Cramping, everyone has experienced it. That sensation of one of your muscles might explode due to squeezing so hard! When you feel like your muscles cannot straighten into their natural position but instead are in a frozen state of contraction. It can be extremely painful and is extremely common, however it is usually pretty harmless. In this article we are going to explain what happens during cramp and reasons why it happens!
What happens during cramp?
When the body goes into cramping, it can be stressful. What happens is that a muscle goes into an involuntary contraction which does not relax. Cramp occurs when a small group of muscle fibres within a muscle go into spasm. If this spasm is not corrected or reduced, the muscle then goes into an involuntary contraction, AKA cramp.
It can occur at any muscle however cramp occurs most commonly at:
- Calves
- Hamstrings
- Traps
- Triceps
- Muscles supporting the head
Cramp can last anywhere between 5 seconds to 15 minutes, if not longer. Depending on how severe or how many muscles are recruited by the cramp, dictates how long it will occur. Cramp can happen to anyone but is more common in the older generation. Especially when muscles start to atrophy (weaken), they become more susceptible to it.
But Why Do Cramps Happen?
There are several reasons why cramp occur, these include:
Injury: when you injure yourself (e.g. break your leg), the muscles around the broken area can go into cramp. This is seen as a protective mechanism to stop the injured area from moving
Vigorous Exercise: when exercising, sometimes if the training is intense it can cause cramp. When the lactic acid starts to fatigue and attack the muscles, the muscles then spasm - cramp can occur. It can also occur post exercise whilst the body is recovering.
Rest Cramps: these occur at sleep and often happen in the older generation. When asleep the resting position may have the muscle in a shorter position. This state of semi contraction over a period of 8 hours can cause the part of the body to spasm.
Dehydration: The most common source of cramp, when you are dehydrated the amount of sodium in your body reduces. Sodium helps the muscle cells maintain size, when the sodium is depleted, the muscle cells can shrink which causes cramp.
Fluid Shifts: More associated with organ cramping (stomach for example), where large amounts of blood travel from one organ to another or bodily fluids/acid moves.
Pregnancy: When pregnant, your body is obviously providing for an extra body. This can cause the potassium and magnesium levels in the body to drop, which is a causation of cramp!
How do we avoid cramp?
Sadly cramp can sometimes be straight up unavoidable! However we suggest that keeping the body hydrated, stretching/warming up regularly before exercise, compression clothing during exercise, good quality movement (during exercise and in everyday life) and a healthy diet are all ways to help prevent cramp from inducing.
We hope that we have answered some of your burning questions as to why cramp happens! Want to learn more or disagree? You can get in touch by leaving a comment below or simply emailing us on rob@nrgsportstherapy.com! But if you want more of this free content as soon as it is released, simply fill in the form below to join our newsletter. Not only will you receive free content as soon as it is released, but learn what is happening at NRG this week.