WEEK ONE HUNDRED-NINETEEN :: How Can You Prevent Muscle Cramps?

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TOPIC: How Can You Prevent Muscle Cramps?

For the week of: April 18th - April 24th
Tuesday @ Midnight Is The Final Cut (Mountain Time, US & Canada).

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Now that the summer is approaching people may become more susceptible to muscle cramps. Everyone gets muscle cramps, but that does not mean that they cannot be prevented.

How can you prevent muscle cramps?

What causes muscle cramps?

What should you do if you experience a muscle cramp in the middle of a sports game?

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[dexz101]

Ways you can prevent muscle cramps are by increasing potassium. Gatorade!

Muscle cramps are caused by Oxygen levels in muscle. Not keeping your self hydrated and lactic acid is introduced.

What you can do when a muscle cramps is HYdrate yourself, maybe take a salt tab, and stretch out the muscle.

[RMV]

You can prevent muscle cramps by staying hydrated, drinking plenty of water before, during, and after exercise as well as water before bedtime, stretching regularly after exercising, after working out a post-work out streching routine help relax the muscles and can help to prevent cramps.
After exercise, balanced electrolyte replacement may help to prevent muscle cramping, if you are going to be exercising in excessively hot or humid conditions, pay close attention to your salt intake, you can take sports drinks that contain small amounts of electrolytes.
Avoid exposing muscles to rapid changes in temperature.

Inadequate stretching and muscle fatigue leads to muscle cramps. Other factors may also be involved, including working out in intense heat, dehydration and depletion of salt and minerals.
Blood get trapped in a muscle, poor blood supply to the muscles (oxygen)
Sudden change in a routine. Increase in activity or new or much harder exercises.

Gently stretch the affected muscle, drink some water and try to keep doing the sport. After you finish and if you still feeling the cramp with slow strokes massage the cramped muscle, warm the muscle with some warm towel, bath, or a shower.

Good luck all

[Veeshmack]

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[ike88zb]

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[Iceiktitan]

TOPIC: How Can You Prevent Muscle Cramps?

For the week of: April 18th - April 24th
Tuesday @ Midnight Is The Final Cut (Mountain Time, US & Canada).

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Now that the summer is approaching people may become more susceptible to muscle cramps. Everyone gets muscle cramps, but that does not mean that they cannot be prevented.

Signs and symptoms of heat cramps
Sgns of muscle pain, cramping, spasms
heavy sweating

How can you prevent muscle cramps?
Rest frequently in shady or cool areas
Drink adequate fluids before, during, and after activity, but avoid alcohol and caffeine. They are both diruetics!
Sports drinks are good to use while during an intense sport activity but in general water may be used to keep you hydrated so that muscle cramps do not occur.
Be sure that you stretch before any activity to ensure that the muscles are properly warmed for the activity whether it be in heat or in cold.

What causes muscle cramps?
Activity in a hot enviornment may cause painful cramps in the muscles, called heart cramps, often in the lower legs or abdominal muscles. The muscle cramps result when sweating lowers the body's sodium levels. Heat cramps may also occur along with heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Heat stroke is a medical emergency where your temperature is often above 105 and brain cells are depleting repaidly.

What should you do if you experience a muscle cramp in the middle of a sports game?
Have the person stop the activity and sit quietly in a cool place
Give a sports drink or water
Have the person avoid strenous activity for a few hours to prevent progression to heat exhaustion or heat stroke

Additional Care:
For abdominal cramps, continue resting in a comfortable position
For leg cramps, stretch the muscle by extending the leg and flexing the ankle. Apply pressure to the cramped area
Seek medical attention for a victim who has heart problems or is on a low-sodium diet or if the cramps do not subside within an hour

[ManInTheBox]

Very beneficial topic for all, learned a few things myself :)

Good luck to everyone!

[Juic3]

Now that the summer is approaching people may become more susceptible to muscle cramps. Everyone gets muscle cramps, but that does not mean that they cannot be prevented.

How can you prevent muscle cramps?
Cramps can occur in any skeletal muscle, but are most common in the legs and feet and muscles that cross two joints (the calf muscle, for example).

Cramps can involve part of a muscle or all the muscles in a group. The most commonly affected muscle groups are:

Back of lower leg/calf (gastrocnemius).
Back of thigh (hamstrings).
Front of thigh (quadriceps).
Feet, hands, arms, abdomen

Here are some of the basic ways you can prevent muscle cramps:

-Improve fitness and avoid muscle fatigue

-Stretch regularly after exercise and warm up before exercise

-Stretch the calf muscle: In a standing lunge with both feet pointed forward, straighten the rear leg.

-Stretch the hamstring muscle: Sit with one leg folded in and the other straight out, foot upright and toes and ankle relaxed. Lean forward slightly, touch foot of straightened leg. (Repeat with opposite leg.)

-Stretch the Quadriceps muscle: While standing, hold top of foot with opposite hand and gently pull heel toward buttocks. (Repeat with opposite leg.)

-Try supplimenting with extra calcium/vitamin c as this may be a symptom of vitamin defincy

What causes muscle cramps?
The exact cause of muscle cramps is unknown, but many experts think it is related to poor flexibility, muscle fatigue or doing new activity.

Other factors associated with muscle cramps include exercising in extreme heat, dehydration and electrolyte depletion. Cramps are more common during exercise in the heat because sweat contains fluids as well as electrolyte (salt, potassium, magnesium and calcium). When these nutrients fall to certain levels, the incidence of muscle spasms increases.
Athletes are more likely to get cramps in the preseason when the body is not conditioned and therefore more subject to fatigue. Cramps often develop near the end of intense or prolonged exercise, or the night after.


What should you do if you experience a muscle cramp in the middle of a sports game?
AAaaaaaa! A cramp during a game of basketball or football have to be the most painfull experiences one can have, but not to fear treatment is only a stretch away.

When the cramp occurs it is imperative to take a quick break for a minute or two for stretching otherwise the cramp may come back or even get worse!

So:
1.Stop the activity that cause the cramp.
2.Gently stretch and massage the cramping muscle by holding the joint in a stretched position until the cramp stops.

[LJ57]

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[Mtguy8787]

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