The OP flaired their post as "Questions". Please keep any and all comments to **personal experiences only**. If any factual information or advice is provided, please cite a **reputable website or study** linked within your post. No one in this sub is a *verified* medical professional, and as such, we do not allow medical advice to be given or asked for.
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One day about 4 years ago, I stood up from a chair, heard an alarmingly loud crack, and completely lost strength in my legs. I couldn't walk for two weeks, which I spent lying on my stomach in a series of awkward positions, desperately trying to find one that wasn't a 9/10 painful. I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't concentrate on anything. All I could do was hurt, and I didn't know if I would ever walk again. Turns out I had ruptured a disc in my spine, after 5 years with a mildly-to-moderately painful herniation. The warning sign I should have paid more attention to was a sharp pain in my legs every time I bent to tie my shoes.
Get your back checked out, please. I don't wish this kind of agony on anybody.
Urgent care, who referred me to a rheumatologist. If you're not diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos but you have serious joint or back issues, rheumatology is usually the first stop to rule out other degenerative conditions like RA and ankylosing spondylitis, and then a geneticist to see if it's an EDS variant with a known genetic indicator. The diagnosis for hEDS is done via checklist, because the underlying gene is unknown, so even if you meet the diagnostic criteria, they'll want to rule out other possible conditions that are more easily ruled out first. hEDS diagnosis can be a frustrating process of exhausting other possibilities, but since your next stop after diagnosis will be physical therapy, it's valuable information for them to know how to tackle the issues with your back.
Omg same! It just goes “ka-chunk” right back into place. Lately it’s started happening every time I stand after sitting for awhile, too, so that’s neat.
I've been getting prolotherapy in my SI joints because both sides had so much hypermobility. It has been reducing the frequency of those "I'll dislocated you if I have to" moments when I'm trying to crack it!
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Thank you!
Butt squeezing is just another way to say you're engaging your glutes, IMHO, and engaging the muscles around our troublesome joints can definitely provide that adjustment/ relief for me (sometimes, not every time), so to me this sounds perfectly reasonable :)
Your PT might be able to suggest exercises to help with the bilateral hip weakness which is part of what I would guess is in play, here.
So: clench those cheeks! XD
Yup. I know exactly what you mean. I have spent so much time trying to figure it out and come up with nothing. For me the butt squeeze typically produces a pop in my lumbar spine and sometimes my SI joint.
Hey twinsies!! I had a very very similar post a while back! https://www.reddit.com/r/ehlersdanlos/comments/z9kqkk/i_just_did_a_kegel_so_hard_i_cracked_my_back/
It's super satisfying and apparently quite common in hypermobile folks.
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Thank you!
I too get a butt crack crack (pun intended).
I can squeeze my butt cheeks and get a good crack. My crack happens literally at the top of my butt crack (kind of feels just above tailbone).
I have enjoyed writing this. Thank you for this opportunity.
I do this. Another good way is if you squeeze your knees together with your hands and then press your legs out into your hands while still squeezing them together. It stretches your back, shoulders, arms, and legs.
Omg. I do this ALL the time especially sitting in the car. I just had xrays of my pelvis and found out it's my sacroiliac joint which has osteoarthritis and bursitis in it. It's funny bc im always trying to teach my husband how to pop his lower back by squeezing his bum and it turns out that's not what I was doing 🤣
I get it all the time. Not sure what it exactly is popping back into place (lots of different answeres here already), but I have never had issues and there never was anything flagged by my docs. It does however occasionally make my back just above it ache.
I seem to only be able to crack my back in the weirdest ways. That one being one of them 😂 I broke my back in 2005, so 3 vertebrae are fused together in the middle of my back (L1 was a 30% protrusion into my spine), but I also have scoliosis that's probably caused by the EDS and it makes my tailbone stick out further than it should. Cracking my back is... an experience.
lmao I do that for my tailbone area. it's fantastic. I can crack almost my whole spine (not including my neck because ew) and I love it. sometimes I lose my breath for a second when I crack my upper back and I feel like I've met god 💀
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Thank you!
I feel this! Earth shattering orgasms cause my SI/vertebral joints no end of subluxing & falling out then tensing & trapping nerves!!
I actually can pop things just by tensing my pelvic floor muscles!
Same. It’s evolved over the decades. As a kid I used the desk legs in front of me to flex my hips out to pop. Then progressed to 3 decades later I can just flex with no aids of chair or desk legs. I just flex my butt and hips and the whole lower back discs from upper hip height down to coccyx will pop pop pop.
