This week's question
If I increase the strength and stability of my joint, will I not be able to "pop" it anymore
My answer - This was a really great question I got yesterday. And the answer, like so many of the questions I get asked is "it depends". I know that is a frustrating response and doesn't really answer the question. And since I don't have a crystal ball to look into the future, I decided to look a little deeper into the question.
When I did this, I realized that this young woman had been told a lot of the popping and cracking she does is a result of instability, but the cracking of certain joints relieves a lot of pain. She was concerned that if she improved her stability, her access to this easy/quick/do anywhere pain relief would be gone - valid concern.
To answer her, and to answer this question for you, I want to establish that the cracking is generally a release/normalizing of pressure and the need to crack comes from a build up of pressure. IF - joints are more stable and surrounding musculature is stronger, ideally the pressure will not build up so much and the need to relieve the pressure will not be there. Therefore, it shouldn't really matter much if any ability to crack the joint is lost, if it solves the reason for wanting to crack it in the first place.
Hope this helps!
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