Help! My Neck Goes "Snap, Crackle, Pop"

 I hear this a lot in my bodywork practice.  Clients who tell me their neck “cracks” or “pops” or feels “crunchy” are often worried about it and wonder if maybe it’s a sign of some serious underlying problem. 

My answer is that it is and it isn’t.  These sounds are called creptitus and they happen for a variety of reasons.  They can be due to two bony surfaces rubbing together but this is pretty rare.  Usually, crepitus arises because a tiny bubble of a gas is formed within the fluid filled capsule that surrounds one of the joints in the neck.  Each time one of these bubbles is formed you get a popping noise and when they occur in several places one after the other the resulting sound is more like crunching.

Explanations vary as to why these gas bubbles form.  Mostly, they are just a normal consequence of movement and it just so happens that we “hear” them in the neck and upper body because they occur close to our hearing organs.  

However, they can also be produced when we “crack” our neck vigorously which is something many of us do when we have tense neck muscles.  Now, cracking our neck to relieve tense muscles is usually fine but if we do it too often and too vigorously then problems can occur.  

When you crack your neck you risk stretching the ligaments which hold the neck vertebrae together.  Then what happens is your body perceives that the neck joints are unstable and your muscles are tightened to compensate for the lax ligaments.  Since you have tense neck muscles again, you once more might feel the need to crack your neck.  And so on – a vicious circle is created.

So, should you be concerned if you have crepitus?  Probably not, but don’t get into the habit of violently cracking your neck (or any other body part for that matter) to relieve muscular tension.  There are safer ways to ease tight muscles including bodywork.