Joint problems run in the family- between my mother's arthritis to my 22-year-old sister's knees crackling every time she stands up- and I definitely inherited them. I have a few diagnosed issues, Osgood-Schlatter and ossification in my knees, and hip impingement in my right hip which I generally know how to handle, but I'm concerned about the popping in my joints that occurs with lifting. It happens with each contracting and extending rep during lifting. My left elbow is so bad that I stopped doing bicep curls back in college and sometimes have to take ibuprofen to keep the inflammation down.

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations? Several sites suggest reducing the weight I'm lifting, which may alleviate some of the popping but I don't know how much benefit to my muscles I'll gain from that. Should I forgo the extending/contracting required by dumbells and return to long periods of holding weight, like wall sits and yoga asanas to build strength?

I think I have this problem too!! Those tricep exercises hurt my elbows, so much I stopped doing them!
I always thought maybe I was doing them WRONG so I just decided not to do them at all...:/

Indiblue: If you have pain while lifting, you should get some assistance. I would suggest talking with your physician about this as well as working with a physical therapist who also does personal training. There are some out there, at least I knew a few in Columbus. Perhaps a sports doc may offer suggestions or a sports med site could provide a good reference.

I suggest this because it could be your form...maybe it just need to be corrected. It also could be that you do need alternatives in strength training that are more rehab in nature that someone in sports med and physical therapy would be able to address more effectively.

Personally, I creak. I creak all the time but there shouldn't be pain and inflammation after a reasonable lifting session.

In the meantime, I think yoga is wonderful. : I have a regular practice myself and find that the yoga and strength training (that I do in the gym) serve each other beautifully. And trust me, I'm working pretty hard in that "gentle" yoga class some days so yes, it is a good strength training option at this point if you are concerned about lifting a weight.

I wonder though...do you feel pain and cracking of joints when you use cable equipment. Have you ever used FreeMotion equipment. You can google it and take a look. I find that these feel a little bit smoother in the beginning maybe if you have access to these things you may find it easier to work in your strength training needs.

If you don't have access to these, how about flat bands...I have the monster mini black bands from RBT training. These are great for warming up as well. Just some thoughts. http://www.resistancebandtraining.com/
Take a look at all the videos he has available to support the use of the bands he offers. Awesome stuff.

Hope this helps.

Dagny sorry to hear you are having these problems too!

Lydia Thank for the really helpful response. I would love help on my form, which I know can be improved, but I don't think this is the direct cause of my popping joints. They've always popped, some more than others, even when I was in high school and lifting for soccer under the supervision of trainers.

I'm trying to get a handle on whether the popping is more the 'creaking' you are talking about or more than that. Only my left elbow gets irritated, most joints are fine.

I'm a regular yoga practitioner as well and have NO problem going back to yoga I really do like lifting so I'd like to include both. However, yoga does not have repeated movements of extending and contracting of the joints like lifting does so it may be better for me.

Your recommendation to return to cable equipment is a great one. I've always used free weights because I felt machines were too guided, but perhaps the tracks and guidance is what my joints need. In this way perhaps I can alleviate some of the pressure on the joints without dropping the weight for the sake of my muscles. I may look into flat bands as well- I have only used them for PT for my hip, so it would be good to expand my repertoire!

Again thanks SO much for these great ideas. Did I mention I'm only 24??? I've had joint problems since I was a kid and my younger sister's are worse than mine. Oh well, it's the genetic cards we've been dealt!

Blue, there are a dozen or more ways to target individual muscles for a reason: not every exercise "fits" every body, and simply variety.

I find that when a knee or an elbow (or gosh, hips, neck, ankles - you name it!) pops, creaks or hurts, I ask another trainer or go online to find another way to do the exercise.

For instance, when I injured my elbows in a fall, regular bicep curls and concentration curls irritated the injury. Now I do curls standing at the pulley machine with the pulley at eye height. My humerus is parallel with the floor, palms up, motion is straight out and keeping humurous parallel, curl in to fists at top of shoulders.

You can research different ways to do the muscle groups that currently bother you.

Good luck!

Thank you fitness. You're right, it's a good reminder that there are lots of ways to strength train besides free weights. I'll check out pulleys and the resistance bands others have suggested. Thanks for the reminder

Just having tight muscles can cause the popping and crunching, too. A good warm-up and stretching/mobility can help if that's the cause. Soreness, even painful soreness would be normal for me, but not "this thing is injured" kind of pain or joint swelling. Hope you get it figured out and that all is well!

This is a timely post. At various times doing a bench press, I have heard my shoulder crack like a somewhat muffled gunshot. But there was no pain & actually it felt better & seemed to work smoother afterward.

In fact, in Pilates class, with 10 women lying on mats with their feet up in the air, I frequently hear little cracks in ankles & toe joints all around me when we first start a particular exercise sequence.

I never thought there was any harm involved. Is there? I don't even know why we make these noises.

Same here. But even when I do sit ups and certain other exercises. Huh. Thought I was the only one.

I think that sometimes the cracking is also a release of gasses from the joint or small vacuums that can form in the joint fluid. Think about the cracking of knuckles...doesn't feel painful, sounds much worse than it really is

Or maybe even the breaking up of adhesions within a joint. So yeah, it's similar to what Cheryl pointed out when we have tight ligaments/tendons surrounding bone joints and muscle attachments. Just a guess...However, if there is pain that should be addressed.