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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 cracking never seem to say anything but state, but sort of maybe could be but your aunt is almost certainly wrong unless or maybe in certain exceptions. For the majority of people I think we crack our knuckles for the same reason we often stretch when we get up, it relieves a tension that needs relieving.

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I do this through the day etc but in my case it feels quite clear that the two are unrelated. The stiffness is in muscles, tendons, and ligaments and feels very similar to that in other parts of my body. In the hand, performing the stretching actions causes cracking. In my ankle etc, it does not but the stretching and twisting has the same effect on the stiffness I experience.

I grew up and around 7-8 I started cracking my neck. It was like an accordian. For years it worked.

Now I get maybe one crack every few weeks but the magic is gone.

Same for my hands. I was "voracious" cracker, now my fingers get 10% of the cracks I used to get.

I still am able to crack my back, lower back by tugging on my belt and that releases a lot of uumpf. For upper back, I lay on my back, put my knuckles below the spine and go down one by one. Satisfying.

I also have a problem. Every time I stand for a long time, do some work standing up, my lower back is like dead. So I get someone to get on my sacro-illiac joint I think and a loud crack and I'm fit as a fiddle. I'm weird

The back crack is excellent. If I feel it getting sore, it fixes it every time.

I can feel some kind of tension after a short bit of using my hands, and cracking my knuckles relieves it and allows me to continue without any issues. Usually I have to crack them before falling asleep, since the feeling of tension keeps me from sleeping. Doctors never thought this was an issue and I have no joint damage (checked for other reasons).

I also crack my fingers in the morning, over the day, and before sleeping. I also feel this "tension".

But I am not sure whether it is a real "tension" or something my brain makes up to force me crack my knuckles which gives some perceived relief. Maybe I am just addicted to this relief.

I haven't seen any research on this urge to crack and the possible tension. Is this a physical tension, some psychologically perceived tension due to an addiction, or something else?

Gas buildup, is the best theory I’ve read.

Is it a theory, I thought it was exactly what causes it. The stretching depressurizes the liquidy thing in the joints and that causes dissolved gases to bubble out of solution in nucleation points. It's not really gas build up, but more like opening a can of coke, the pressure drop causes the equilibrium to shift and brings dissolved gases out of solution. At least that's what I thought it was.

But how does this gas or new gas get back into the liquid resulting in new pressure?

Generic life processes? Everything is dissolved you know, including the oxygen and carbon dioxide from respiration. Nitrogen too, though it's not really very useful. The fact that it's all dissolved is how divers get the bends. As the pressure lowers gases drop out of solution and form bubbles, clogging arteries.

My uneducated guess would be that the pressure is the natural state because of the fluid/gas involved, much the same way sediment eventually settles at the bottom of a bottle of orange juice. Over time, the gas will just naturally form inside your joints that way.

I am not doubting the theory of the gas getting out of the liquid.

I was just referring to the "urge" to crack my fingers. I thought, maybe this instant relaxation (with additional auditive feedback) results in an addiction which creates or increases my urge to crack.

Pretty sure it's not in your head. When I was younger I had growth hormone treatment for a while. I needed to crack more ofthen when on it, and less when I wasn't, and it was apparently a common side effect.

Why do you burp? There’s gas pressure - it wants out.

Don’t overthink it! =]

I came here to ask this, as well! Where does that tension come from and the relief one feels after cracking? People keep saying it's built-up gas but that doesn't really explain why we feel so much relief after cracking. (Not just when cracking our knuckles but also, or especially after, cracking our back, neck, etc.)

The article provides some hints at least but I wish there'd be more research on this topic:

> For some people, cracking can provide a sense of relief and a temporary increase in joint mobility, because it stretches the joint, taking it through a wider range of motion. One theory even suggests that cracking stimulates nerve endings around the joint, relaxing surrounding muscles while reducing pain and releasing endorphins – but this hasn't been proven.

Pretty sure it just pushes on nerves there, and there's a ton. And cracking/popping maybe spreads the gas stuff around more.

I can relieve cramping in my feet by cracking my toes. Cracking is 100% useful in certain instances, and I have never seen evidence that it causes any harm.

The tension is in the fluid with gas compressed into it. Cracking causes a suction that pops the gas out, and now you have a bubble.

Maybe that bubble is supposed to be there.

Ancestors used to walk on knuckles, it hurts or is uncomfortable for some not to crack - maybe it isn’t.

No, the bubble is never there. The bubble only appears when you stretch it, and the pop comes from the bubble bursting. Would be weird just having a bubble of gas in your joints.

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)