Stretching and warming up your muscles are essential to prevent muscle cramps. Before and after using any muscle for an extended period of time, it is important to stretch. If you tend to have leg cramps at night, stretching before bed can help. 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. The first step to training properly is to warm up your muscles sufficiently beforehand. This is important for the body to enter its “exercise mode”. In addition, try to increase the intensity of your training gradually, allowing your body to adapt to the change and avoid muscle cramps.
If all else fails and you continue to have regular muscle cramps, consider getting regular massages to help your muscles relax. Also known as muscle spasms, cramps occur when a muscle involuntarily and forcibly contracts uncontrollably and cannot relax. There's no pill or injection that instantly relieves muscle spasms, so the best thing you can do is stretch the affected muscle and massage it. Cramps can also be caused by a deficiency of magnesium or potassium in the diet, or by a buildup of lactic acid due to lack of rest after exercise.
The sports medicine team at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta has some tips that can help you stop a muscle cramp before it starts.If you're experiencing muscle spasms as a symptom of fibromyalgia, natural muscle relaxants such as magnesium and cayenne pepper may help. 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.
