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| Okay, I am new practitioner of ashtanga yoga and I am a 'relatively' older person, 40+. Recently, I began doing the primary series approx. 5 times a week. Since increasing my practice, I have noticed that my shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, ankles...crack...a lot! My sense is that my joints are 'opening' (I used to be a pretty steady runner) but I also feel discomfort in the joints. Strangely enough, the discomfort seems to move around, meaning, one day it will be my right knee, one day the left shoulder etc.
Will I ever practice without some sort of dicomfort in my joints and will they stop cracking so much? I am aware that my body is going through some changes, I just want to make sure I am not 'pushing' myself (and my joints) too hard. |
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| From wikipedia, "Cracking Joints":
The physical mechanism is as yet unproven, but suggested theories include:
Cavitation within the joint—small cavities of partial vacuum form in the fluid then rapidly collapse, producing a sharp sound. This explains the popping that can occur in any joint, such as during spinal manipulation. Synovial fluid cavitation is the most likely theory and substantial evidence exists in support of it.
Rapid stretching of ligaments.
Intra-articular (within-joint) adhesions being broken.
Of these theories perhaps the most popular is cavitation. When a manipulation is performed, the applied force separates the articular surfaces of a fully encapsulated synovial joint, which in turn creates a reduction in pressure within the joint cavity. In this low pressure environment, some of the gases that are dissolved in the synovial fluid (which are naturally found in all bodily fluids) leave the solution creating a bubble or cavity, which rapidly collapses upon itself, resulting in a "clicking" sound. This process is known as cavitation. The contents of the resultant gas bubble are thought to be mainly nitrogen. The effects of this process will remain for a period of time known as the "refractory period", which can range from a few minutes to some hours while it is slowly reabsorbed back into the synovial fluid. There is some evidence that ligament laxity may be associated with an increased tendency to cavitate.
Repercussions
A single event is not enough to cause damage to the joint, although there is a hypothesis that prolonged joint stress due to cracking knuckles may eventually lead to a higher risk of joint damage. However, the long-term consequences of this practice have not been studied thoroughly, and the scientific evidence is inconclusive. In a letter to the editor, Dr. Donald L. Unger reported to have spent fifty years cracking the knuckles of only his left hand twice daily. After this time his hands were found to have no noticeable differences and no arthritis had developed. (Note that this is not a serious scientific study, and results can be only generalized to "knuckle-cracking physicians with a lot of time on their hands" as the article states half-jokingly). The common parental advice "cracking your knuckles gives you arthritis" is not supported by any evidence, but habitual knuckle crackers are more likely to have hand swelling and lower grip strength attributed to stretched tendons.
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| If you are joints are sore or discomfortful on a regular basis, you are pushing and wrongly.
patient@44 - 2008-06-27 6:56 PM
Okay, I am new practitioner of ashtanga yoga and I am a 'relatively' older person, 40+. Recently, I began doing the primary series approx. 5 times a week. Since increasing my practice, I have noticed that my shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, ankles...crack...a lot! My sense is that my joints are 'opening' (I used to be a pretty steady runner) but I also feel discomfort in the joints. Strangely enough, the discomfort seems to move around, meaning, one day it will be my right knee, one day the left shoulder etc.
Will I ever practice without some sort of dicomfort in my joints and will they stop cracking so much? I am aware that my body is going through some changes, I just want to make sure I am not 'pushing' myself (and my joints) too hard. |
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Location: London, England | patient@44 - 2008-06-28 10:56 PM
Okay, I am new practitioner of ashtanga yoga and I am a 'relatively' older person, 40+. Recently, I began doing the primary series approx. 5 times a week. Since increasing my practice, I have noticed that my shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, ankles...crack...a lot! My sense is that my joints are 'opening' (I used to be a pretty steady runner) but I also feel discomfort in the joints. Strangely enough, the discomfort seems to move around, meaning, one day it will be my right knee, one day the left shoulder etc.
Will I ever practice without some sort of dicomfort in my joints and will they stop cracking so much? I am aware that my body is going through some changes, I just want to make sure I am not 'pushing' myself (and my joints) too hard.
Hi there,
Just my two cents, or 'ha'penny's worth' as we say in England  , it is important not to feel any sort of soreness or pain in the joints whilst doing any form of exercise. Muscle soreness is fine, if it means that the muscle then reacts to the stimulus of training by becoming bigger, longer, or shorter, depending on which of these things allows the practicioner to adopt better posture or movement.
I would say that perhaps your yoga practice is impacting on the joints and their surrounding ligaments, and that you need to learn how to use the muscles that cross these joints to support the joints, rather than stretch the ligaments, impact the joint surfaces, or stretch the 'joint capsule.'
Nick |
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| Hi Nick, and others,
Thank you for your input. I have actually started to PULL back a ton in my practice which has helped with the joint discomfort and cracking. I am quite flexible but I find this is a double edged sword. Though I am able to bend, my joints have yet to develop the strength they need to support the asana. I have also taken the advice I believe you gave another yogi re: keeping the knees slightly bent. That has made an enormous impact on my practice and the pain I was experiencing intermittently in the back of my knees has now disappeared. Cycling is helping too.
I find ashtanga to be both challenging and renewing. My hope is to be able to practice for many more years to come, to that end I am working very hard at softening my practice and taking my ego off the mat
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Location: London, England | Hi Carol,
Good stuff, sounds like you are on the right track. You mention that keeping your knee slightly bent helps-when you do this, try to replace the muscle action that you used to pull the knee in to hyper-extension with a muscle action that feels like it is bracing the knee from all sides. Then the knee muscles splint the knee joint.
I think it is important to keep a muscle action, otherwise the knee muscles just relax and leave the joint unsupported.
Nick |
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| Sounds like you are handling things the right way.
My ankles crack all the time and have for at least 25 years. They crack just walking.
I'm able to do supta virasana, spilts and lotus without trouble.
This would be a good time for you to make adjustments in the practice. ie. before you create bad habits.
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| patient@44 - 2008-06-29 2:58 PM
I am quite flexible but I find this is a double edged sword. Though I am able to bend, my joints have yet to develop the strength they need to support the asana.
This is often the case with the very flexible - the muscles can keep going to the point where it is the ligament or tendon that stops the movement. This can be very bad if you are not aware of where you are moving, how you are moving, how quickly you are moving, how much load you are moving with, and how far to move. Patience and practice will develop that muscle strength, but as another very flexible person who's nearly done non-trivial damage overstretching in a yoga class (and I don't mean hyperextending the knee, that I don't really do), awareness and mindfulness is the most useful tool I can think of. |
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cracking joints
