosed with Meniere's, a balance disease of the ear, at least it mainly thought to be, I was given a water pill to lower the water in my ears, but the pill was made to reduce swelling in joints from arthiritus. After about six months, my knees got better, as they were a cause of twisted pains regularly, my back firmed up, and generally the popping disappeared completely!

Now, I am no doctor, but if you cannot get your main joints to stop popping, or at least quiet down with diet and exercise, maybe you should look into a water pill. I don't reccommend it if you are able to control it with diet and exercise, but if you are a candidate who has arthiritus, or slipping into middle age, I would seriously press your doctor to examine this option.

If you choose the chiropractic option, remember that chiropractic is a series of constant exercises that you not only get from the practitioner, but you have an obligation to follow the diet and exercises that go along with treatment.

The revelation being, exercises you can do without going to see a chiropractor?

Spend some time examining your diet and lifestyle, it will also be a key to finding your answer. The salty foods, and alcohol will also be a determinate to how good or bad your joints pop.

I could go on and on, but at least my joints have stopped popping. Now, if I could stop the room from spinning after three or four rolls ... My cure is eventual deafness, or death. But I can wait for either to come.

Get a hold of your problem, it will be easy.

Re: Pop! Pop! Pop!
 

Bruce thanks for that "little" hahaha bit of advice. It truly was helpful. There is some popping in my ears at times. The joints popping have been going on for a long long time. I'm still young (32 years young) I just didn't make any sense to me that my joints keep popping everytime I do a stretch. I know this is bad too but when joints feel stiff and uncomfortable snapping or popping seem to give some comfort but it's real temporary.
I will explore all those options folks. I really appreciate it! I got alot from everyone to go on! Thanks!

Peace,