What Is All That Noise


We hear noises in our body all the time and some people are alarmed by it. I wanted to explore this topic because people tend to get nervous about the noises that their bodies make and they find themselves afraid that they injured themselves or that something is damaged. I decided to blog about this to assure you that it is normal, there is nothing wrong with your body, and you just have to understand why the body makes noises. 

 

Some Noises That Our Bodies Make

 

Some of the most common noises that our body makes happens when we roll our shoulders in circles, crack our elbow, or when we do exercises like yoga and we hear a popping sound in our lower back.

 

My elbow cracking is something you can hear from me regularly when you hang out with me. When I was in therapy school, I had one classmate who was so irritated whenever I crack my elbows as it was not a sound he preferred to hear during class. However, it just shows that because it is regular for me, it is normal and is not associated with any pain. I would say that the elbow cracking started when I played tennis competitively. For me, whenever I cracked my elbows, it felt like a relief although I do not know if the relief is more psychological or if there really is a build-up of pressure within that joint that is why I feel like a release needs to happen. 

 

For the sounds in my shoulders, it has been happening since physical therapy school. I think that it is because of how I hold my shoulders that it creates more tension within those muscles. So, that tension can sometimes come across as noise within the body.  

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As for the popping sound in the lower back, I hear the popping sound quite frequently in yoga. Specifically, towards the end of the class, when we do the supine twist as when we lay on our back and drop our knees to one side, I hear that popping sound in the low back area. Most people from who I hear it from make a sigh of relief that it felt some kind of release so it feels better for their body. This is interesting to think about because when we crack our knuckles or pop our lower back, majority of people I know do not have any concern about this because in fact it even feels good to them. 

 

It’s very interesting to me when there are sounds in our body that are not controlled when we do movements to crack the joint and it worries some people. Note that sound does not equate to pain severity or damage to any of the tissues in our body. 

 

Theories On Why These Sounds Occur 

 

We do not have MRI vision so we cannot see what is going on at the muscular level, but these are the most common theories regarding the sounds that our bodies make. 

 

The first theory is that there is air released from the joint thus the sounds. Joints have fluid and the fluid is basically a cushion to help your bones glide better so you can move into certain positions. When you press towards that end range, that is when you hear the noise. It is essentially a gas bubble or air bubble being released within the joint. 

 

Another theory is that it is a tendon rolling over a bone. What this theory says that if you can pop or crack your joint and it can only happen once, that is generally air releasing. However, if you can do it multiple times and make that sound within the body, it tends to be a tendon rolling over a bone. Your tendons are the connected tissues attached to bones and it attaches your muscle to the bone. 

 

The last theory that I am aware of regarding the sounds that our body makes pertain to bones passing each other. As we get older, the joint fluid decreases and that is normal as this is what happens overtime. So when the bones are moving with less joint fluid, noises kind of pop up. There is nothing inherently bad or wrong about that. 

 

You may notice that your body makes more noises as you get older as it is the natural aging process. You may, however, not notice these noises because every person is different. 

 

Conclusion 

 

In relation to the noises of our body and age, you just really have to keep moving. The more that you can keep your body moving, the more that the joint fluid moves within the joint. This helps maintain the health of your joints and make sure that you do not necessarily have pain or decreased function overtime. 

 

I hope that this blog helped you feel a little bit less scared about hearing different noises in your body. 

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