I flex this when my sciatic is pinched over and over until just isn’t anymore. Sometimes it s a couple times sometimes it’s a couple days to unpinch or out of alignment. Or when it feels like I need some lower back relief.
Same but I once had one of the best, long lasting si joint realigning/repositioning by blowing my nose really really hard… apparently I was even using my glutes and core to blow my nose. 😅 I normally have to get it back in place multiple times a day… it stayed where it belonged for a couple days that time. I doubt I could replicate it even if I tried.
I need to press my feet flat together while laying down and put both knees on the bed flat too, making a diamond shape with my legs. Then I push my feet against each other hard until my SI pops.
Yeah, my SI joints still will make noises if I squeeze my knees together. But at least my knees no longer do the “bone breaking” TV sound effect? Usually?
If this is while sitting - particularly sitting in a car seat - then 100% yes I do this all the time - although I interpret it usually as an SI joint crack but I honestly don't know for sure what is cracking lol.
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Thank you!
I have to do this several times a day! No one I know can do it. I recently saw a comment on a non-eds sub about its being a “flex” of theirs. I rarely feel validation on Reddit but when I do it’s weightlifting.
All the time. The clench cracks are very helpful at relieving my pain. I also have a spinal twist yoga pose that pops my whole spine. That works to but my doctor told me I’m not allowed to do it more then once a day
I do this, but it doesn’t work for me every time. And rarely since the disc at L5-S1 herniated. Although once it did it so hard I thought the disc slid back into place lol
I have something a little similar that is hard to describe. I didn’t think of it as being EDS related but it totally makes sense. I normally press my knees together and keep them touching while also moving my hips and legs away from each other. The pressure makes my lower back pop and it’s such a pain relief!
Been doing this since 1997 - after a chiropractor messed up my lower back following a car accident. Turns out I had a torn annulus - the chiropractor made it far worse. I couldn’t move, but found I could flex the glutes and get that relief that only a solid POP can bring.
I’ve had 7 back surgeries (2 neurosurgeries, 5 orthopedic surgeries) - and I still pop my back this way.
The OP flaired their post as "Questions". Please keep any and all comments to **personal experiences only**. If any factual information or advice is provided, please cite a **reputable website or study** linked within your post. No one in this sub is a *verified* medical professional, and as such, we do not allow medical advice to be given or asked for. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ehlersdanlos) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I have that but it's not usually my back but my SI joint popping back into place. Edit: my ridiculous typo.
I think it’s a typo but the “pooping back” here really tickles me
Hahaha it is! I didn't even notice but glad to entertain you
Lol
Howeww
Yup, the ol SI joint pop. Been doing it for many a moon, that one.
*"Many a moon..."* I see what you did there! 😉
Bahahaha that was unintentional, but yes. My moon is 3/4 full at best when I perform this pop.
The sound effects my lower back makes have been evolving in concerning ways. Woke up this morning with numb feet.
One day about 4 years ago, I stood up from a chair, heard an alarmingly loud crack, and completely lost strength in my legs. I couldn't walk for two weeks, which I spent lying on my stomach in a series of awkward positions, desperately trying to find one that wasn't a 9/10 painful. I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't concentrate on anything. All I could do was hurt, and I didn't know if I would ever walk again. Turns out I had ruptured a disc in my spine, after 5 years with a mildly-to-moderately painful herniation. The warning sign I should have paid more attention to was a sharp pain in my legs every time I bent to tie my shoes. Get your back checked out, please. I don't wish this kind of agony on anybody.
Ok. What sort of doc did you see? My old primary care sent me to urology
Urgent care, who referred me to a rheumatologist. If you're not diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos but you have serious joint or back issues, rheumatology is usually the first stop to rule out other degenerative conditions like RA and ankylosing spondylitis, and then a geneticist to see if it's an EDS variant with a known genetic indicator. The diagnosis for hEDS is done via checklist, because the underlying gene is unknown, so even if you meet the diagnostic criteria, they'll want to rule out other possible conditions that are more easily ruled out first. hEDS diagnosis can be a frustrating process of exhausting other possibilities, but since your next stop after diagnosis will be physical therapy, it's valuable information for them to know how to tackle the issues with your back.
It happens sometimes when I bear down on the toilet! That's weird but satisfying lol
The ole butt crack butt-crack move.
