How do you deal with leg cramps?

Look for foods high in potassium. Or have your Dr test your blood for electrolytes. I take a diuretic so I have to watch my electrolytes. Best thing for me with a cramp is to put weight on the leg. It stretches it out.

^^^ Yes, potassium is key, bananas, avocados. Did you know avocados are one of the highest sources of potassium?

I get them in my legs and feet, but not in my thighs. I stretch them out vigorously. and they go away in less than a minute.

I can stretch them out, also, but it is annoying while I am doing floor stretches. I have to stop immediately.

Having been trying to learn to like avocado, but not much success.

Sorry about that – it sounds painful. I have always heard that calcium will help.

I always thought it was a lack of potassium too, but the other day my Dr said leg cramps are due to a lack of calcium. I take vitamins now.

@Dutchess_III: Please be specific. These are specifically for leg cramps or do you have other issues?

Have you considered getting a roam roller, a ball or what not? There is a good amount of types out there designed to help move.

Self massage, similar concept to what I suggested above. He seems to mostly use a tennis ball. Again there are many different kinds.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RichPoley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqkipdqXYBA&list=UUvMNQrKXrJXb6XO63FVPtVg&index=5&feature=plcp

Also now I don’t know if you are into supplements, or powder drinks at all. For me personally when I am feeling it and need a better recovery. I take light protein/nutrition shake with milk and/or Muscle Milk/BCAA 5000 Rapid Drive. Fair share of reviews gave it somewhat low ratings due to taste, although it was effective. Suck it up butter cup.

If you are curious about Amino acids and BCAA in particular here is a reference.

For some reason the link is not working, but put BCAA / webmd and it will come right up.
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1005-BRANCHED-CHAIN%20AMINO%20ACIDS.aspx?activeIngredientId=1005&activeIngredientName=BRANCHED-CHAIN%20AMINO%20ACIDS

I personally only use when I feel my body needs it. If I’m not overly sore and muscles tight then I just simply try to get extra rest. How you decide is up you of course.

I wanted to ask what is your water in take like? I’ve heard you can drink TOO much can be as bad as drinking TOO little. Just a thought.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/495660-are-muscle-cramps-caused-by-a-lack-of-vitamins/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/493504-what-vitamin-could-you-take-to-help-with-muscle-cramps

As far as vitamins go I’ve only done a little research on my own. And everything else is just personal experience maybe consulting with someone who better knows before trying anything.

Good luck! Hope this helps you out. Let me know if find a solution or improvement to your cramps!

I will occasionally get a cramp in my calf if I have been working hard and sweating for a long time. I push on it for a while say “ouch ouch ouch” and then drink a lot of water. It goes away quickly . Then I drink some more. This usually happens when I am using my wood splitter in warm weather and my clothes are soaked with sweat.

Tonic water, it has Quinine, diet tonic water if need to keep the Carbs/Calories down.

Interesting and thoughtful responses.

Thank you.

@Luckyguy:I like the “ouch, ouch, ouch” approach a lot.

@CuriousLoner; Your suggestions of drinks and shakes and amino acids are not for me, but thanks.

I drink a decent amount of water (when I remember). I throw in a packet of Emergen-C (when I remember, also).

Supps I take;

@ T freshly ground flax seed
D3 –
B12
B complex
Omega 3— half the recommended daily dose.

I will re-introduce a calcium citrate/ magnesium/ D3 capsule but again, take only half the daily recommended dose.

My college classmates suggest putting a bar of soap between your legs at night. It is an accepted folk-cure; no one knows why but it is cheap and safe.

That’s rough. :-/ I sometimes get leg cramps that make me wake me up screaming. I find that I get them pretty regularly unless I take a potassium supplement or eat a banana every day. When I actually have them, I just scream/groan (if I am somewhere where it won’t disturb other people), or sometimes I try to massage or even punch the spot. I’ve found the best thing is to distract myself from the pain because they tend to pass pretty quickly. Hope you find something that works for you, @gailcalled !

