No-One is Safe From Muscle Cramps
When you are training to get fit or build muscle you are going to get muscle cramps at some stage in your training program, it happens to everyone. Believe it or not people who don't train also get muscle cramps, so no-one is safe!
Simply, muscle cramps are just muscle contractions which happen completely involuntarily and usually occur in your leg and stomach muscles. Muscle cramps are a real pain, and can really disrupt your training workout, but there are a number of things you can do to help reduce the frequency and probability of muscle cramps.
Tips To Prevent Muscle Cramps
There are a number of reasons for muscle cramps; the main one is that they are induced by dehydration, low salt and ion levels in the body. So make sure that you carry a good energy drink with you to training, preferably an isotonic drink which has the correct composition of sugars, salts and other ions.
Make sure that you warm up properly before you start training, do at least five minutes of light jogging or skipping to get your blood flowing and cardiovascular system ready. Follow this with some dynamic and static stretching to loosen off your muscles before you do any lifting or intense exercise, as this will also help prevent injuries and allow you a full range of motion in your exercises.
If you have been out of training for a while make sure you place more emphasis on warming up and warming down than you would normally as you are more prone to getting muscle cramps when you've out for a while, the same applies to beginners. Gradually build up the intensity and ensure the muscle groups which you are training have 48 hours to recover before working them again especially if you are doing weights.
The most important thing that you can do to reduce muscle cramps is to stay well hydrated, sip water or your energy drink regularly throughout your training session to keep on top of it. If it is hotter or more humid than normal, drink more as you will lose extra fluid through sweat, so it's important that you constantly replace it.
Key Points:
-Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated
-Carry a sports drink to replace ions and nutrients lost through sweat
-Warm up and warm down properly
Muscle cramps are normal, every athlete gets them at some point, they usually go away after a minute of so, or quicker if you can stretch the muscle out, however the muscle may remain painful afterwards. If it does, softly massage and stretch the muscle to help it relax, then ice it and rest it for a few days.