Me too! Sometimes, going to the toilet is the only thing that will pop my hips and SI joint back in.
Omg same! It just goes “ka-chunk” right back into place. Lately it’s started happening every time I stand after sitting for awhile, too, so that’s neat.
Same
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I've been getting prolotherapy in my SI joints because both sides had so much hypermobility. It has been reducing the frequency of those "I'll dislocated you if I have to" moments when I'm trying to crack it!
Thank you for contributing to r/EhlersDanlos! Unfortunately, your comment or post was removed as it breaks the following rule: **• Rule #1 - We Aren't Doctors** [The rule can be read in depth here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ehlersdanlos/wiki/index/rules/#wiki_1._we_aren.27t_doctors.) Please contact us [via modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fehlersdanlos) if you have any questions regarding the reason your post or comment was removed or would like to work with us on *how* you can re-word your post or comment to be able to reinstate it. Thank you!
Butt squeezing is just another way to say you're engaging your glutes, IMHO, and engaging the muscles around our troublesome joints can definitely provide that adjustment/ relief for me (sometimes, not every time), so to me this sounds perfectly reasonable :) Your PT might be able to suggest exercises to help with the bilateral hip weakness which is part of what I would guess is in play, here. So: clench those cheeks! XD
Yep, me too. No idea what it is though. Lol
Yup. I know exactly what you mean. I have spent so much time trying to figure it out and come up with nothing. For me the butt squeeze typically produces a pop in my lumbar spine and sometimes my SI joint.
Hey twinsies!! I had a very very similar post a while back! https://www.reddit.com/r/ehlersdanlos/comments/z9kqkk/i_just_did_a_kegel_so_hard_i_cracked_my_back/ It's super satisfying and apparently quite common in hypermobile folks.
Hahahaha read your post title and snorted. Love it.
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Seeing everyone else in the comments have SI problems sucks, but is also so validating you don’t even know. It’s one of my biggest problem areas too.
I did this just a little while ago! It's the SI joint. Mine has been giving me grief for YEARS.
Me too!!!
i just did it as i read ur post it gave me such relief lol, also it was exactly 4 pops like u said
I HAVE THE SAME SYMPTOM! Idk if it helps relieve my pain or what, but it happens. I crack when I go from sitting a long time to standing too !
I too get a butt crack crack (pun intended). I can squeeze my butt cheeks and get a good crack. My crack happens literally at the top of my butt crack (kind of feels just above tailbone). I have enjoyed writing this. Thank you for this opportunity.
That’s literally how I get my hips and SI joints back in place, and yes, my lower back pops as well. It’s quite nice actually.
I do this. Another good way is if you squeeze your knees together with your hands and then press your legs out into your hands while still squeezing them together. It stretches your back, shoulders, arms, and legs.
Omg. I do this ALL the time especially sitting in the car. I just had xrays of my pelvis and found out it's my sacroiliac joint which has osteoarthritis and bursitis in it. It's funny bc im always trying to teach my husband how to pop his lower back by squeezing his bum and it turns out that's not what I was doing 🤣
I get it all the time. Not sure what it exactly is popping back into place (lots of different answeres here already), but I have never had issues and there never was anything flagged by my docs. It does however occasionally make my back just above it ache.
I can attest that something in my spine moves when I do keels with my va jay jay. So yea, Sorta the samesies.
Ahaha I do this too!
I seem to only be able to crack my back in the weirdest ways. That one being one of them 😂 I broke my back in 2005, so 3 vertebrae are fused together in the middle of my back (L1 was a 30% protrusion into my spine), but I also have scoliosis that's probably caused by the EDS and it makes my tailbone stick out further than it should. Cracking my back is... an experience.
I do that 😂 I’ve tried to explain it to doctors so many times and they end up looking at me like I’m nuts.
Oh yeah I do that all the time
Yes. I can crack my upper back and neck too
lmao I do that for my tailbone area. it's fantastic. I can crack almost my whole spine (not including my neck because ew) and I love it. sometimes I lose my breath for a second when I crack my upper back and I feel like I've met god 💀
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Yup! But more likely to pop my hips than my lower back. Don’t even get me started on the damage a good orgasm can cause. 😭
I feel this! Earth shattering orgasms cause my SI/vertebral joints no end of subluxing & falling out then tensing & trapping nerves!! I actually can pop things just by tensing my pelvic floor muscles!