@gailcalled not sure why it’s important to you, but I went in to the Dr. because the left side of my back, and around the front, was cramping horribly. I was in SO much pain. I mentioned that I’d also been having calf cramps now and again and wondered if it was related. He said no. He said leg cramps come from a lack of calcium, but cramps above the waist indicates a lack of magnesium. So I started taking vitamins. It’s only been a couple of days, so I can’t really tell you if it’s made a difference, although I haven’t had any kind of cramping anywhere. Except in my brain, which is due to an overload of stupid on FB.

Your electrolytes are likely out of whack.

You could be dehydrated too.

@Dutchess_III: In regards to this question, I am interested in what specific vitamins you are taking. Isn’t that a reasonable question, given my original question?

It’s just a generic, OTC thing of vitamins. I made sure it had calcium and magnesium in them.

@gailcalled, my husband suffers from leg cramps. He now takes a specific magnesium supplement and he has said a few times he suffers cramps much less often. He has been doing this for about a year now. I know you said you are taking calcium and magnesium but perhaps you could look at taking two separate pills if that increases the intake of magnesium?

Vitamin D seems to be what has most relieved me getting leg cramps. I finally narrowed it down to that vitamin being the primary helper. More specifically getting my D blood level above 40. I also added vitamin k2 which supposedly helps calcium into the bone, but I don’t know whether the k2 helped with the cramps, the vitamin D was already effective. I also think my low iron contributes to my muscle fatigue and witness, and maybe cramps. I feel stronger when my iron is up in the normal ranges. My doctor recently recommended taking magnesium also, even though my magnesium is in the normal ranges, but I haven’t tried it yet, so I don’t have personal experience with it.

I also am extremely careful not to get the charlie horse in the first place. If I feel it happening, I flex my foot fast and can usually avoid it, but once it really cramps it is almost impossible, it can take a while of agony. Same with my biceps, when I am at my worst, holding my phone to my ear for a few minutes can cause a cramp in the bicep that can put me into tears. I can’t straighten my arm, even after it relaxes a little the muscle still hurts for an hour. I haven’t had that happen in about a year, but it was happening quite often for a while there. The D seems to have helped tremendously.

As a side comment to some of the answers, I don’t believe potassium does anything to help if your electrolytes are always normal. However, you might want to get a blood test done immediately after exercise when the muscle seems most vulnerable. I did that, and honestly it did not show anything, but I thought it was a good suggestion by my doctor. She checked my electrolytes, magnesium, cpk, not sure what else. If you are overhyrdrated or underhydrated it could whack out your electrolytes.

I hope you find relief.

Edit: I forgot to mention keeping my thryoid in line also seems to help. When it is outside of normal my muscles tend to hurt more. I just switched to the natural thyroid med Armour, and so far I feel like it is fantastic! But, too early to really tell.

For many years I had frequent cramps in my calves that would awaken me with sharp, severe pains. The only thing that brought relief was to relax, relax, relax—very difficult when your reflexive reaction is to tense and stiffen against the pain. I’d also do the same kind of breathing that I learned for childbirth.

Because the cramps occurred in the night, it was very hard for me to tell if I was doing anything (movement, position) that triggered them.

Someone heard me complain and asked me if I was drinking a lot of milk. At the time I said yes, probably about 12 ounces a day. The person said to cut that back because it could cause just that kind of cramping in an adult. I never verified that assertion or asked anyone else, but I did cut back. I haven’t had those cramps in years now. I won’t claim cause and effect or even correlation; I’m reporting uninterpreted facts as I experienced them.

I take a daily multivitamin, and I don’t drink a glass of milk as often as once a week, but I have a couple of ounces of 1% on cereal most days.

A little trick I use is (as I have been known to get cramps in the calf muscles) is to firmly press the ball of the foot attached to the affected leg against the floor, keeping the rest of the foot off the floor with toes pointing upward. I have no idea how or indeed why it works, but it does.

If I start to get a calf cramp at night I point my foot as far up and back as I can. Works.

@gailcalled, I didn’t have access to my husband’s magnesium earlier. He is taking Wagner Magnesium Forte 400mg. I asked him and he said he hasn’t had a cramp for months. We used to only take Caltrate and he was still getting cramps.

@Coloma Another reason to like avocados ! thanks !

In the moment that a muscle cramps, you want to relax it – so if the cramp is in the calf, for example, you want to bend the knee and flex the foot. Applying heat and massage can help ease the cramp.

