Have you ever been working out, playing a sport, or even just sitting around your living room and got an intense muscle cramp that felt like a Rottweiler jumped up and grabbed hold of your muscle?
You know what I’m talking about…
While working with my clients I’ve seen almost every muscle in the human body get cramped up at some point in time with a “Charlie Horse”.
The term “Charlie Horse” is actually thought to have come from the 1880s when baseball player Charley Radbourne, nicknamed “Old Hoss” was rounding third base after hitting a homerun and his leg seized up.
His teammate ran over and asked him, “Whassa matta Chalee Hoss”?
Anyways, now you know.
Back to the subject at hand….how do you treat these awfully painful muscle cramps?
More importantly how do you prevent from even getting a muscle cramp in the first place? There are several causes of these muscle cramps. Most muscle cramps occur to athletes that sweat a lot, and sweat for a long period of time. Because of the tremendous loss of water and sodium during the sweating process, heat cramps can occur.
You’ve seen Uncle Rico sporting that white ring around his shirt after a pick-up hoops game…Well, that’s just sodium left over from perspiration. Nasty right?
Well, let’s take a quick look on why this is important. The reason is that sodium has a huge role in how nerves react on muscles. The sodium deficit can cause your nerves to almost short circuit and cause the muscle to contract uncontrollably.
Some things to look for concerning dehydration include headache, thirst, dry mouth, muscle weakness, fatigue, dizziness, and lightheadedness. The common amount of water loss in warm or hot conditions is about one to two and a half liters per hour, and even up to 10 liters in someone like a marathon athlete!
Think about your 16 oz. water bottle that you carry around at the gym, that’s roughly 28 of those water bottles!! The amount of sodium lost is up to 2500-5000 milligrams per hour!
It seems pretty easy to realize that the easiest way to prevent these muscle cramps from happening is to make sure that the water and sodium loss doesn’t affect you when you start to sweat.
Having enough water and sodium (along with other vitamins and minerals) in your diet is the best way to prevent muscle cramping.
Too much sodium in a person’s diet has been found to be detrimental as well. Sports drinks are a great way to make sure that you are getting fluids and a touch of sodium in your diet. This doesn’t mean that you should drink six Gatorades everyday, but it would be a good idea to have one if you were planning on a very strenuous bout of exercise in the heat.
Look for the new product called G2 which is low in sugar and calories as well. The most common mistake that people make is trying to hydrate when it’s too late. A lot of times people will try to hydrate their bodies ONLY when they get thirsty, or even worse when the cramping has already started.
If you are planning on strenuous exercise in the heat, or are predisposed to cramping, hydrate starting at least 24 hours before the event.
You could imagine that rehydrating after exercise or a game is just as important as before and during. The recommended intake is to drink 24 ounces of water for every pound that you lost during your activity. Make sure to include some sodium as well, but not too much.
If you encounter a muscle cramp during or after exercise or competition, the best way to relieve the pain and spasm is a stretch to the muscle. For proper stretching techniques to different muscles, see a fitness expert.
The next step is to immediately start replacing the lost water, sodium, and electrolytes with a product like Gatorade G2. Massaging the muscle has also been found to be helpful to try and make the muscle relax.
Muscle cramps are no fun, I can personally attest to that. Having a well balanced diet including a ton of water is the best prevention. Don’t allow the body to be sodium depleted, and make sure that your muscles are swimming in water to prevent muscle cramps.
I recommend that men should drink at least 13 cups of water per day, and women should have at least 9. This is if you are not exercising or involved in a sport. To prevent dehydration and muscle cramping, drink at least 3-5 more cups before you start sweating.
So everybody, drink up, eat well, and don’t let that Charlie Horse come up and bite ya!
Andrew Duffy is a certified Charleston personal trainer, athletic trainer, fitness expert, and studio director for Shaping Concepts of Charleston. Learn more how you can receive a totally FREE no-obligations trial of our personal training programs and experience the Shaping Concepts difference for yourself.
Posted:
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
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