If joints in an area of your spine decide not to move in certain directions (commonly as the result of old injury) other spinal joints that are above and or below will simply move more for them. THIS CREATES IMBALANCE and you are developing an adapted (no longer normal) patterns of spinal joint motion.

HOWEVER, YOU WON’T KNOW THAT THIS ADAPTIVE PATTERN IS DEVELOPING.

When the affected spinal area becomes sufficiently unbalanced tension and pain are likely to become a growing and significant problem.

If you find that you can ‘crack’ the affected area and gain relief - BEWARE!

You will only ever ‘crack’ the joints that are too loose, you will never ‘crack’ the joints that are too tight. So you give yourself short term relief but YOU WILL ACTUALLY MAKE THE PROBLEM WORSE by making the joints that are too loose looser, allowing the tight joints to become tighter.

YOU ARE CREATING SHORT TERM RELIEF BUT YOU ARE REINFORCING THE PROBLEM! You are making the situation worse. And, it is addictive. Because it gives quick relief you are likely to ‘crack’ the troublesome area more and more often and the relief will last for shorter and shorter periods.

This type of imbalance is not likely to self-correct.

It needs examination and correction by a professional who is skilled in assessing normal and abnormal joint motion over a range of planes of motion and has the skills to begin to restore more normal patterns of motion.

The genesis of this type of problem can be ‘slow and silent’ and it is likely to take work over an extended period of time to restore more correct spinal function.