Cracking joints

manonthemoon

Hi,

I've always been fairly lucky regarding injuries. Playing mostly GAA and only really a few strains here and there. Anyways, my bones/ joints have always cracked say at the knees and ankles, even in my teens (Back in the Day:rolleyes: )

They do tend to crack a bit more now. But no pain or discomfort

I was told that there are only air pockets in the joints. Is that the case?

Anyone else had this?

At the moment I am doing a lot of Road Running (Say 30-40km a week)

Thanks

daveirl

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padi89

I have had the same problem but in nearly all joints, after a while though my knee joints ended up giving me alot of trouble, pain etc.Glucosamine has helped me alot but bare in mind its something that can take months to have any effect, six months in my case.Its worth having it checked out by a Doc too.

essdee

My knees crack all the time too and even though I've been jogging 15+ miles a week for the last 2 and a half years they haven't got any worse. I was advised to put ice packs on them for 15-20 minutes each day to bring down any possible minor swelling from the running and I try to do this as much as possible (I was told I could do it any time of the day but I usually do it soon after the run). Am not sure if it's making a difference but if you're worried about it and have the time to do this it probably wouldn't do any harm.

Guvnor

Crepitus is aka noisy knees.
If the crack hurts be concerned if not take preventative measures like a boat load of glucosamine. I think for you guys running it's best to have 2-3 pairs of shoes and alternate them for maximum effectiveness.

t-ha

daveirl wrote:

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Well that's more for tendons n' such & it's mainly MSM, Glucosamine, collagen & vitC so it's not so wierd. I think it's widely believed that these help joint health, though I think scientific evidence falls short of proving that.

As for the joints, I've also heard that painless cracking can be gases; oxygen & nitrogen mostly I think. They form bubbles and release from joints when the synovial fluid of the joint is sheared or put under compression. That info probably came form internet sites though - I don't think I ever bothered to research it properly. The classic case of this would be someone cracking their spine.

Other clicks can be from slight misalignments of the tissues or small bones in the joint & can are sorted out by clicking back into place or by gentle manipulation of the joint. This can happen in knees for example, and usually there is a feeling that something isn't quite right in the joint.

Other clicks can indicate the onset of osteoarthritis and are accompanied by swelling, possibly pain and weakness of the joint.

As far as I know, in all cases your aim should be to restore full, unresisted mobility to the joint, rather than 'getting that crack'. Also, continuously cracking joints (i.e. as a habit) is supposedly a bad idea whether it's painless or not.

BTW, I'm not an MD.

hardtrainer

Don't worry about the clicks, so long as there is no pain. Clicking joints (knees, wrists, knuckles etc) is a result of trapped gases escaping. Cracking does not lead to arthritis, despite what that old wives' tale says.

The gases build up through compression normally and it can become more frequent if there has been damage to the joint, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a clicking joint is damaged, if you get what I'm saying.

My knees click more now than they used to, but it's because of a lot of running on hard ground when I was younger (bad for the knees!!). I avoid doing anything that causes excess buildup of gases there, like running on concrete. Also, if I do ATG squats when there is trapped gas there it really hurts, so I try to avoid that when I'm going heavy with the squats and just go to below parallel.

Oily fish is good for joint health.

__Robinhood__

I just noticed this today really, I'm 22, have two marathons and 3 half marathons done but my knees click when I get up every morning.

It doesn't hurt but should I be worried?


i'm taking no oils or anything

Raoul

__Robinhood__ wrote: »

I just noticed this today really, I'm 22, have two marathons and 3 half marathons done but my knees click when I get up every morning.

It doesn't hurt but should I be worried?


i'm taking no oils or anything

Have noticed the exact same thing. Recently been trying to do a bit of exercise to stretch out my body in bed, arching my back and legs up and doing the bicycle where my knees just crack with every bend of them.

yit

No need to worry about cracking joints etc when there's no pain. A lot of people talking about pockets of air between joints, which is true in some cases i.e. when you click your fingers but air escaping doesn't cause every crack