Why does cracking your fingers/back cause a 5-10 second euphoric feeling afterwards?
Every day after waking up, I always crack my back. I bring this one up because it’s ALWAYS the best back-cracking of the day. So I wake up, shake off the sleepiness, twist upper torso to the right, 4-5 cracks go off, and it’s like a little wave of euphoria washes over me for like 5-10 seconds. Then, rinse and repeat turning my upper torso to the left, producing another 3-5 cracks typically.
The 5-10 second ‘high’ right after a good back-crack are almost as good as any drug I’ve ever tried (shame it only lasts 5-10 seconds tho). From what I can remember, cracking a joint is just releasing some nitrogen bubbles that have built up around tendons and such.
So does the brain release some neato reward chemical when joints are cracked, or is it something else?
I also notice it to a smaller extent when cracking my knuckles, though to a smaller extent. It’s like bigger the joint = more pleasure or something
I also don’t get any sort of euphoric feeling, although like Projammer, I also get a relief of tension from cracking my back or neck. I don’t crack my knuckles on purpose, but I don’t get anything from any accidental cracks there at all. I feel like something different is going on with knuckle cracks vs. back/neck ones, but I can’t quite articulate it - it’s kind of like things were wrong before I cracked my neck, but now things are closer to right than before; I don’t get that at all with my fingers.
I crack my back/neck/knuckles/ankles all the time.
Never felt the euphoria you describe. Cracking them relieves pain/stiffness and at least makes me feel that my fingers are more nimble immediately afterwards, but a high ? Nope. Scratching my back however… rrrrRRRR ooooh, to the left, to the left AAAAAAAH.
Maybe your high is caused by physical effort right after waking up ? It takes some effort to twist-crack one’s back, maybe what you feel is akin to the dizziness one feels rising up from a chair too fast after a long idle period ?
Cracking your back is different from cracking your knuckles. You’re actually causing the ligaments to pop back into place over knobs and bumps in the vertebrae.
I suspect that it also helps muscle tension. When I manage to pop my back, it is just as orgasmic as Mr Buttons has suggested. I actually woke myself up moaning out loud after I’d popped my sacrum in my sleep.
The best crack I ever had was accidental. I was sitting on the floor leaning back and something huge popped down near my tail bone. It vibrated all through my body. I wish I could do it again.
I see a chiropractor and my favorite part is the neck crack, but I hear that’s controversial - something about strokes.
I’d say euphoric for sure. Or close to it. It really is – man, do I have to go all newage (rhymes with “sewage”) here? – like a surge of energy up my spine.
That’s for back and neck cracking, not knuckles, ankles, anything else.
It is truly the greatest feeling I have ever felt. If I crack the area of spine around the heart, its better than orgasim and if with orgasim is mind blowing.
Euphoric is exactly how I would describe it. I think the thoracic spine area.
My theory is that when we crack it we are tapping some nerve or releasing some blood flow into the heart or some type of chemical. I can’t explain otherwise how my brain feels so good. There is definitely some connection via nerve and chemical release in the brain. Or chemical in the chest and then brain. Something is going on, its too powerful to ignore. And to say “gas” was released or “tension” LOL is like saying the earth is the center of the universe. Poppycock.
Its truly magical, if I could keep that feeling on forever, I would be so happy, and I think successful too.
“Cathartic” is the word I would use, not “euphoric”. Of course, I’m mostly a knuckle cracker. But I have cracked my spine (neck, thoracic) in the past and never felt that way.