While a snapping and clicking cacophony might be amusing coming from a bowl of cereal, it’s not so good to hear such sounds coming from your own body.
Like a metronome keeping time, I was treated to a click, click, click (or was it a creak, creak, creak) coming from my right ankle, or maybe my knee as I ran this morning. As silly as it may sound, I couldn’t really pinpoint the location.
Not really any pain associated with it. And, as I ran on and warmed up a bit it seemed to disappear or at least fade away.
I occasionally have encountered these sounds before, never really thinking too much about it. Just figured it was something unique to my freakish body. Well, as it turns out, I may be freakish, but, in this regard at least, I am not unique.
Runner’s World included a blurb in its August edition about “Listening to the sounds your body makes can help you recognize and avoid injury.”
Turns out that “clicking” comes form tight muscles pulling joints out of alignment. “Creaking” is associated with a muscle, tendon or ligaments that is tight and needs to be stretched.
“Crunching” comes from inflexible joints, usually in the neck, hands and feet.
“Pop” and “Snap?” Bad, possibly very bad. Someone experiencing these conditions usually can be recognized by the fact they are writhing on the ground, probably screaming if not at least loudly groaning. Best case is ligament or muscle pull. Worst? We’re talking fracture. Yikes.
So, the good news is that I am not experiencing those terrible conditions. Not quite sure whether I was hearing a click, creak or a crunch this morning. Whichever it was, though, I’ll take it as yet one more reminder that I need to be more disciplined about not only logging the miles, but consistently devoting more time to stretching and improving my flexibility.
Like a metronome keeping time, I was treated to a click, click, click (or was it a creak, creak, creak) coming from my right ankle, or maybe my knee as I ran this morning. As silly as it may sound, I couldn’t really pinpoint the location.
Not really any pain associated with it. And, as I ran on and warmed up a bit it seemed to disappear or at least fade away.
I occasionally have encountered these sounds before, never really thinking too much about it. Just figured it was something unique to my freakish body. Well, as it turns out, I may be freakish, but, in this regard at least, I am not unique.
Runner’s World included a blurb in its August edition about “Listening to the sounds your body makes can help you recognize and avoid injury.”
Turns out that “clicking” comes form tight muscles pulling joints out of alignment. “Creaking” is associated with a muscle, tendon or ligaments that is tight and needs to be stretched.
“Crunching” comes from inflexible joints, usually in the neck, hands and feet.
“Pop” and “Snap?” Bad, possibly very bad. Someone experiencing these conditions usually can be recognized by the fact they are writhing on the ground, probably screaming if not at least loudly groaning. Best case is ligament or muscle pull. Worst? We’re talking fracture. Yikes.
So, the good news is that I am not experiencing those terrible conditions. Not quite sure whether I was hearing a click, creak or a crunch this morning. Whichever it was, though, I’ll take it as yet one more reminder that I need to be more disciplined about not only logging the miles, but consistently devoting more time to stretching and improving my flexibility.
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