Okay, admit it. You crack your knuckles. I’m not saying you do it 86 times a day or anything. But sometimes you just can’t help it … right? Well I do—maybe only once or twice a day. But it sort of feels nice.
Anyway, it’s got me feeling kind of guilty. Because I’ve always heard that it’s bad for you. Really bad for you. In fact, the stories are pretty terrible. I’ve heard that if you crack your knuckles too much, you’ll end up looking like this guy:
Have mercy! I guarantee that wouldn’t be cool. And it would be pretty hard to whip out a guitar or piano solo with those hands. Seriously.
So it’s got me thinking … should I quit my “crack” problem? Like RIGHT NOW? I mean, what’s going to happen to me? What’s going to happen to us? We musicians don’t want to be getting our hands all mangled!
But before we all start freaking out, let me do a little research on this. Hold on, I’ll be right back….
Alright, I’m back. And this is what I found. I asked Google if cracking my knuckles will give me arthritis and this is what it said: “Probably not.”
Hallelujah!
But here’s the catch: According to Peter Bonafede, M.D. (the director of an arthritis center in Oregon), knuckle cracking isn’t necessarily good for you. It’s just not the end of the world. As it turns out, he recommends you avoid cracking your knuckles—just in case.
Dr. Bonefede says that the popping sound you hear is caused by an air bubble that bursts in the space between your joints when your finger bones are suddenly stretched apart. Whoa.
He also says that there’s no real benefit to cracking your knuckles. So while some people might crack their knuckles after writing for a long time—or a musician might stop to pop after practicing a really hard song—it doesn’t do you any good. Instead, the experts say it’s better to take a short break to bend and stretch your fingers a few times. That way you can keep on rockin’. Which is good to know, since we’ll be making a lot of music.