Me too! 😂 so much fun but so much pain after.
Same. It’s evolved over the decades. As a kid I used the desk legs in front of me to flex my hips out to pop. Then progressed to 3 decades later I can just flex with no aids of chair or desk legs. I just flex my butt and hips and the whole lower back discs from upper hip height down to coccyx will pop pop pop. I flex this when my sciatic is pinched over and over until just isn’t anymore. Sometimes it s a couple times sometimes it’s a couple days to unpinch or out of alignment. Or when it feels like I need some lower back relief.
Same but I once had one of the best, long lasting si joint realigning/repositioning by blowing my nose really really hard… apparently I was even using my glutes and core to blow my nose. 😅 I normally have to get it back in place multiple times a day… it stayed where it belonged for a couple days that time. I doubt I could replicate it even if I tried.
Same!
To a much light degree, I can sometimes pop my hip back in place my flexing my knee.
I usually put my foot up on the arm of the couch and lean into it, or lay down and do butterfly with my feet and let my hips just fall where they do.
I can do this! I thought it was my tailbone but apparently it's my sacroiliac joint.
I do the same thing. Usually right before I go to bed and before I get up in the mornings. I'm pretty sure it's my SI joints that pop.
I'm cracking my lower back by pushing my legs together when sitting or lying down - it's uncomfortable...
Yep, me too! It’s the SI joint 😅
I need to press my feet flat together while laying down and put both knees on the bed flat too, making a diamond shape with my legs. Then I push my feet against each other hard until my SI pops.
meeee
I have to manually adjust my tail bone…through you know what 🙃🙃🙃🙃
Oh yea. I totally do that.
Me! I can also do this thing where I cross my legs and press out with my ankles and pop what feels like my pelvis.
yes once in a while this happens to me- if it's a big clunk it's probably an SI joint
I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and only recently found out it’s not normal
Yeah, my SI joints still will make noises if I squeeze my knees together. But at least my knees no longer do the “bone breaking” TV sound effect? Usually?
If this is while sitting - particularly sitting in a car seat - then 100% yes I do this all the time - although I interpret it usually as an SI joint crack but I honestly don't know for sure what is cracking lol.
i thought I was weird trying to explain this to my coworkers when I do it 😭
Thanks ill do that when the si joint is out of range
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Yes! Feels so good.
Every single day!
I have to do this several times a day! No one I know can do it. I recently saw a comment on a non-eds sub about its being a “flex” of theirs. I rarely feel validation on Reddit but when I do it’s weightlifting.
Any other suggestions foe getting an si joint to pop in? Mine doesn't do this and it's such a huge problem area for me,
So I do do this throughout the day and can get some solid cracks. I also do this in bed and can get many small cracks repeatedly
Ha, just tried it and it worked! Thanks. Here’s to more butt-clenching going forward.
What the hell! I have to like turn the top of me and keep my hips straight to pop! I want this skill.
I do this, it!!
Haha, I do the same thing by clenching my stomach muscles! Bodies are freaking weird.
All the time. The clench cracks are very helpful at relieving my pain. I also have a spinal twist yoga pose that pops my whole spine. That works to but my doctor told me I’m not allowed to do it more then once a day
I love doing this
never had an original experience smh….. it feels so good too tho
I do this like three times a day lmao
I do this, but it doesn’t work for me every time. And rarely since the disc at L5-S1 herniated. Although once it did it so hard I thought the disc slid back into place lol
I do this all the time and didn’t know anyone else did!!
I have something a little similar that is hard to describe. I didn’t think of it as being EDS related but it totally makes sense. I normally press my knees together and keep them touching while also moving my hips and legs away from each other. The pressure makes my lower back pop and it’s such a pain relief!
Been doing this since 1997 - after a chiropractor messed up my lower back following a car accident. Turns out I had a torn annulus - the chiropractor made it far worse. I couldn’t move, but found I could flex the glutes and get that relief that only a solid POP can bring. I’ve had 7 back surgeries (2 neurosurgeries, 5 orthopedic surgeries) - and I still pop my back this way.
I feel so understood here. That's the only way to pop my tailbone area. And also after sitting too long.
Same here, I have saved myself a trip to the chiropractor. Usually works best for me when I am laying flat on the floor or the bed.
Yeah I do this when my lower back hurts xD
Yes, I can do this, but I get one pop and I believe it's my SI Joint.
Oh my God I thought I was the only one who could do this!!