Muscle cramps are painful, sustained contractions of all of the muscle fibers in a muscle. They can last for just a few seconds or continue for several hours.
Although cramps can occur during sleep, they usually occur during intense exercise. No athlete or fitness buff in any sport is immune to this common condition.
Thera are many causes:
Salt deficiency
Low levels of other minerals such as potasium or magnesium
An injury or strain on the muscle
An obstruction of the muscle’s blood supply by sustained muscular contraction
Hyperventilating – breathing too fast when it is not necessary, which prevents the body from using calcium
Most common cause of cramps in athletes is a low body level of one or more minerals, particularly potassium and salt. Potasium is the mineral that is lost in large ammounts during hard exercise.
I suggest that you eat more fruits and vegetables to replace potassium. I do not recommend that you increase your dietary intake of salt. When an athlete consumes large amount of salt, his body loses its ability to conserve salt. Consequently, if he suddenly decreases his intake, his level will become unusually low and this will cause cramps.
If you still continue to have cramps in spite of an increased intake of mineral-rich foods, see your physician. Since potassium and magnesium are found primarily inside the cells, blood tests are not always an accurate measure of the body’s level of the two minerals. The best way to measure this minerals is to cut out a piece of muscle and measure the amount of minerals inside it. However, because the treatment of mineral deficiency is so simple – eating fruits, vegetables, and grains – a muscle biopsy is never necessary.
Myth 1. You can become fit by exercising a few minutes a week
A basic element of fitness is the capacity of the heart to do work. This is called cardiovascular fitness.
To achieve cardiovascular fitness, you must push your heartbeat to more than 60 percent of its maximum for at least thirty minutes three times a week. Your maximum is the fastest your heart can beat and still pump blood to your body. If you are between ages of twenty and forty, that level is about 200 beats per minute. That means that you must raise your pulse rate to 120.
If you are trained athlete and want to maintain a high level of fitness, you must raise your pulse to at least 80 percent of its maximum, or 160 beats per minutes, for an extended period.
Since bowling and golf do not raise your heartbeat to these levels, they do not give you cardiovascular fitness.
Myth 2. The more you train, the more fit you become
You can make a mistake by training too hard or by training too much.
The more intensely you train, the less training you can do. Beginners often exercise so vigorously that they become breathless and must cut their workout short. As a result, they don’t get enough exercise to achieve fitness. A good rule of thumb for a beginner: never exercise so hard that you are gasping for air. As your level of fitness improves, you will be able to exercise more vigorously.
Myth 3. The best way to improve your fitness or athletic performance is to train hard every day
Every time you exercise vigorously, muscle fibers are slightly damaged and your muscles burn up their fuel and become depleted. You must allow time for your muscles to recover. If you don’t, you will be more susceptible to injury.
Myth 4. If you attain a high degree of fitness, you will remain fit even with layoff
Ridiculous!
Whether you’re runner who can run ten miles with ease or tennis player who can play three hard sets, you will not be able to handle the same workload after a layoff or even a few weeks.
This is called reversibility, and describes the fact that your muscles – including your heart muscle – quickly loose their ability to utilize oxygen efficiently if they are not stressed constantly. As a result they do not have the same capacity for work after a layoff.
Myth 5. You don’t have to do stretching exercises if you’re fit
To stay flexible, you have to stretch regularly even if you’re fit and active!
Myth 6. Exercise can harm you because it enlarges the heart
Exercise puts a moderate stress on your heart, which causes it to become stronger, larger, and more muscular.
Heart attacks are caused by failure in the supply of blood to the heart. In an extremely well conditioned person, the arteries supplying the heart with blood are enlarged, and are therefore much less susceptible to clogging or stoppage. This almost guarantees that individual immunity from heart attack.
Myth 7. A normal electrocardiogram means your heart is healthy and you can safely perform vigorous exercise
Not so. A normal resting electrocardiogram means very little. There are reports in the medical literature of people dying of heart attack immediately after taking a normal electrocardiogram.
A stress electrocardiogram, taken while you are exercising, is another story. If your stress electrocardiogram is normal, you are extremely unlikely to have a conventional heart attack when you exercise.
Myth 8. Vitamin supplements improve fitness and performance
There is no scientific evidence to support this belief. The average American for example eats so well that his diet provides all the vitamins he could possibly need.
Actually B12 injections can only perk up pure vegetarians who have abstained from eating animal products for at least ten years, or persons with pernicious anemia – a rare disease in which this vitamin is not absorbed from food.
A more common cause of chronic fatigue in athletes is potassium deficiency.The treatment: eat large quantities of fruits and vegetables.
Myth 10. Athletes require more protein in their diet
Muscles are composed of protein, but scientific studies clearly show that protein requirements do not rise significantly with exercise. Hard exercise depletes muscles of muscle sugar (glycogen), not protein.
Myth 11. Steak and potatoes are the best pre-game or pre-exercise meal
Stake ranks as a poor source of immediate energy. Furthermore, the fat in the stake is relatively slow to digest and, if eaten too soon before exercise or game, can actually impair performance.
The best athletic fuel is carbohydrates – found in potatoes, crackers, pasta, rice and bread.
Myth 12. Exercise should be avoided in cold weather because cold air can freeze your lungs
Frozen lungs has never been reported in an athlete.
