Knuckle Cracking: How to Do It & Does It Cause Arthritis?

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posted on 17 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Cracking your knuckles is a great way to relieve tension in your fingers, keep your hands busy, or annoy your friend with the gross sound of your fingers snapping. But what’s the best way to do it? Is it actually bad for your joints, or are you all clear to do this whenever you want? In this article, we’ll answer all of those questions and more! Read on to learn everything you’d ever want to know about knuckle cracking.

Things You Should Know

Make a fist with your hand, then clench your other hand around the fist and push. You can also go 1 finger at a time or crack your knuckles by twisting instead.
Interlock your hands and clench them. Then, straighten your fingers and push each knuckle slightly to crack them.
Cracking your knuckles won’t cause arthritis. However, habitual cracking may increase the risk that you lose grip strength in old age.
Wait about 15 minutes between cracks. Knuckles crack because of gas bubbles popping inside the fluid in your joints.

Knuckle Cracking Methods

Crack all your knuckles by squeezing your fist. Make a fist with your thumb on top. Then, wrap your other hand around your knuckles and squeeze all of your knuckles with the same amount of moderate pressure. You should hear entire rows of knuckles cracking. You can also rotate your hand and then push down on your top knuckles, if you’d like to catch any knuckles you missed with the first squeeze. You can also just concentrate the pressure on 1-2 fingers. This way, you’ll only crack the section of knuckles where you want relief.

Try the old “tough guy” interlocking fingers move. Interlock all of your fingers with your palms facing down. Then, turn your palms down, out and away from you while stretching your arms out in front. Keep your fingers locked together the whole time and keep stretching out until you feel your knuckles crack. You’ll see this one in movies whenever some muscular goon is about to lay some whoop down. We don’t know the origin of the trope, but it’s probably the “coolest” way to crack your knuckles!

Hold your fingers out to push on knuckles individually. If you’ve got a specific finger or knuckle you want to pop, hold your fingers out together. Brace your fingers with the palm of your other hand and gently press on the knuckle you want to pop. That force should generate an immediate crack. The bottom knuckles should be easiest to crack, but the top knuckles can crack, too.

Use the praying hands method to crack your lower knuckles. Put your hands together like you're clapping or praying. Your fingers and palms should be touching, mirroring each other. Then, move your palms apart slowly but keep your fingers pressing together. Press them harder and harder together while moving your palms upward until your knuckles crack.

Try the Vulcan technique to crack individual fingers. Put your pinky and ring finger together. Then, put your middle and index fingers together so there’s a gap between your ring and middle fingers (like a Vulcan from Star Trek). Slide whatever finger you want to crack in between the Vulcan sign and grip the finger gently at its bottom joint. Slowly rock the finger back and forth until it cracks. Repeat this process on any of your other fingers to crack them as needed.

Flex your hands to crack your knuckles without even touching them. You just stiffen your fingers and slowly try to bend them forward; if your knuckles are particularly stiff, this can work. This won’t always work though, just FYI. And even fewer people can crack the same finger immediately after they have already popped it. This may not be the case for you, but if you're having problems, consider waiting 5-10 minutes and crack again.

Crack your thumb by folding it on your palm and pressing on it. Stick your fingers out like you’re waving hello to someone. Then, tuck your thumb against the center of your palm. Apply light pressure to your thumb by pressing the joints into your hand until they crack.

Understanding Your Knuckles

Learn why your knuckles crack when they bend at an angle. There’s fluid in between every joint in your body called synovial fluid. This fluid lubricates your joints, but pressure can build up in your joints (this is the feeling that makes you want to crack them in the first place). When you crack your knuckles, you’re relieving the gas bubbles inside of the joint.

Know that you probably aren’t raising your risk for arthritis. There’s a popular old wives’ tale out there that cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis. We’ve got good news for you knuckle-cracking fans out there—that doesn’t seem to be the case. There have been a ton of studies on this, and arthritis doesn’t appear to be a risk here.

Be careful about chronic cracking if you want to maintain grip strength. While you aren’t at risk of arthritis, there does seem to be some evidence that habitual knuckle-cracking can lead to a weaker grip over time. The impacts don’t appear to be extreme, and you can get better with moderate treatment, but it’s something to keep in mind. If you only crack your knuckles every now and then, you’re probably going be fine.

Wait for 15 minutes or so between cracks. Once you have cracked your knuckles, it will take some time for the gas bubbles to redevelop in your synovial fluid. This prevents you from cracking them again right away. Don’t repeatedly try to crack your knuckles—you’ll just irritate your joints.