Muscle Cramps, What Are They and How Do You Stop Them?Most people at one time or another have experienced muscle cramps. Whether you're physically fit or not, whether you're old, young, male or female, most of us will feel that excruciating pain at least once in our lives. It can happen in almost any muscle and is very common in the legs, back, calves and feet and it can happen at just about any time as well. They can sometimes be severe enough that you notice bruising in the place where they occurred. Although you can get cramps in involuntary muscles in certain organs (uterus, blood vessel wall, intestinal tract, bile and urine passages, bronchial tree, etc.) we'll focus on the more exterior ones (legs,calfs,back and feet). What is a Muscle Cramp? Cramps involve part or all of a single muscle or a group of muscles that generally act together. The muscle then contracts involuntarily and stays contracted. You can sometimes actually see a knot of muscle, in your calf for example, and it will feel as a hard ball and it won't relax.
The spasm will minimize movement or stop it all together and in some cases if that part of the body is injured, the spasm limits movement to protect the injured area. It's not uncommon for the spasm to go away only to start again, stop, then start again. Muscle cramps can last for a few seconds all the way up to an hour until the bugger finally goes away. Even after it stops spasming the area will sometimes be sore for a day or two after, depending on how strong the spasm was. Spasms can also be caused by the intense use of a muscle or group of muscles like when you're exercising, participating in sports, and even doing stressful activities around the house or performing movements that we aren't use to. Likewise, we can get a cramp by just sitting for long periods of time, like a long plane ride or car trip. They can occur during the activity, right after the activity or even several hours afterward. Another common kind is what's called rest cramps or 'nocturnal cramps'. These usually happen at night and can re-occur several times a night and/or several times a week. Even though they're not life threatening they do disturb your sleep, which is in itself a pain in the butt. Why do they happen? No one really knows for sure but it seems they can be caused by sudden movements or a lack of certain minerals and nutrients in your diet. What Causes Muscle Cramps and How to Help Prevent Them Although no one knows for sure what causes any kind of muscle cramps, dehydration plus intense activity seem to be two of the culprits. The loss of fluids through sweat, along with decreased sodium (salt) and potassium levels in hot weather also seem to increase the odds. The easiest way to help prevent muscle cramps when training is to keep yourself hydrated before, during, and after you train. Active stretching before you train and deeper stretching after will help to reduce the chances of spasms happening but taking all the precautions in world still won't guarantee that you won't get muscle cramps. Damn, I Have a Muscle Cramp, Help! If you feel a spasm coming on you need to address it right away. Here's what you need to do:
1. Stop- Whatever the activity is, stop it. Please, if you're driving or doing something dangerous like, say, using a chain saw, use common sense and call a time-out. 2. Try to relax- Stretch and gently massage the area of the spasm (use static stretching--this means holding the stretch for 20-30 seconds, relaxing, and repeating). 3. Treat it- Apply ice to help prevent soreness and swelling. Make sure to use ice treatment for no more than 10 minutes at a time every 4 hours if need be. 4. Drink up- Replenish your fluids that you might of lost from excessive sweating during exercise with water or a sports drink and if you have, eat a banana-it's loaded with potassium. Even better, try coconut water, 10oz of this drink has 15 times more potassium than a banana. For those of you who are serious about your physical fitness , and even for those who don't train, you already likely have or likely will experience this at some point. If you do, just remember that it's not the end of the world and most of the times it feels a lot worse than it really is.
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