Hello, for the past year or so I've had a general tight feeling in my upper back. It seems to come and go. Sometimes I'll go a week without noticing it and sometimes I notice it every day. This isn't a big problem, it's not painful, just rather annoying, but I thought I'd see if anyone has had similar issues. When my back feels tight sometimes I can crack it by pushing back against the back of a chair in a certain way (after this long I have it down to a science) If I can get it to crack (not one big crack, but it sounds like lots of little cracks at once) it feels GREAT and my back will feel brand new for anywhere from 30 min to a few hours, then it's back like it was before. Tight and uncomfortable. I've been blaming it on stress, I know many people "store" tension in the upper back so maybe this is what's going on? What do you think?

I'm a 22 year old male, 5'11", 215 lbs. I'm a full time student, so I do sit still quite a bit, but I also have a part time job where I am up and about and moving heavy things around almost every day.

I'm open to comments / suggestions
Thanks!

I used to get this in my neck, shoulders and upper back. I could crack my neck by just twisting my head. And it felt great!

Cracking the joints in your neck/back is the same concept as cracking your knuckles. A simple explanation is that it is a pressure issue where by cracking the joint you are releasing pressue. However, the cracking is what is causing the problem. What you need to do is learn stretches for the muscles to prevent spasm conditions and stop cracking everything. For about 2 weeks you will feel miserable, but then things will start to right themselve naturally. Once you get past this point you won't need to crack anymore.

For me it took a month ( I forgot a couple of times and accidently cracked my neck and had to start the clock over again) it has been several years and now all I do is my stretching.

By the way if you have trouble let me know and I can tell you the stories that my dr told me to make me stop. They are true ( I looked them up) and the are very scary, Just say NO to cracking!

Peach