To prevent cramps, it is important to warm up – even before yoga. Being well-hydrated and nourished is important – but as noted above, there are lots of opinions on which nutrients are key… so the best thing would be to have tests to determine which if any are deficient in your body.

I get bad ones sometimes – probably because I’m not doing yoga stretches… my first response is to try hard to relax – then slowly stretch the muscle, and only if I don’t have to fight too hard to do it. I’ve heard that you can do a lot of damage to a calf muscle by stretching through a cramp.

Actually – I was just looking at a sports medicine blog while making sure my personal experience didn’t lead to bad advice, and it looks like the idea is to “assist the muscle in its contraction BEFORE you can stretch it without injury”. For this reason, relaxing the muscle intuitively makes sense to me.

Just in case it isn’t obvious, pointing your foot can trigger the calf cramp. It doesn’t have to be a strong point, like if you are doing ballet, just pointing the toes down slightly can allow the muscle to ball up, hence flexing the foot doesn’t allow it to cramp usually. But, once balled up and in pain, flexing is difficult to acheive, because the muscle doesn’t wamt to give.

I get them periodically in calf and thigh and toes. The calf and thigh ones usually seem to strike in the middle of the night and the pain is so acute it just about makes me scream. Thankfully they don’t last long. I have never been able to isolate what causes them, they seem to happen randomly regardless of exercise or lack thereof. A chiropractor suggested a gel that can be purchased at the pharmacy, it is like a sports drink without the obscene coloring and sugar added. Sorry I can’t remember the name. This reminds me of when Rafa Nadal had one during a post match TV interview. It looked like he was dying, the pain can be so severe. Jeez, it hurts just to watch that video!

@rooeytoo You are probably moving around in your sleep and pointing your toe downward, which allows the muscle to cramp. I think if people are aware of that they are more likely to flex their foot as the pain starts and moves them into a more conscious state.

@Tropical_Willie: I saw my orthopod today and as an aside, he also suggested 6–8 oz. of quinine water for leg cramps, particularly night ones. He also said that a little peanut butter couldn’t hurt. He is a biker and gets cramps all the time.

@JLeslie – I just saw 2 articles on Runnersworld.com regarding cramps and they sort of said what you are saying, point your toes up instead of down and the cramp will dissipate. I will try it the next time.

@gailcalled – if you want to read the articles, or watch the vids, go to that site and search for cramping.

I forgot that my orthopod also said that hydration is very helpful.

I have found that one’s instincts, when the cramp strikes, tells you what to point where.

@rooeytoo; The Sportsworld articles say what everyone seems to say. It’s perhaps this, perhaps that, perhaps both or perhaps neither. No one really knows causation. Treatment is trial and error; here are some sensible suggestions.

1) Stop running immediately and stretch the affected muscle. This helps relax the spasm. You may have to stop and stretch a number of times before the cramp abates.

2)Apply deep pressure at the site of the cramp to provide relief. Just use your fingers to press into the affected muscle and hold for 10 to 15 seconds.

3) Drink a fluid with electrolytes. Sports drinks that contain electrolytes can help resolve cramps as well as prevent them.

4 )Slow down for awhile. To keep a cramp at bay you need to take the stress off your muscles, so back off a bit. Besides, when a cramp hits, you may not have a choice.

(All athletes continue to get leg cramps no matter how carefully they try to prevent them, as do dolts like me who have been doing the same stretches daily for years. Do I now need to find other stretches to do before these stretches?)

@gailcalled: ”(All athletes continue to get leg cramps no matter how carefully they try to prevent them, as do dolts like me who have been doing the same stretches daily for years. Do I now need to find other stretches to do before these stretches?)”
Don’t stretch a cold muscle – warm up before yoga, even it it’s just going up and down a flight of stairs a few times, marching in place, or a brisk walk around the block. Varying your routine to include different stretches on different days wouldn’t hurt, either.

@JLeslie – I am not really sure,I am a very bad sleeper but I don’t know if I am restless or not. But today in the car I caught a hellish cramp in my middle toe left foot, the left side is where most cramps hit, the toe gets rigid and hard as a rock, I pointed my toes up to the sky instead of straight out as I usually do and the cramp went away almost immediately. It was like a miracle! Thank you for that suggestion. I hope it works as well for calf or thigh cramps too!