overPumped.com Blog: Muscle Cramps....breaking my stride!

Have you ever been in the middle of an exercise and found yourself in sudden excruciating pain from a muscle cramp? Join the club. Muscle cramps are common to everyone, but can be especially painful during a workout. They can affect any age group but tend to be more common as you get older. It can also happen while you sit, walk or even just sleep.

When we use our arms and legs, these muscles can be controlled voluntarily and they normally alternate between being contracted and relaxed. Muscles that support our neck, head and trunk would contract in a synchronized way to maintain our posture.

A muscle cramp, is a sudden, involuntarily contracted muscle, which does not relax. It occurs in various muscles and is normally accompanied by a sharp pain which can last from a few seconds up to 15 minutes. In some cases it can even be longer and it is not uncommon for a cramp to reoccur several times before it is finally resolved. A bulging lump of muscle tissue can sometimes be seen underneath the skin depending on the severity of the cramp.

Several things can contribute to you having muscle cramps.

There are times when you may cramp up, because of the vigorous use of your muscles, like when you are exercising. In this case, the cramping can occur either during the activity or it may happen several hours later. Your muscles need time to rest and if you were, for example, rushing through your workout and not resting enough, your muscle may not have time to recover leading to cramps. It can also happen if you fail to properly stretch or warm up your muscles before you do heavy weight lifting.

Muscle fatigue can also cause cramping. There are times when we overwork our muscles, either in the gym or otherwise. This can cause muscle to become exhausted and lead to you cramping. Sometimes your body may remain in an awkward position for a long period of time and you may find your muscles respond by cramping. There are also instances when using a previously injured muscle can result in sudden muscle cramps.

Dehydration is also a cause of muscle cramping. It is an excessive loss of fluid in the body and can be caused by extreme heat or extreme sweating. This means that an athlete or anyone doing vigorous activities is prone to cramping, as they can become dehydrated from too much sweating. Profuse sweating can cause a fall in the level of electrolytes in the body, in particular sodium. The body needs sodium to help it maintain normal body-fluid balance and blood pressure. Together with other electrolytes, it is critical for nerve impulse generation and muscle contraction. Someone using diuretics to help their body to rid itself of water and salt through urine, can also be prone to cramps.

A low level of potassium, magnesium or calcium can also cause muscle cramping since these electrolytes are needed for healthy muscle function and play a direct role in muscle activity.

If you have restricted blood flow to working muscles, then you may have cramping in that area. Older persons may have this problem because of health issues. It can also happen if you are using tight clothing, since it may restrict your blood supply to certain areas.

Muscle cramping can in some instances be caused by a medical condition. Persons with diabetes, nerve, liver or thyroid disorders may be at higher risk.

So what can you do to prevent muscle cramps during exercising?

Before you workout, it is important to remember to stretch and warm up, as tight muscles can lead to cramps. Do flexibility exercises on a regular basis before and after you work out, to ensure that you stretch the muscle groups most susceptible to cramping. This will help you to be flexible enough to comfortably perform any activities you take part in. Make sure that you also do some light exercises first to warm up your muscles and get them moving.

When doing either very vigorous or strenuous exercises, you need to give your muscle sufficient time to rest between sets. This is important so that you don't overexert yourself, because in addition to leading to cramping, it can lead to serious injury of the muscle. You can also massage the muscles between sets, especially if you are doing extremely heavy weights or a high volume of reps.

Stay hydrated and maintain your electrolytes. Make sure that before you begin exercising that your body is fully hydrated. You should also drink water throughout your workout, especially if you are working out vigorously or in a hot environment. If you are sweating profusely, maintain your body's electrolytes by sipping on a sport drink. These are formulated to help rehydrate your body during or after exercise and contain electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium.

What should you do if you get a muscle cramp?

Stop doing the activity that triggered the cramp.

Very gently, stretch out the cramping muscle. This may offer some relief. Make sure that you use a slow, sustained stretch rather than a quick forceful one.