For many dancers, cracking joints are part of everyday life and dancers often pop them subconsciously, whether for relief in the joint or just through habit. There has been much debate as to whether this is safe, or whether the noise is simply an exaggeration of what is really going on in the joint, making it sound worse than it really is.
The hip joints are possibly the part of the body that is cracked the most, with some dancers even experiencing snapping hip syndrome. For many dancers, they simply have to crack their hips, otherwise they would struggle to turn out or get their leg up high enough; they also pop their joints because it feels good, it can help with mobility, and it can often seem truly necessary. When the hips are ‘popped’ it should not induce pain, just relief for the joint and reduce any pain that is already felt there.
There are several different ways you might pop in your hip, and this sound is from the tendons moving over the hip’s bone structure. Tendons connect muscle to bone and usually cross a joint. They are held in place by tough fascia and bony structures, but they can sometimes get temporarily caught on the joint as you are moving through a large range of motion. When this is not smooth it results in the audible “pop” and/or a pop that you can feel. This can happen either by force or on its own.
Everyone’s joints are fairly similar in shape, but how tight or loose the soft tissues are around the joint, and whether or not someone can pop their hips or not, can differ a lot between individuals. Occasional snapping of the hip is acceptable however if it is done repetitively or habitually, this can result in irritation of the tendon or inflammation of the tendon and the joint capsule. This can cause genuine pain and discomfort, tears and decreased dance function.