Women hips popping/cracking- normal?

[Committed]

DDs hips pop/crack like crazy when she's doing her press handstands. Sometimes she complains it hurts, while other times she's okay with it.
Is all the snap, crackle, popping normal, or is she just doing it wrong? She's very flexible if that makes a difference.

 

[dreamergymnast]

My ankles crack sometimes when I point them. Other times my wrists will pop during a front walkover or front handspring. Sometimes my back cracks when I do back walkovers/handsprings. My hips haven't yet, but other things crack. For me, it is normal. If she is feeling excruciating pain when it pops, then something may be wrong.

 

[MissLisa]

Popping in and of itself is generally not a problem. If it is painful at the same time than this could indicate an underlying injury that should be assessed. My joints pop and crack mainly my right hip, shoulder and wrist. This is mostly from long term over use injuries that I never had checked out. Most of the time they are pain free so I'm not concerned. My hip pops ever single step I take up stairs. I actually find it amusing! Haha. If it's worrying you get it checked out, if not it's probably fairly normal.

 

[BlairBob]

It is the body rather joints attempt to self adjust and right itself.

Often, it is because there is tension. Too much tension can cause discomfort. This can feel great once it's relieved.

If it hurts, it means something is not working properly, especially if it's chronic.

 

[Committed]

To be more clear, her hips pop when she transitions from the straddle to the handstand. Then they pop again when coming down into the straddle position.
It happens every repetition, to my knowledge. I hear her body cracking from across the room.

 

[Flossyduck]

I used to dance and this sounds like dancer's hip, which is pretty common in dancers (obvs!) and I can imagine in gymnasts too. Unlike some joint cracking, which is thought to be due to nitrogen bubbles, dancer's hip is thought to be due to the tendons or ligaments moving over protruding parts of the hip and thigh when the hip/leg is being rotated.

We were always given an exercise involving sitting on the floor with our leg crossed in front of us and pushing down on the knee and pulling up on our foot, to increase flexibility in the joint. But given that the range of motion in many ballet moves is pretty unusual I'm not sure the exercise made any difference to the actual popping. Probably just helped prevent injury. It's a similar movement in straddle press handstands.

It shouldn't hurt, although the noise can be loud and the sensation is a quick 'pop', but no pain. If it hurts at all it's something else and you need to get it checked out.

 

[LucyTRA]

Has she been diagnosed with hypermobile joints/EDS/BJHS (which can all be incarnations of the same thing, but not always..)? You mentioned that she is very flexible. It might be that she has hyper mobility syndrome (or similar) which is pretty common in gymnastics I think but in varying degrees. I have one of the more severe types (EDS2) and my joints crack all the time, most of the time without pain, but sometimes it does hurt.

That said, if she is only having trouble with this one joint and one movement, it is likely to be a ligament movement thing, with the ligament moving across the joint and making a snapping sound. The happens to everybody, with varying regularity in life, and is pretty normal.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

ITA with flossy duck (obviously not diagnosing your child, not a doctor!) about the possibility of it being dancers/snapping hips. My ODD (dancer) has that and it does sound pretty awful. Not harmful or painful but it can be a bit uncomfortable. My DD was given exercises by a PT to stretch and strengthen various muscles and ligaments in the hip area, but she also had some compensation issues stemming from an old injury to deal with.
Her PT (as well as her regular physician and chiro) all agreed that the ligament sounds themselves are not harmful in any way as long as there isn't pain.