Stop cramping my style!

Last night about 3am I woke in excruciating pain, the likes of which I only experienced when I was sick before my op in 2002. My left leg, the entire leg had cramped. Normally I just push on through the pain but I couldn't pull the leg out of the cramp so I had to endure it for the 7 minutes it lasted. EEEK!

What is a muscle cramp?

A muscle cramp is a painful spasm of your muscle. It's caused by a prolonged tightening of that muscle, leading to it being shortened. The spasm can last from a few seconds to 15 minutes.

You do not have any control of this spasm and the muscle often feels hard and painful. Muscle cramps, especially in the legs, are very common. The small muscles of the feet are also sometimes affected. The muscle may remain tender for up to a day after the cramp. Cramp often occurs as a result of using your muscles a lot. It is common in athletes, especially long distance runners, and tennis and football players and people stupid enough to sign up to a charity event over 200 miles.

Cramp often happens after you have sweated a lot. Sweat is high in sodium and loss of sodium upsets the way your muscle works. I know I keep banging on about this but it is REALLY important to drink enough of the right liquids when you are exercising. Water isnt enough, you need an electrolytic drink with isotonic qualities which will help your body balance out the loss of sodium fast.

Relief from muscle cramp

You can relieve the pain of muscle cramp by stretching and gently massaging the muscle. Grab your muscle with one hand and pull back on your toes with the other to point the toes upwards. This helps to relieve the spasm. Note: if you are a bit of a jessie you will cry; this is sore!

A lot of people say warming up is necessary before exercise but I've done a lot of reading on sports journals and studies have found that in a lot of cases - a warm up isnt necessary. What is necessary is to ensure that the muscle remains active long enough after the exercise to ensure that the lactic acid doesnt crystalise in your muscle and is moved into your bloodstream to be cleaned out by the magic liver and kidneys.