Try not to place your foot too deep into the crack, because it can occasionally become difficult to remove, wasting precious energy. Secure the jam by twisting your knee back up towards your waist and stand up on your foot to lock it in place. To use the jam, insert your foot into the crack with your pinky-toe towards the ground. A flat lasted shoe is generally the best option for comfortable jamming in hand cracks. To have a more enjoyable experience, wear a climbing shoe with a relaxed fit that isn’t too aggressive or downturned.

Like all forms of climbing, good footwork is essential. Jamming your feet can be uncomfortable at first, but don’t let that discourage you. It’s helpful to follow these general guidelines, but also be prepared to improvise and be adaptive with your movements. This shuffle technique is often the most comfortable option if the crack treads, or traverses, off of straight vertical. In this orientation the hand sequence doesn’t alternate, but rather shuffles up the crack, keeping the same hand on top for several moves. As the crack narrows a little to “tight hands” I tend to place my top hand thumbs down, and my bottom hand thumbs up. For “perfect hands” I tend to alternate the top jamming hand, and stick to thumbs up orientation. You can place your hands into the crack either thumb up, or thumb down, depending on a few variables. Your thumb and thumb muscles are great points of contact and should be tucked into the palm to secure the jam, or dramatically change the width of your hand. To form the jam, cup your hand and expand it against the inside walls of the crack. At this size, your hand will slot comfortably into the crack with little complication. An ideal hand-crack or “perfect hands” will vary on the individual’s hand size, but is usually somewhere between 1.5 – 2.5 inches in width. This size is often the most straightforward, and the technique required can be learned relatively quickly. “Any pain or discomfort could mean a problem with the joint, like arthritis, joint injury, or gout.”Ĭoncerned about your joints? Set -up an appointment with a Banner Health physician and get your questions answered.A hand crack is a perfect starting point for any aspiring crack aficionado. “Joint cracking is usually a painless, pleasurable experience,” said Dr. If any of your joint noises are followed by pain, stiffness or swelling, you should consider seeing your doctor to determine the root cause of your symptoms. Beyond that, “you can also get some noise from tendons flicking over bones,” explained Dr.

As you get older, your joints tend to make more creaking noises as cartilage begins to wear away through the normal aging process. There are lots of other noises your joints might make besides the standard “pop!” sensation you typically get when cracking your knuckles or back. “Generally speaking it’s perfectly fine to crack joints, including your knuckles.” One study did suggest that knuckle cracking might lead to increased joint swelling and hand weakness, but this study has not been reproduced. “People pop lots of joints,” said Becker. Becker assured us that the popping sound your finger joints make is usually nothing to worry about. You may remember hearing that cracking your knuckles would lead to arthritis, but Dr. “It’s thought that the reason you can’t pop the same joint again right away is due to it taking about 20 minutes or so for those joint bubbles to come back,” Dr. This low pressure causes gas bubbles to form in the synovial fluid, and a 2015 real-time medical imaging study of joint spaces proved that the “pop” you hear from a joint is actually the rapid accumulation of those bubbles. Forcing these joints apart, either intentionally or through everyday movements, stretches the joint and lowers the overall pressure inside. Becker explained that all joints contain a lubricant, called synovial fluid, meant to reduce the wear and tear on our body’s cartilage. We sat down with Giles Becker, MD, an orthopedic hand surgeon with the Banner - University Medicine Multispecialty Services Clinic in Tucson, Arizona, to learn if we’re doing more harm than good when we crack our joints.ĭr. While some find it satisfying to crack their knuckles, others might be disgusted by the noise of a joint being popped.

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