Cracking Knees

[Daniel Ricksecker]

I'm just curious as to what a healthy amount of cracking is. People have told me their knees crack their whole lives and haven't had any problems. Mine crack a lot when I do ATG squats. It almost seems like a different type of cracking at the very bottom though. I don't want to call it grinding because it doesn't sound or feel like that, but it seems different then say cracking your knuckles. I have really tight hamstrings and have just started foam rolling. Would lack of flexibility be pulling on my knees with poor mechanics and should I just go until right before the cracking while I work on it?

Do you mean noises like cracking your knuckles, or is it more like the sound of crinkling up plastic wrap?

If the former, no problem. If the latter, maybe cartilage problems. As far as I know.