There's nothing wrong with hearing popping noises when you stretch. Speaking in reference to when people crack their knuckles, every joint in your body is full of a fluid, that's what keeps your joints from grinding away and heating up when you move, and over time, a small bubble of nitrogen builds up in your joints, and when you crack your knuckles, you're simply popping that little nitrogen bubble. Well something to consider is the fact that everybody is different. Different people get different amounts of nitrogen in different joints at different ages. You just naturally build up a lot of nitrogen in the joints that you bend when you stretch, so you hear popping. It's nothing to be alarmed about. Arthritis is associated with cracking your knuckles, but the misconception is that long term cracking results in arthritis, where the reality is that you only get arthritis from cracking your joints frequently. If your joints crack like 4 times a day, you have nothing to worry about. If you're constantly cracking your knuckles every 5 minutes, you'll probably get arthritis.