Cramps – How to Prevent and Deal with Them

You certainly know that unpleasant feeling when you are enjoying your activity and suddenly an unexpected cramp occurs, limiting your movement or completely preventing you from continuing. Perhaps you woke up at night and struggled with an unpleasant pain and cramping. Muscle cramps affect many of us during activity. However, can these feelings be eliminated? What to do to avoid these unpleasant muscle contractions and how to prevent cramps?

What causes unpleasant muscle cramps?

Unpleasant conditions often arise from ignorance of the basic principles of proper hydration and energy replenishment. If you neglect proper hydration and energy replenishment during activity, it leads to depletion of energy sources and disruption of the water and electrolyte balance, which inevitably results in muscle cramps.

What exactly is a cramp?

A cramp is a non-physiological condition characterized by prolonged or excessive contraction of skeletal or smooth muscle. It is an involuntary, reflex contraction. The mechanism of cramp formation lies in the innervation of muscles, specifically in the increased excitability of nerves. While cramps in skeletal muscles are very unpleasant and usually result in interruption of athletic performance, they are not life-threatening.

How to prevent muscle cramps?

The basic condition is to adhere to the principles of proper hydration and replenishment of necessary energy. Underestimating these rules is more than anything else a reliable path to muscle cramps. Although muscle cells are composed of about 70% water, drinking only pure water during activity is not sufficient. Especially during prolonged performances. A fluid loss of 2.5% of body weight (about 2 liters of sweat for a 70 kg athlete) can reduce athletic performance by as much as 20–30%! Moreover, this fluid loss also leads to a loss of minerals, primarily sodium chloride (salt). For every liter of sweat, this can average 400–600 mg per hour.

The basic prevention against cramps is therefore to replenish fluids every 15 to 20 minutes using sports isotonic drinks. The ideal hydration solution can be achieved with the sports drink Isodrinx (hypotonic solution), which provides not only the necessary fluids but is also rich in essential minerals and carbohydrates (energy).

Minerals – why are they important?

The issue of mineral balance is certainly not limited to sodium deficiency caused by increased sweating. The amount of calcium is also crucial, as it plays a decisive role in muscle contraction, and its deficiency can lead to muscle cramps. However, this deficiency is unlikely because bones are a huge reservoir of calcium. A potassium deficiency is also not common with sufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables, and therefore we cannot blame it as the "culprit" of muscle cramps. Ultimately, the mineral that deserves our greatest attention in relation to muscle cramps is magnesium – a mineral that participates in dozens of biochemical reactions related to nutrient metabolism and energy production. Magnesium also plays a very important role in the functioning of the nervous system, where it regulates the transmission of impulses to peripheral nerves, and since cramps are closely related to muscle innervation and nerve supply, sufficient magnesium as a prevention of cramps is very important.

Where can we obtain magnesium? What are its best sources?

For chocolate lovers, we have good news – cocoa is a source of magnesium, as well as whole grain products, bananas, potatoes, oranges, spinach, etc. However, on the other hand, there are many foods that hinder the absorption of magnesium from the diet. These include, for example, white bread, processed meats, and even alcohol.

It is important to maintain a balance in magnesium and calcium intake. If we consume large amounts of dairy products, we should also increase our magnesium intake. If you have any doubts about your sufficient magnesium intake, we recommend Magneslife. In a very well-absorbed organic and liquid form, it is an excellent source of magnesium that acts immediately in case of muscle cramps. And not only that, it also contains vitamin B6, which makes the magnesium contained more usable.

Don’t forget about energy replenishment!

To do everything possible to prevent and avoid cramps, we must take one more important measure before we go out to exercise – be full of energy! Muscle cells must be as filled with glycogen (stored sugar) as possible, as its very limited amount serves as our basic energy source. Unfortunately, its amount is limiting for our performance. Once the glycogen level starts to significantly decrease, muscle exhaustion approaches, and cramps will not take long to appear. When this situation occurs, it is necessary to immediately provide energy in the form of quickly absorbable carbohydrates.

We recommend the energy gel Carbosnack. After the activity, do not forget to replenish the used energy sources again with the product Regener. With them, you will replenish the depleted glycogen and create the best conditions for the recovery of your muscles.

If you follow the above principles and supplementation, you will enjoy your activity and unpleasant conditions associated with muscle exhaustion and possible cramps will not occur.