when this happens, stretch your leg out in front of you and use the palm of your hand to pull the top of your foot toward your body. it helps ease the cramp. i deal with these too damn much and is the only way to stop them fast
My friend, up your magnesium!
This is the way! I take soem daily and it’s the only thing that’s reliably controlled my cramping, helps me sleep better as well
it is at least partially hereditary, but i will look into it! my mom couldnt swim without wearing tennis shoes because her legs would seize up.
Oooh. Damn. I’ve heard of a more serious version, that has a name, but I can’t remember it. Hopefully you haven’t inherited something serious. I have terrible cramping issues, I wish I had known how much magnesium helps, it’s essentially the conduit to which the electrical signals controlling your muscles ride around on. I have found magnesium glycenate to work best for me, there’s heaps of varieties. I hope you find one that helps, crossing my fingers for you!
Those LMNT or other electrolyte mixes do wonders, almost instant relief.
Up your magnesium game.
Or salt.
Or potassium.
Or water.
It’s usually all of the above. Also calcium. Electrolytes are fuel for your nervous system, with various uses all over the board. Missing most any of them can produce cramps in the basic sense.
Magnesium specifically is utilized for muscle relaxation. Potassium is used for muscle contraction.
Yes, but cramps can also be caused by a lack of electrolytes and dehydration.
Exactly. I’ve noticed that I don’t have cramps when I drink a lot of coconut water (excellent source of potassium). Like you said, the bottom line is that you need fluids and electrolytes.
Can we please not spread misinformation. Mg=relaxation and K+=contraction is simplistic. Both are needed.
Or polonium.
0mg!
Problem
It is generally understood that human beings are carbon-based organisms, fusing little carbon tubes together to form complex, mushy structures capable of thought, love, and locomotion. It is also known that these structures sometimes like to “take the edge off” by consuming ethanol, amphetamine, etc. In such cases, it is important to supplement your body with magnesium. Tired? Mag it! Down? Mag time! Liver damage? MAXIMUM MAG! Some people say magnesium doesn’t really do anything and you just need to quit. What do we tell them?
Solution
We tell them: HELL NO. You’re about to become a magnesium-based lifeform. The age of the primitive carbon-man is done. No longer must mankind rely on slow-working background radiation to take us further into our genetic destiny. This is the era of guided evolution, and magnesium is the key. You are the first of your species. The next step in human evolution. An advanced magnesium proto-man who mags it up, drinks it down, and sniffs it sideways!
Lift toes and feet, kick heels out as hard as you can. Hold.
Doesn’t always stop it, but can help considerably if you start before it fully fires off.
I read this tip years ago in a similar social media comment on a similar meme.
It really works, this trick basically changed my life. Highly recommend.
With all muscle cramps. Do what feels counterintuitive.
The muscle contracts/tightens. Stretching it hurts more, but it is what must be done.
For when someone reading this has a hamstring cramp… You might wanna figure out that stretch ahead of time. It’s a bit heftier than the calf muscle and puts up a better fight.
I get them regularly, no one can explain why. Both hamstrings same time, I’m 6’ 7" mostly legs. I usually get them in the middle of the night. Pain doesn’t phase me, but when I pull both hamstrings I start crying because the pain is unbelievable. I stand up as quickly as possible support my body and try to stretch my legs. My wife starts freaking out because I usually wake up with a scream. For the next 15 mins it’s the worst pain imaginable while I plead to the darkness for the pain to stop. 15 mins later I’m back to normal. Like it never happened. I hate it.
I am also 6’7"… Ish, haha. Tagged as fellow tall. There’s your explanation.
I am exactly 2m. So just shy, but more than 6’6".
I am actually mostly body, so my butts lower than yours. Idk, I’m curious if this is better or worse for my hamstring in a cramp? Idk if the back muscles it connects to affect it or not lol. Idk if it makes it worse either way though.
My go to is to Indian leg wrestle a wall when it cramps up. Like I scoot my ass past the wall and raise my cramping leg to get my heel locked onto the wall past 90° and force my knee to lock (with my hands if I need to which, for anyone reading that has never experienced this, is basically necessary. Your hamstring is stronger than most of your leg, save your groin, but it’s basically unable to affect the hamstring in a cramp. So your biceps and triceps are necessary sometimes.)
The physics make less sense to me but I actually end up getting relief putting my calf on the arm of a couch while I crunch my abs forward as hard as I can. Having a partner hold you in place here would be ideal as far as I’ve felt.
Cheers homie. Good luck. The world was designed for a max of 6’5". We have it ok. But damn. Cheers.
The world really isn’t built for people on the outside of the bell curve. I have a 4’10" mom and a 6’7" ex and they had so many things they complained about that I never even thought about because I’m 5’6", so the normalest height possible. Your solutions make sense
It’s not the stretching that relieves the cramp. When you contract the opposing muscle (or muscle group), your body sends a signal to relax the other muscle. So if your hamstring is cramping, contracting your quadriceps causes the hamstring to relax.
