Those who get muscle cramps every now and then know really well how excruciatingly painful they are. Besides, runners, swimmers, lifters, and cyclists, the high-heel wearers and those who do little or no exercise at all suffer annoying muscle cramps. To help you all with handling muscle cramps, we are here with some tips on preventing them from happening again and to alleviate the pain associated.
Improve your range of motion
We usually experience muscle spasms and cramps when our muscles are strained. To prevent your muscles from all the strain, you are required to eliminate muscle stiffness or tightness. The tighter the muscles are, the more likely you are to experience frequent muscle cramps. When the stiffness of your muscles is eliminated, your range of motion increases. When you have an improved range of motion, your muscles are less likely to experience cramps.
Always do a proper warm up
Just after waking up, you start exercising hard and then you experience a painful muscle cramp. This happens because, after a rest, your muscles get a kind of shock and strain. Because of this shock, the muscles lock or tighten to bear the stress. Therefore, to avoid such muscle cramps, you should never forget doing a proper warm up before indulging in any activity that tends to strain muscles. Try to incorporate dynamic and static stretching in your warm-up routine, which helps optimize exercise performance and reduces chances of muscle cramps.
Relax your body
While running, sprinting, swimming, and during other high-intensity movements, people sometimes forget to relax their bodies. In fact, they keep their bodies so tense for long those small and large muscles throughout their body experience unnecessary force and strain. Novice swimmers often experience calf cramps and hamstring cramps because they forget to relax their bodies in the water. Therefore, no matter what activity your body is indulged in, ensure to relax it in between to avoid muscle cramps.
Lightly massage the muscle
Whenever a cramp occurs while you are in the middle of your exercise or any activity, you should stop doing it immediately. Try to relax the muscle by lightly massaging it. Never press the muscle hard, or you would end up worsening the pain. Besides, massaging, you could also try to gently stretch the muscle concerned. Again, you should not overstretch the muscle, as it can cause the onset of a new muscle cramp.
Progress slowly with your training
Suppose you are practicing for a marathon and you strongly desire to improve your score from three miles a day to 12 miles in a day or two. However, this cannot happen and you shouldn’t even try to do something like this. It wouldn’t do anything good to you but will unnecessarily strain your muscles. Therefore, progress slowly with your training to avoid muscle cramps.
Take calcium supplements
As calcium deficiency is a leading cause of muscle cramps, you should make sure that your calcium intake is normal. You can rely on a number of calcium supplements that contain a number of other elements including vitamin D and magnesium along with calcium.
Pinch your lip
Discovered by Doctor Donald Cooper, pinching lip is a technique that puts a stop to a sudden muscle cramp. As and when you experience the first sign of muscle cramp, maintain a constant pressure on your upper lip by holding it firmly with your thumb and index finger. Within 20-30 seconds, the cramping stops. You should also try this technique for keeping muscle cramps at bay.
Summary
People experience muscle cramps due to a variety of reasons. By keeping a few tips in mind, one can get rid of muscle cramps.
