Popping sounds and structure

[UncleDanny]

Hi all,

I apologize if this has been answered before, or if this is potentially unanswerable.

It seems as though many people have a similar experience when sustaining an injury from deadlifting. The story I've heard many times is some kind of popping sound and sensation, followed by some level of discomfort, and in my case up to a week of mild to moderate pain on one side of my lower back peaking two days after the incident and slowly subsiding. At this point I'm more curious about the cause of the popping sound than anything else. Is there a general consensus as to what the sound of the popping is? And if so, would this lead us to believe that at least some portion of the pain experience is structurally related?

[Nathan]

https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog...ns-vs-reality/

[Michael Ray]

Hi all,

I apologize if this has been answered before, or if this is potentially unanswerable.

It seems as though many people have a similar experience when sustaining an injury from deadlifting. The story I've heard many times is some kind of popping sound and sensation, followed by some level of discomfort, and in my case up to a week of mild to moderate pain on one side of my lower back peaking two days after the incident and slowly subsiding. At this point I'm more curious about the cause of the popping sound than anything else. Is there a general consensus as to what the sound of the popping is? And if so, would this lead us to believe that at least some portion of the pain experience is structurally related?

Hey UncleDanny - thanks for the questions. Regarding the popping sounds you referenced, Nathan linked the article on crepitus which I recommend checking out. Overall, based on my preliminary reading, these popping or cracking sounds in joints are likely due to cavitation bubbles and are not anything to be concerned with. I've not read these two articles examining this phenomenon but you may find them of interest:

1) https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ar...l.pone.0119470
2) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22664-4

Regarding an experience labeled as pain being structurally related, this line of inquiry tends to drive duality (mind vs body) further. Most of the time in clinical context (outside of a few rare instances) we say non-specific (perhaps a better phrase is multifactorial) nature of low back pain to imply there isn't a singular factor we MUST intervene on or the likelihood of positive outcomes will be dramatically diminished. Instead, the majority of time when someone has a low back pain experience, as you outlined, resolves in the proceeding days to weeks. If you are interested, I discuss the complexities of this topic on a recent podcast with the folks at Missing Variable: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mis...e.com/podcasts