Does your spine go 'clunk' ?

Emp_Fab

Lie on the sofa, legs out straight, bring your right foot up along the inside of your left leg until it's touching the side of your left knee and your right knee is sticking out to the right, flush with the sofa.  Now move your right foot about four inches away from your left knee - still flush with the sofa.  Finally, lift your right knee up in an arc as if you were trying to get it to touch the top of your head.

Does your lower spine make a huge 'clunk' ?

bluechargeboy

No.

Is it still under warranty?

boogieman

Mine doesn't. 

TheMarlin

Nope. I can 'click' my recruitment right ankle upon request though.....

ToneControl

you are just doing chiropractic manoeuvres  

Hootsmon

Emp_Fab said:

Lie on the sofa, legs out straight, bring your right foot up along the inside of your left leg until it's touching the side of your left knee and your right knee is sticking out to the right, flush with the sofa.  Now move your right foot about four inches away from your left knee - still flush with the sofa.  Finally, lift your right knee up in an arc as if you were trying to get it to touch the top of your head.

Does your lower spine make a huge 'clunk' ?

tried your manoeuvre Emp..... 

sent from my mobile at local accident and emergency

digitalscream

Mine does all the time, although not from that action. Top and bottom of my spine, actually.

Drew_TNBD

No. Because I'm not dying.

In all seriousness, no my spine makes no noises. But it's pretty screwed up in terms of shape - my posture is terrible, and I'm starting to look like a hunch back. Gotta get some yoga and stretching on the ball I suppose!

octatonic

Drew_TNBD said:

No. Because I'm not dying.

In all seriousness, no my spine makes no noises. But it's pretty screwed up in terms of shape - my posture is terrible, and I'm starting to look like a hunch back. Gotta get some yoga and stretching on the ball I suppose!

Try Pilates.
No pseudo-religious garbage and it is evidence based.

bingefeller

It's probably just air bubbles popping.  

SidNewton

It's not your spine going clunk, it's the surrounding muscles/tendons releasing a build up of oxygen as you stretch them. Nothing to worry about.......unless you're in excruciating pain.

Grunfeld

Emp_Fab said:

Does your lower spine make a huge 'clunk' ?

If it's a one-off clunk then, as has been said, you've just done a self-manipulation of your lumbar spine.
Chiropractors, osteopaths, physios, and the village bone setter have been doing that for yonks and it can be a treatment and it can be completely ineffective too.  It's knowing when to do manipulation and when not to which is the real skill.

If you are getting the clunk every time you perform the manoeuvre then it's not a joint manipulation spinal clunk because you need a bit of time to get those again.  It's much more likely to be abductor tendons rolling over your greater trochanter.  (This is what I noticed when I followed your instructions!)  And sometimes that can make a hell of a clunk. 

It's also possible that you've got a bit of relative spinal laxity which, before you start googling it and head off to the orthopods for fusion and god knows what else for a putative spondylolisthesis, is a fluffy concept and a bit controversial but here's my take on it.  There was/ is a lot of guff talked about "core stability" yet there is something in it.  Because for some people they are so slack in their resting muscle tone down there that things do slop about with the odd clunk. 

On a personal level I used to have something which would fit that description and a pain pattern which fitted it too because my lumbar spine had a bit of slop especially into flexion.  The answer was exercise.  Specific exercise.  And @octatonic 's suggestion of Pilates was basically the type that worked for me.

Emp_Fab

I'm getting the clunk every time and the definite sensation of something moving.  Your description of the tendon thing sounds like it.  Dunno if it's relevant but I had an L5/S1 discectomy in the 90's.

Drew_TNBD

How long does pilates take before it shows efficacy?

57Deluxe

bingefeller said:

It's probably just air bubbles popping.  

...isn't that farting?

octatonic

Drew_TNBD said:

How long does pilates take before it shows efficacy?

Depends on many factors.
I did 4 x 1 hour one-to-ones and then was given daily exercises to do which I've kept to 80% of the time.
The focus is on elongating the spine and mobilising the pelvis.
I feel like a different man (no jokes... ok, just one).

I felt sort of crunched down, hunched- I didn't really realise exactly how much until I started doing it.
After a month I was definitely feeling better.

Grunfeld

Drew_TNBD said:

How long does pilates take before it shows efficacy?

Varies.  And it depends what you mean by "efficacy".
Because people's goals are so different -- from reducing back pain, to getting a more aesthetically pleasing posture, to getting a flat tummy, to meeting cute women down the local Pilates class.

For pain, assuming that the pain pattern is one for which a core stability exercise program would likely to be effective then so long as you're doing the exercises correctly (and that's a massive assumption because you would not believe the incorrect ways that people can do exercise) then I'd expect the exercises to make a difference in someone of something like average stature in anything from a fortnight to 16 weeks.  But there are so many caveats.
E.g. one of the the commonest ones I encounter is people who are so physically large and/ or physically de-conditioned that they cannot move their body in a way the exercises demand.
But you Drew are a fine figure of a chap so all other things being equal then with a 10 minute daily routine and a proper work out once or twice a week then about a month would be in the right ball park for alteration of pain symptoms.  Because you're basically assuming that the driver behind the pain patten which you're going to modify with exercise is postural, movement based, and a lack of core strength.

camf

^^^ This is pretty much how it worked for me. The only treatment of my back that actually worked... took about a month to start seeing real improvement. Keep meaning to go back but the gym is cheaper but less effective.

holnrew

No but I get clunking in my hips and pelvis, sometimes I worry they're gonna pop out