Do another set of stretches before bed if you tend to get cramps while you sleep.įor more information on muscle cramps, check out " Healing Leg Pain " a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School. After each workout, stretch out your leg muscles for a few minutes. Prevent tightness by warming up your leg muscles before you work out with some walking in place or a slow jog. Although some people may use charley horse to describe muscle spasms or twitches, these phenomena are very different. Muscles need fluid to contract and relax properly. Charley horse is another term for cramps, especially those that affect the leg. To avoid leg cramps in the future, drink plenty of fluids before and during exercise. Apply a heating pad or warm wet washcloth to help loosen up the muscle. Massaging or gently stretching the muscle will help it relax. Most cramps will go away on their own within a minutes. Rarely, cramps can signal a problem with the spine, blood vessels, or liver. You should be able to treat a cramp on your own, but see a doctor if your cramps are severe, you get them often, or you have other symptoms (like numbness or weakness) along with them. A temporary hard lump or twitching under the skin.Sudden pain and tightness in a muscle, typically in your calf.Cramps can also be a side effect of medicines like statins, which are used to treat high cholesterol. Older muscles tire more easily, and they become increasingly sensitive to lower fluid volumes in the body. Age is another factor, with cramps becoming more frequent in middle age and beyond. The risk of a cramp increases during pregnancy, possibly because of circulatory changes and increased stress on the muscles from a growing belly. A deficiency of electrolytes such as magnesium or potassium in your diet can lead to more frequent cramping, by preventing your muscles from fully relaxing. Muscles that are tired or dehydrated become irritated and are more likely to cramp up. Exercise is a common trigger, especially after you've exercised for a long period of time or in the heat. Sometimes there is no obvious cause for a cramp. A sudden, painful muscle spasm in the leg is called a charley horse, which legend has it is named after baseball player Charlie "Hoss" Radbourn, who reportedly suffered from frequent cramps back in the 1880s. They can be mild, or intense enough to wake you out of a sound sleep. Cramps can last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. A cramp is a sudden, involuntary contraction (tightening) of one of these muscles, typically in your calf. If you’re getting muscle spasms with any sort of regularity, see your doctor. It can cause sudden, localized pain (usually with sharp contractions) that often hits the calves. The muscles in your legs are made up of bundles of fibers that alternately contract and expand to produce movement. A muscle spasm, including the infamous charley horse of the leg, believed to have been named after a lame horse, can occur after hard exercise or for no obvious reason.
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