Muscle Cramping - Sweat & Tears

As a trainer, fitness related questions or concerns happen in 3's. I may have three clients with lower back pain or three clients with knee 'discomfort'. When these 3's come up, I research the issue for cause, remedy, and prevention.

In the last few days, muscle cramps has been a recent concern. Take riding friend Louis for example - a fit & healthy guy with a passionate attitude toward any sport. In a five-hour ride in Lake Morena over the weekend, he suffered so much muscle cramping that I started to call him PMS. And David (adventure racing teammate in Desert Wind Expedition Race in Mojave Desert) had several days of muscle cramping during the race that left him, not just frozen, but aching in pain. Once cramping comes on, getting rid of it is a challenge in itself - the spinal cord keeps sending signals to contract. The solution - prevention.

Cause

There are several reasons you can cramp - dehydration, lack of electrolytes, exposure to extreme heat or humidity, and overexertion. In other cases, you may be on medication that depletes the body of certain important electrolytes; and in that case,you need to talk to your physician.

The muscles are full of water and electrolytes and together they help bring nutrients to the muscles allowing them to contract while removing waste. When you get depleted of water or nutrients, the body is not able to work as effectively. I'm not one to throw age as a performance concern, but as you get older the muscles lose their ability to function. Only you know really which factor is inhibiting you the most.

Prevention

1. HYDRATE - not just during your activity but throughout the day or days leading up to your event. The body is made up of 60% water and loss of water through exercise can effect the way your muscles contract and remove waste products.

2. LYTES - sodium is a critical electrolyte. Other important electrolytes are potassium, calcium, and magnesium. When you lose water through sweating, you want to be sure you replace not just the water but the electrolytes lost with your sweat (especially salt). The guidelines recommend 500-700 mg of sodium for every liter you consume during exercise which exceeds an hour. Don't just reach for that banana - be sure to have a healthy diet full of different fruits, vegetables, and whole foods.

3. TRAINING - follow an exercise plan that is progressive and training the muscles you use. sounds simple enough but many of you play different sports. You may be going on a three-day vacation to Mammoth; be sure to prepare your legs, calves, back, core for the snowboarding or skiing for you'll be doing several hours a day. Besides preparing your body, prepare your digestive system with an electrolytes replacement of choice. Nuun are a favorite in the adventure racing world.

4. FORM - when you're doing a repetitive motion, those muscles fatigue and get overworked. analyze the motion and evaluate if you are moving as efficiently as possible.

5. HEAT/HUMIDITY - this one is tough because it is hard to overcome conditions that you aren't accustomed to. In situations where you are overexerting yourself due to heat or humidity, be cautious of your exertion levels and chill out a bit. Taking electrolyte tables are effective. I learned this lesson during the 5-day expedition race over the summer - "electrolytes on the hour, every hour of the race" racing friend Paul Romero.

(Teammate, David, tying the rope after our final leg of a 1500 foot repel section. It was over 100 degrees and we had been up for over 24 hours. We still had three days to go.)

Train hard, train smart!

Chi-lyte