Sternum crack?



  • I notice that when I stretch my shoulders back that it seems my sternum cracks(or at least something is cracking in the area there) once in a while. It feels quite nice. Can the sternum crack? Is there anyone else that can do this?



  • Yep, I can do this and it feels great. It sounds and feels more like tiny vertabrae than large joints but it sure is good 😄



  • I didn't know anyone else could do that. Mine started after an especially brutal slam. I have been skateboarding for almost 10 years and I attribute almost every one of my recurring craks to my pasttime. When my sternum cracks i feel a simultaneous crack between two very specific vertabrae in my upper back.



  • I can do it pretty consistently. I just arch the shoulders and elbows back so they're more behind my body and feel a crack there. If I stretch like that enough I can follow it up with arm rotations and torso swivels until the whole upper body feels utterly flexible, even if I just had a muscle pull or something else. If you arch the back backwards until you're almost bent over backwards, then I can see popping those back vertebrae. I'll even twist while bent over backwards like that so the vertebrae become very flexible. When I used to do that more consistently in the past, I had a greater amount of back muscle, and I'm sure exercises like that played a part in it.



  • I was talking about the sternum crack with some friends and one of them told me that it was the Xiphoid Process that was cracking. I've looked up what the Xiphoid Process is:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xyphoid_process

    But, I haven't been able find any information about it cracking. I can believe it because that's where i feel it when cracking my sternum. Is this the location you other sternum crackers are cracking?



  • i too am surprised others can do this. i havent met others who could until now 🙂

    it feels DIVINE and i love it. it seems i cant crack my sternum as often as others though. wasn't able to do this prior to when i started mountain biking



  • @dontmissabeat:

    i too am surprised others can do this. i havent met others who could until now 🙂

    it feels DIVINE and i love it. it seems i cant crack my sternum as often as others though. wasn't able to do this prior to when i started mountain biking

    When I used to play softball I could pop my entire back and sternum wayyyy more easily than I can now, I think all the running loosened me up to the point where it came as second nature.



  • I pop my sternum in the other way–I pull my shoulders together towards my nose and it pops. But it has to be the first thing in the morning or it's just a nice back stretch.



  • For me there are two main joints that I crack involving my sternum. The one that feels the best is the Sterno-manubrial joint at the "angle of Louis". The second is the sterno-clavicular joint (on either side).

    The sterno-manubrial joint feels better than any other in my body but is the most difficult and rare to make work.



  • wow
    these are some good posts
    I still cant crack any of the sternum joints.
    I'm not sure if one could be the xiphoid process.
    Thanks for the crack tips friends.



  • i don't think i'd want to crack my sternum to be honest!



  • If the sternum is lower - i don't really want to aggrovate it so i wouldn't intentionally crack it.


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