Why Cracking Your Neck or Back Hasn’t Really Helped You
You’ve done it before and I’ve done it before! Now whether you feel guilty about cracking your own neck/back, whether it cracked on it’s own without you meaning to or whether you had a professional do it; It doesn’t change the fact that…. often times it just doesn’t help the way you expected it to! There’s something strangely satisfying about hearing and feeling that “crack” sound that makes you think all of your neck and back problems will be cured afterwards. But if you’re anything like the majority of our clients, it often just leaves you feeling frustrated when you still have pain afterwards. In this blog (and in the video below if you prefer!) we’re going to talk about why cracking your neck/ back hasn’t actually helped and what you should be trying instead.
Cracking your Neck/Back isn’t always the goal!!
Despite how relieving it might initially feel to hear that crack, the sound is really just that…. a sound. It’s just a by-product of what is happening in your body. The sound often means that a joint is loosening up, moving in a new way or that a vertebrae is moving into a new position. And as long as this is happening in a safe position and without pain, all of those things are great! However, it’s still not necessarily the goal of an exercise or treatment technique.
Most of the time, the goal is to loosen up the soft tissue ( muscle, fascia, etc) around the spine as well. This is still happening both before and after the crack. If you don’t also loosen up this soft tissue, the spine will just be pulled right back into the same stiff position it was in before; Meaning, no long term gain and no real relief or only just temporary relief.
So, hearing a crack while doing an exercise does not mean that you are done! Keep doing the exercise for the recommended length of time ( I mean assuming you want to get all of the benefits of that recommended exercise, that is!)
Cracking your own Neck/Back is not the same as what a chiropractor would do
Chiropractors and other similar professionals go to school for an extensive amount of time to be able to safely and effectively treat the spine (and the body as a whole!). They are very highly trained and able to target the specific spot that needs to be “cracked”.
When you crack your own neck or back…. you’re not being that specific. What ends up happening is that the joint you hear the crack from is the joint that already moves well. Meaning you are taking a healthy joint and encouraging it to move even more. The vertebrae that are stuck, stiff or out of alignment remain that way. And over time you are actually making the problem worse. You end up with some areas of the spine that move way too much and others that don’t move enough.
Cracking your Neck/Back is not the only option!
Not everyone likes that feeling of having their neck/back cracked. It can be forceful and a little nerve wracking. If you don’t like having your neck or back cracked or if you’ve tried that and it just didn’t work for you… there are other options! Many other types of therapists are trained in treating the spine in different and more gentle ways.
For example, our therapist perform something called “joint mobilizations” which is a very gentle way of encouraging the joint to move in the way that it should; no forceful cracking, no sounds, and definitely no pain! In addition we always focus on finding the root cause of someone’s pain and often it’s not just about the spine.
Often it is a muscle or other soft tissue/ structure around the spine which is holding the vertebrae tight and/or out of alignment. One common culprit it the dura which is the tube around the spinal cord. It needs to be able to glide to allow your spine to move. If it gets tight and sticky, for lack of a better word, it won’t allow the spine to move. Therefore it’s not the spine itself that needs work at all! It’s the dural tube inside of the spinal column.
It’s all about finding the root cause and treating it instead of just the symptom (the symptom being that pain or kink in your neck/back).
What can I do if cracking my neck/back hasn’t helped.
If cracking you neck/back hasn’t worked for you, I encourage you to find a new approach. This month we have made 5 openings available for Free “Starter Sessions”. In this 30 minute appointment you will learn what what is causing your pain and why cracking your neck or back hasn’t helped. And even better than that, they will give you some recommendations of what you can do to begin feeling better right away.
So please don’t waste another day, another month, or another year thinking that you are doomed to have neck or back pain because cracking it didn’t help. There is so much more that can be done to help you! And we hope you give us a chance to do just that!
Loosening up your neck/back from home
While it’s not exactly the same as getting some one on one guidance and advice… if you’re looking for something you can quickly do on your own from home, check out these playlists of exercises we’ve made for you! There is one with NECK PAIN EXERCISES or this one with BACK PAIN EXERCISES. We just ask that while you’re there you hit the subscribe button to help support our little youtube channel!
PS- This is Amy. We helped her with her back pain when nothing else had been working. Check out her story!
