How do you reduce the size of your knuckles after they've been made bigger from "cracking knuckles"?

"Cracking knuckes" can lead to having bigger ones over time.

Coolnurse.com explains that:

" It won’t make them bigger, but it could over time. When you crack your knuckles, you are actually pushing the joint either into or out of its normal position. In either case, when you do this, gas, mostly nitrogen, is displaced and escapes from the joint space. This displacement of gas causes the "popping" and "cracking" sound of knuckles, and a few other joints. Not all joint "popping" sounds are caused by escaping gases. In some joints, most notably the hip, the sound is made by ligaments moving over the bone.

On the other hand, escaping gas seems pretty innocuous, right? Wrong. Your friend wasn't too far off when she/he told you that cracking your knuckles would make them bigger. By cracking your knuckles, what you are doing is pushing the joint further than its range of motion would normally allow. This puts stress on the ligaments and tendons that hold the joint together and in place. Ligaments behave a little like rubber bands -- you can pull and stretch them a lot; but, eventually they won't return to their original shape and length.

After years of pushing your joint past its normal range of motion, it may become "hypermobile." If the joint is very mobile (as in the hand), the joint surfaces might wear out. If this happens, the body responds by laying down more bone. Although this sounds like the body healing itself, in reality, matters are made worse. Usually, the bone is not laid down smoothly and the joint surfaces become rough. So, spurring or sharp spots will develop in the bone of the joint in question. Eventually, you may have rough surfaces moving against each other, to which the body might respond by swelling, increasing the amount of fluid and blood in the area. In the end, you could have a joint ("arthro") that is inflamed ("-itis").

Of course, little research has been carried out in this area, so it's difficult to say with a high degree of certainty that knuckle and other joint cracking will lead to arthritis or other joint diseases. But it's fairly safe to say that repeatedly pushing a joint beyond its normal physical range is not a good thing to do. And years down the road, you could possibly end up with arthritis in your hands, not just big knuckles like your friend said! I still crack mine and I have arthritic hands... oh well. "

source: http://www.coolnurse.com/health_faqs2.htm

Here's another website that asserts that cracking your knuckles over time can make them bigger and worse, can possibly lead to arthritis:

"Dear Reader,
When you "crack" your knuckles, you are actually pushing the joint either back into or out of its normal position. In either case, when you do this, gas(es), primarily nitrogen, is displaced and escapes from the joint space. This displacement of gas causes the characteristic "popping" and "cracking" sound of knuckles, and a few other joints. Not all joint "popping" sounds are caused by escaping gases. In some joints, most notably the hip, the sound is made by ligaments moving over the bone.

On the other hand, escaping gas seems pretty innocuous, right? Wrong. Mom wasn't too far off when she told you that cracking your knuckles would make them big. By cracking your knuckles, what you are doing is pushing the joint beyond its physiological stop sign, or further than its range of motion would normally allow for. This puts undue stress on the ligaments and tendons that hold the joint together and in place. Ligaments behave a little like rubber bands---you can pull and stretch them a lot; but, eventually they won't return to their original shape and length.

After years of pushing your joint past its normal range of motion, it may become "hypermobile." If the joint is very mobile (as in the hand), the joint surfaces might wear out. If this happens, the body responds by laying down more bone. Although this sounds like the body healing itself, in reality, matters are made worse. Usually, the bone is not laid down smoothly and the joint surfaces become rough. Worst case scenario - spurring or sharp spots will develop in the bone of the joint in question. Eventually, you may have rough surfaces moving against each other, to which the body might respond by swelling, increasing the amount of fluid and blood in the area. Talk about unpleasant friction! In the end, you could have a joint ("arthro") that is inflamed ("-itis").

Of course, little research has been carried out in this area, so it's difficult to say with a high degree of certainty that knuckle and other joint cracking will lead to arthritis or other joint diseases. But it's fairly safe to say that repeatedly pushing a joint beyond its normal physical range is not a good thing to do. And years down the road, you could possibly end up with big problems, not just big knuckles like mom said! "

source: http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0964.html

As you can see, it is true that crackling your knocules CAN lead to having bigger knuckles and possibly having worse problems develop over time!

So, don't crack your knuckles! :)