Use a warm towel or heating pad on tense or tense muscles. Taking a hot bath or directing the stream of a hot shower to the cramped muscle may also help. Alternatively, massaging the tight muscle with ice can ease the pain. Interrupt any activity that may have caused the cramp and stretch the muscle slightly, gently maintaining the stretch.
You can even massage the muscle as it stretches or after you finish. By doing so, the motor nerves of the peripheral nervous system are activated to trigger muscle contractions necessary for normal muscle movement. But if you have frequent muscle cramps, and especially if you have other symptoms of muscle weakness or loss, it's time to see your doctor. If all else fails and you continue to have regular muscle cramps, consider getting regular massages to help your muscles relax.
Cramps also occur when a muscle can't relax properly (for example, due to a deficiency of magnesium or potassium in the diet) or when it is irritated by a buildup of lactic acid (which can happen if you don't rest your muscle after a lot of exercise). This is different from muscle contractions, a very mild, repetitive contraction of a muscle that can be seen or felt or not. In many cases, the muscle contracts to such an extent that the entire limb or body moves physically, especially if they are larger thigh or calf muscles. If your calf muscle cramps in the middle of the night, stand up and slowly put weight on the affected leg to push the heel down and stretch the muscle.
From why they happen to whether pickle juice can actually stop them, here's everything you need to know about muscle cramps. Try to stretch the affected muscle hard (for example, stretch the calf muscle by flexing your foot up). For example, older adults are more likely to experience muscle cramps due to the normal muscle loss that occurs with aging. If you're experiencing muscle spasms as a symptom of fibromyalgia, natural muscle relaxants, such as magnesium and cayenne pepper, may help.
