How To Prevent Muscle Cramps Naturally?

One of the most common causes of muscle problems is injuries. When a person injures a muscle or a group of muscles by taking on a physical activity too long, too often, too quickly, or without readying the muscles beforehand, he/she suffers from muscle cramps, painful. However, the good news is that most of the muscle injuries can be prevented and the minor ones can be treated at home with ice, which is an over-the-counter pain reliever. The other injured muscles usually heal within a span of time.

Muscle cramps often happens out of the blue. It’s when you’re feeling absolutely fine while running, swimming, biking or playing ball, out of nowhere, you’ll feel a knife like pain jabbing you in your leg, abdomen, shoulder or arm. This kind of pain can also strike you in the middle of the night. Almost everyone gets abdominal cramps occasionally with an upset stomach. Be it a cramp or series of them, both take place when a smooth muscle or an entire muscle group suddenly seizes up involuntarily. And, the most common locations for cramps are the thigh muscles or the back of the thigh. However, there’s no muscle group that is spared from cramping, be it the abdomen, back, neck, shoulders, hands or feet. It’s a good thing that most muscle cramps or muscle stiffness do not last for long. However, the exact cause of most of the cramps is not known. While the abdominal cramps are associated with intestinal problems brought on by infection or food poisoning, the digestive muscles get involved as the body makes efforts to rid itself from the viruses and bacteria that cause stomach ache.

Most of the muscle cramps often happen during exercising or sometime afterward. Thus, there are many sport experts, who believe that lack of conditioning, stiffness, or over training are the major causes of cramps that are also very common when people work out in hot weather. They are also caused by loss of certain chemicals in the body. Your muscles need fluids, particularly electrolytes, that contain salts, potassium, magnesium and calcium. Sweating and urination carry these chemicals out of your body at the time of exercise and also after that. This causes major dehydration, which is directly associated with muscle cramps. These cramps can be easily prevented by ideal use of common sense. If you seeking muscle recovery, here’s what you can try – Get in shape before starting any major sport, do short warm-ups to send blood to muscles before the activity, keep yourself hydrated by drinking lots of water and other liquids. If the cramps and pain are still there, you should definitely see a doctor and get the right treatment for it.

Tips:

• Ease the pain of muscle cramps with gentle massage on daily basis.
• Try to gently bend and stretch the sore or cramping muscles during exercising. I case of too much pain, stop the activity and give your muscles some time to rest and heal on its own.