Why Do Your Knuckles Crack? 👊

Morning Knuckle crackers!

We’ve all done it before.

You know, when you push your hands out like this:

Then your knuckles go:

But why does this happen?

Well, most people know you can crack your knuckles…

But did you know you can also crack a bunch of other joints, like your:

All these joints are called synovial joints.

They’re the most flexible joints in your body and they are filled with this special “raw egg like” fluid called synovial fluid.

It's basically there just to help the bones glide past each other as you move them instead of grinding against each other.

But how does this relate to popping joints?

Well, as many knuckle crackers know you gotta stretch the joints to get a pop.

And that stretching causes the bones to be pulled apart, like this:

By pulling the bones apart, the space between bones gets bigger.

But the amount of synovial fluid stays the same.

This kinda creates a “low-pressure zone” in the fluid…

Which PULLS gasses out of the fluid into bubble form causing it to…

Think how when you open a bottle of soda, it changes the pressure and it starts bubbling up.

It's exactly like that.

So what then happens to this bubble?

Well, it doesn’t pop, it actually just very slowly (like 20 minutes) dissolves back into the fluid…

(This it takes a while before you can pop the same joint again lol)

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

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