What's the cause of muscle cramps? How do you solve them?

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


It is to lose weight, though.

Orange juice at 190 calories gives 22% of your RDA of Potassium.

190 calories is pretty close to nothing, and gives almost twice the ammount of your pills. When you have to take 4 pills a day to get 1/8 of the ammount you need, the pills aren't the answer.

Jon Miller

[KrazyHorse]

The accumulation of these wastes causes the muscle pain.

The levels of lactic acid and other anaerobic waste products drop quickly after even an intense workout. Within 1-2 hours they have returned to normal. The attribution of next-day muscle soreness to lactic acid buildup is not accepted nowadays. Instead, next day muscle soreness is now usually attributed to microtears in muscles (normal result of exercise). Cramping is usually a hydration or ion imbalance issue.

[Kuciwalker]

Also, those microtears are really good things for you. When they heal, the muscle cell grows more mitochondria and other stuff and gets stronger.

[Verto]

God is telling you to stop exercising.

[loinburger]

I'll sometimes get muscle cramps (especially leg and foot cramps) if I don't drink enough milk, i.e., if I've got a calcium deficiency.

[Zkribbler]

Dr. Stranglove gives a good explaination of aerobic metabolism, with the resultant build-up of waste acids in the muscle tissue causing muscle soreness.

But cramps are the pain arising from strong spasms. That's is caused by a mineral deficiency...I can't remember which one. I think loinburger is correct and it's calcium, but I'm just not sure. But since perspiring gets rid of a lot of minerals, I suggest a multi-mineral.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Dr. Stranglove gives a good explaination of aerobic metabolism, with the resultant build-up of waste acids in the muscle tissue causing muscle soreness.

No, he didn't.

As I've already detailed, that explanation is no longer accepted in the scientific community. The burning sensation experienced during and immediately after intense exercise is due to this build-up. Soreness more than a couple of hours later cannot be so explained.

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I think loinburger is correct and it's calcium, but I'm just not sure.

I checked to see if what I'd been told was correct (or at least plausible), and google says calcium or magnesium (which AFAIK are used to regulate muscle contractions) are to blame.

[Zkribbler]

Loinberger's theory is sounding more and more familiar to me. I'm pretty sure cramps are indeed brought on by deficiencies in calcium and magnesium.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


No, he didn't.

As I've already detailed, that explanation is no longer accepted in the scientific community. The burning sensation experienced during and immediately after intense exercise is due to this build-up. Soreness more than a couple of hours later cannot be so explained.

No, you didn't. You're getting the cramps associated by heat prostration / exhaustion mixed up with cramps developing in overused muscles. Cramps resulting from dehydration and electrolyte will be widespread, not just located in the muscles use during the exercise. You can't dehydrate or electrolyte deplete a particular set of muscles - the tissues of the body are in communication via the circulatory system. Furthermore, if what you're proposing is true, then how in the world could warm-up stretches and carbohydrate loading reduce the likelihood of exercise related muscle cramps? Finally, if dehydration and electrolyte depletion is the cause of this type of cramp would they not occur during or after exercise when the deficit is at it's maximum? After going home and eating and drinking DanS should have gone a long ways towards replacing the fluid and electrolyte deficits. Electrolyte deficits after exercise tend to be minimal anyway. It can be shown that sweat produced early in exercise is fairly rich in eletrolytes (sodium, potassium) but after a few minutes, as little as ten in an experienced athlete, the concentration of ions in sweat drops dramatically.

It can be shown experimentally that anaerobic glycolysis is necessary to produce the muscle swelling and pain associated with intense exercise. Exercise regimens producing the same workload are used. In one regimen the muscle is worked at a moderate rate allowing it to get it's energy from aerobic metabolism, in the other it is worked intensely enough to force it to use anaerobic glycolysis. After the latter regimen the muscle swells. In experimental animals studies find that these cells are undergoing sarcomere re-organization. You also find that the latter regimen causes the muscle to leak enzymes of injury like creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase. Similar changes occur with the injection of lactic acid into the muscle cell. It's not really certain whether intracellular lactic acidosis is the direct cause, triggers some mediator, or simply occurs in parallel with these changes. Recent work has focused on nitric oxide as a possible mediator.

One problem with either the dehydration/electrolye depletion theory or the lactic acidosis/sarcomere reorganization theory is that both of them leave out an essential component - the nerves. In order to develop a cramp involving a significant portion of a muscle's cells - enough to produce significant force, the muscle contractions have to orchestrated by the motor nerves. Random firing of individual muscle cells would produce incoordinate twitching that would be noticable only with EMG testing. One possibility is that the change in the intercellular environment within the muscle after exercise could have an effect on the myoneural complex organ - a sensory organ within the muscle that produces reflex contraction of the muscle when stretched. (This is the basis of the deep tendon reflex elicited by a tap on the knee.) Possibly some of the chemicals secreted by the injured muscles sensitize this little organ and make it activate the reflex arc.

[Kuciwalker]

This proves that the doctor is correct.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by DanS
Always shin splints when I run, but never cramps.

I know about cramps. What are shin splints?

[Berzerker]

I'd get cramps in my calves, real bad after walkiing 18 holes. And they sure are painful, must be what its like to have a heart attack. Anyway, when I get them, and its always the calf, I stand slowly and stretch my calf by standing tall and eventually on my toes. Sometimes I can feel a cramp coming on and I quickly stretch my calf and it settles down. Oh, by stretch I mean point your toe perpendicular to the leg, like you're satanding on a step by only your toes.

I've heard basketball players suffer relatively few hamstring pulls compared to other sports because of all the running they do backwards. I think there's something to that, I avoided hamstring pulls while I was playing alot of basketball but started getting them when I was playing golf and baseball after giving up hoops.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove


No, you didn't. You're getting the cramps associated by heat prostration / exhaustion mixed up with cramps developing in overused muscles

I'm not talking about cramps at all, my good doctor.

I was referring to what I regarded as your explanation of the phenomenon known as delayed onset muscle soreness. Rereading your original post, I am uncertain as to whether you were talking about the pain involved during and immediately after a workout, or said DOMS.

Lactic acid is responsible for the former, but not the latter.

By the way, I don't intend to insult your medical knowledge at all. I think you are a regular source of valuable information on this subject.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
This proves that the doctor is correct.

Bastard. I didn't have a chance.