why do I get muscle spasms so easy?

[GrandMasterK]

I work out for a couple of months, then stop for a couple of months, then start up again. When I start it up, I usually have to go easy for the first couple of days in order to prevent a horrible muscle spams/cramp/contraction/tight twitching in my biceps while im in the middle of lifting something. After a couple of days the problem goes away and I'm free to max out on anything without getting any.

 

Now my serious problem is muscle spasms I'll get in my left calf. It's happened dozens of times in the last 2 or so years. On sunday I was waking up and I stretched my entire body which means I had my toes pointing downward and my calf flexing. Well, that's when my muscle tightened up and horrible horrible pain came rushing through. It's hurt pretty bad before but this was so much I was yelling as loud as I could and I couldn't get it to go away. I was trying to relax my leg as much as possible as I tried to bring my foot back as stretching it in the opposite direction has seemed to calm it quicker in the past. Well in the process I caused two more waves to come at me so the whole ordeal lasted a solid 5 minutes. Usually it comes, hurts like a son of a b for 20-30 seconds, then starts calming down and I can start moving my leg around carefully within 3 minutes.

 

This was nonstop unbareable pain for 5 solid minutes. There's something very humiliating and violating about getting hurt that bad from stretching and not knowing what the problem is. Atleast no one was home to hear me yelling cause the door was locked and they'd be sitting there knocking on it like crazy yelling back to me asking me what's wrong and I'd be in too much pain to say anything back. I asked my mom about it and she said "oh that's just a cramp, drink more water and eat bananas" and I was standing there like you got to be kidding me. I tried as much as possible to explain to her what I went through but I can't help but think she thinks I'm talking about something much less severe. I feel very frustrated and for lack of a better description humiliated and violated.

 

After that my calf was really sore and up until tuesday I had to walk with a limp and whenever I'd sit down and let my leg get stiff it would take me awhile to be able to start walking with it again. It just now completely healed today and I am absolutely scared to death to stretch my legs in fear of it happening again. My family has been reacting to my worries like im making a big deal out of some minor easy to deal with cramp or tender burning. Apparently I haven't been able to describe it to them good enough for them to take it serious. I feel so small and frustrated I can't even tell you.

 

My biggest concern is all I have to do is point my foot down and flex my calf muscle and the spams will come in about 3 seconds and mess my leg up for another half a week.

[YT2095]

you need a little more Salt in your diet and some Quinine (present in Indian Tonic water).

the Banana thing is a great source of Potassium, you`ll also need Sodium too (table salt).

[Bluenoise]

Yeah dito.

You're low in electrolytes.

 

Go eat a crate of bananas or drink some sports drinks (e.g. gatorate)

[Skye]

I get them quite often, but less so as I get older. They are common in teenagers. If you do alot of exercise it's more common, particularly running, jumping or calve raises. I would say to be careful when you do things like jump or run up stairs for a while now. While they may feel better they are probably still healing.

[Senseless]

Never had that problem before... but i think drinking more water is the best way to go and no feezy drinks like coke, fanta etc. More Salt like YT2095 said

[Bluenoise]

Never had that problem before... but i think drinking more water is the best way to go and no feezy drinks like coke, fanta etc. More Salt like YT2095 said

 

Ummm nooooooooo

Drinking excessive water will only help flush electrolytes out of your system. Now I'm not saying do not drink water (as water is good for you), but what you really need is electrolytes, salts, whatever you want to call them.

 

And drinking "feezy drinks" means nothing as carbonation has little to nothing to do with this.

 

Now caffinate beverages may have an effect being a diaretic causing you to flush out your system and loose salts.

 

Geeze why does everyone love to hate on the sodi-pop nowaday???

[GrandMasterK]

I'm not sure what I eat if anything has salt on it.

 

Alright, I've been eating alot of bananas lately and I'll get to work on this salt thing. Hope it works.

[Bluenoise]

I'm not sure what I eat if anything has salt on it.

 

Alright, I've been eating alot of bananas lately and I'll get to work on this salt thing. Hope it works.

 

Just make sure that you understand that salt doesn't mean table salt. That's just a type of salt. There are many others...

[1veedo]

If you're working out and not drinking enough water it can cause spasms. Spasms are normal and harmless, though they can sometimes be annoying. If they're accompanied by other signs of overtraining then you might want to space your sessions a little further apart.

 

What's called a nocturnal leg cramp isn't directly caused by working out, though working out can make it easier to get one. On top of what's already been mentioned -- water, salt, potassium, calcium...you also need magnesium. Magnesium and water are particularly important to bodybuilders and these are where you're most likely to be deficient. If you're already taking a multivitamin you can still be deficient in magnesium.

 

Whoever told you to not drink more water missed the part about you working out. Not drinking enough water is the number one cause for things like this in people who work out. Everything about your post screamed, "I dont drink enough water!" You need 2-3 liters a day, at least, depending on how much you weigh. That's a lot of water -- drink the well dry and save none for the fish!

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bbinfo.php?page=Water

[hottiedanie]

wow i can relate soo much to what you are saying it hurts soo much and i feel like crying , what i usually do is try to rub it and it doesnt work so i lay back down and try to relax my legg and breath in and out like im having a baby kind of it sounds soo stupid but it kind of works..im so afraid to flex my legs like both of them it hurts when i do and if i do it for like 4 seconds it runs up my leggs and kills and i am really afriad something is wrong:S..im considering going to the chiropractor,i dont know if it has anything to do with the reason i have stopped swimming or something cause i never used to get these..and i just stopped swimming this year (aka working out ect)...tell me what i can do to make it stop and be able to not have to worry about it..if its never happend to you its soo hard to explain the pain you go threw..Also, after i have legg spazims my leggs hurt and it hurts to walk on them and if i just point my toes i get cramps in the bottom of my feet!

[Bluenoise]

Yeah I get cramps like that if I don't work out. But only if I've been working out regularly. It's weird. Right now i've been going to the gym really hard every second day or so. I know if I take more than one/two days off from the gym I'll get cramps. It's kinda a good thing. Keeps me going lol.

 

I'd suggest trying working out again, but don't hurt yourself.

Where do you get your cramps? Mine are almost always in the calves, once or twice I got them in the archs of my feet.

[hottiedanie]

yah same here if i point my toes i get cramps in the bottom of my feet

[Norman Albers]

I appreciate the helpful hints. I should keep a non-tippable water glass near the bed at night. I have this unstoppable reaction as I roll over in bed and I wondered where the hell I could ever talk about this sort of thing. It is very clear and like a mercury switch which makes contact as the bulb tips past level. I can roll arbitrarily slowly to full supine (on my back) and as soon as I am level my whole back arches and my legs start to stiffen. If I don't resist this in the legs, consciously, they'd cramp, and sometimes do. I eat fresh foods and whole grains but don't add much salt, so thanks for the discussion. It is an amazing autonomic reaction in that I cannot stop it, even at a very small epsilon velocity of roll! I work in the piano shop quite physically, and "take a break", sometimes not well arranged, by working outside on rural property. It is close to a yawning feeling, but of the back nerve system.