|
Muscle Cramp
Muscle cramps can be one of the unfortunate side
effects when your first start walking off the weight. Avoid painful
muscle cramps through by warming up and stretching before and after
you walk.
How to Deal with Muscle Cramps
Muscle cramps are temporary contractions of the
muscles and they usually appear during physical effort. The
sensation is similar to the one you have when you feel a strong,
involuntary tightening of the muscle group that you can't control
any more. There are many causes which bring about cramps, but they
happen most often because of insufficient warming up before
training.
Good and correct warming up has two stages: the general one
(cardio), for increasing the body temperature (running, cycling,
etc.) and the specific one, during which the main joints and groups
of muscles which will be involved in training are warmed up. It is
enough not to give, from different reasons (rush, superficiality,
ignorance), the necessary time or importance to one of these stages,
and cramps can become a current phenomenon.
As important as warming up is the relaxation stage after the
training. This has, like warming up, two stages: a dynamic one
(aerobic) and a static one (stretching). It is meant to 'calm down'
the body and to eliminate the muscular tension and the catabolic
products resulted from the training. Lack of relaxation can slow
down the process of recovery of the body, having often as result
cramps during the next training and sometimes even during repose.
Cramps may also appear because of electrolytic misbalance, which can
result from massively losing electrolytes through abundant
perspiration. Recovering hydro-electrolytic balance is a priority
and it can be realized through balanced and varied nourishment, rich
in vegetables and fruit and completed periodically with nutritional
supplements, poly-minerals and poly-vitamins.
When muscular cramps appear during training, the first thing you
must do is stop the effort which produced the cramps. Massaging the
affected zone is a good idea. This will intensify blood circulation
in that group of muscles and will remove faster the catabolic
products resulted from the training.
It is also the moment for light stretching, from which will benefit
not only the affected zone, but also the antagonist muscles. This
exercise is meant to put again in place the muscular fibers, in
their usual alignment, contributing to the relaxation of the
muscles, but also to elongating and making the muscular group
affected by cramps more elastic.
Another benefic element could be a warm shower, which will
contribute to bringing the tensed muscles back to normal through
peripheral vascular dilatation.
Ignoring the cramps can have as a result more or less grave
situations, from muscle tightening to muscular rupture. Besides the
physical effects of the cramps, the sportsman can also be affected
psychologically. He will not dare intensify the training any more,
being frightened of these casual contractions. He can even become
hypochondriac, suspecting any common muscle pain during effort or
post-effort to be a symptom of cramps.
Experience in sport will provide the best prophylaxis for these
situations, the practitioner being able to make the difference
between the real situations and the false alarms, contributing, this
way, to increasing the effectiveness of the training.
Isabel Curini is a fitness trainer and editor at
http://www.healthfitnessworld.com HealthFitnessWorld.com -
Health, Fitness, Body Building, Weight Loss, Nutrition - Articles
and Resources.
HealthFitnessWorld.com is dedicated to providing high-quality, free
advices, tips and resources on health, fitness, body building,
supplements, nutrition, weight loss, beauty, massage, acne,
medicine, depression, massage. |