I’ve never gotten a cramp in my life. I’m on 39’s doorstep and I’m a guy. My wife has woken me up on a couple occasions with her Charley horses. I’m happy to see it’s not just her.
If your electrolytes are balanced, you shouldn’t get cramps. Cramping is caused by not having enough potassium, which is used by your nerves to signal relaxing muscles. Sodium is used to signal clenching. Too much sodium for the potassium and the signals get unbalanced and you can’t relax that muscle.
Magnesium and calcium also play a role and deficiencies can result in cramping or tremors (like unsteady hands might just be from being low on Mg, Ca, or K).
So it seems like you’ve been eating well at least as far as electrolytes are concerned, especially if you can hold your hand out rock steady, regardless of whether your muscles are clenched or relaxed.
You shouldn’t snoke electrolytes bro. Those are for the empathetic system.
Yeah, I think I’m just lucky, good genes. I eat fine, but I’ve also survived off bars and snacks in the desert for days, never had issues. Always drink my water though, love water.
Nowadays, I do eat (well, ingest) a banana every day, and that’s the only kind of K I’m into anymore.
Yeah, when my own levels were low enough to get the occasional cramp, it never happened on a day I ate a banana.
Eat a whole turkey and see what happens. Glaze it, even
I’m curious why turkey, is it the salt content or something else that can lead you cramping?
I’m not gonna eat a whole turkey though, that’s just crazy.
Then eat and orange and a bad of onion bagels. Geez, someone skipped Alchemy 101 in college…
I skipped a lot in college, that’s for sure. Including the final four years.
I will do my best to test this hypothesis and report back.
It is theory
Bro I just watched my calve during a cramp a few weeks ago. It was so gnarly, like legit rippling, like something else was under my skin.
Who is Charlie and what does his horse have to do with anything?
Oh I hate that, but the only solution for me is to equally strongly point my foot towards my head.
YES flex that foot! Just grab it with your hands and dorsiflex it hard, and it resolves quickly.
Today I learned this is a common thing. I started getting these in the mornings after I started cycling a ton and really developed my calves. An excruciating reminder that I didn’t hydrate well enough the day before.
When you are having a really big yawn and feel the bottom of your mouth tense up. Those are the absolute worst cramps. Especially when you’re with someone else who thinks you’re choking or having a seizure or something. And you can’t tell them it’s fine and it’s just a cramp, since you can’t open your mouth.
New fear unlocked, thanks
I get these weekly while doing nothing. It’s a side effect of neck radiation cancer treatment. First time was painful as hell. Now I have learned to just sit in it and chill and it passes quicker that way
I am young, I got my first one a bit ago and I was like wtf, did I break something.
The fucking worst! I find throwing my head back like I’m trying to break my own neck usually fixes the issue
Genuinely this is something you should see a doctor about. A calf cramp once in a while doesn’t say that much about underlying pathology but if your jaw is cramping to that extent you should talk to someone. There are treatments for TMJ disfunction.
Thanks for reminding me of this, I’m gonna be paranoid stretching next couple of times.
Make sure you get enough potassium, calcium, and magnesium, along with hydration.
Sodium, too, if you do a lot of home cooking that tastes bland.
Cut off your calves and eat them that’s the only way God knows how to fuck in the digeridoos of turtle why the fuck a turtle I ain’t fucked no turtle in three days, but that’s a stretch of time to elaborate how Don Lemon returned me to sender
Are you an LLM with only a 10 token context window? Or doing that thing that humans do when their brain blood escapes its brain blood tube and becomes a brain blood pool or has trouble making it to all the brain cells because the brain blood tube is too full of non-brain blood things?
Either way, thanks for the moment of amusement I got trying to parse the combination of words you used in the order you used them.
Nah nrah, if you can’t investigators I dont give af about speaks
The only cramps I ever get is period cramps I don’t understand random body parts cramping that seems like it shouldn’t be happening?
Are you still in your 20s?
You’ve never gotten a charley horse? It’s not at all like a period cramp, very sudden and exquisitely painful, and quickly resolved.
You probably drink an adequate amount of water
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Immediately get out of bed and stand up straight, works faster than trying to flex\stretch it out
Yeah I have always found that standing up stops the cramp better than anything else. I heard it was like handing over the controls to your central (or maybe peripheral?) nervous system and letting that higher authority override the cramp by deciding that maintaining your balance while standing up is a higher priority. Then you can safely stretch and get hydrated after that.
I have jumped out of bed in a panic many times and it has worked every time.
“Jumping” out of bed from lying is not too healthy as far as I know.
Neither is whatever state we are letting our bodies be in that is causing enough leg cramps to necessitate a contingency protocol.
Well, no, but what I meant was you can get a brain aneurism and die from getting up too fast, you wouldn’t have to worry about your leg cramps anymore, either way.
It’s been months since I had a leg cramp, but recently-ish i did have a tongue (between the chin and the neck) cramp which was pretty weird.
Those don’t even really hurt, there more of just annoying for a while.
