Muscle Cramps
Help for Muscle Cramps in Toronto
A muscle cramp (sometimes referred to as a Charlie horse) is when a sudden, intensely painful muscle contraction or spasm occurs in a particular muscle group. There is a significant contraction of many motor units and muscle fibres that contract simultaneously. The main cause of pain is low blood flow to the muscles.
When present, you cannot willfully stop the contraction. You can often see the muscle become shortened, and the body part affected may move in a specific direction. The muscle will feel hard when you touch it.
When Do Muscle Cramps Happen?
Muscle cramps can occur in any muscle in the body, and the contraction can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.
It is common to get repeated cramps in the same muscle/area.
They may happen when you are at rest, during or after exercise, when you begin to stretch a muscle or at night. When experienced at night, they can lead to insomnia.
A muscle cramp in your calf may cause your feet to point downwards (plantar flexion) or your toes to curl.
- The vast majority of muscle cramps are harmless and go away on their own
- Cramps commonly occur in healthy people
- About 80% of cramps that occur outside of the spine muscles involve the calf and foot muscles. Less commonly, the hamstring and gluteal muscles.
- Cramps more frequently as we age (in middle-aged and older adults)
- Cramps occur in 63% of triathletes and endurance and high-intensity athletes
- Approximately 50% to 60% of adults experience nocturnal (night) leg cramps (NLCs)
- More commonly in people who sit a lot at work or at home
- Occur equally in men and women
- May occur in 30-50% of pregnant women
- Rarely, they are associated with certain serious conditions
Muscle Cramp vs Muscle Spasm vs Restless Leg Syndrome:
A muscle spasm occurs when a muscle becomes tight for more than a few minutes and it is difficult for you to relax it by stretching. For example, a muscle attached to your spine may go into spasm if you injure a related joint or overuse the muscle.
When cramps occur related to overexertion during or after exercise, they are called exercise-induced muscle cramps.
In people with neurogenic claudication related to lumbar spinal stenosis, cramping is commonly felt in the back or front of the thigh and sometimes in the calf area.
Cramps should not be confused with Restless Leg Syndrome, which is a neurological disorder that is usually associated with a sleep disorder. It affects around 2-3% of adults, seems to run in families and can also be seen in children.
People with RLS feel a very uncomfortable crawling feeling deep in their legs when they are at rest, either lying down or sitting, primarily at night. Patients sometimes describe it as a thousand angry ants under the skin or a toothache in the legs.
As a result, they feel an unpleasant and irresistible urge or need to move the legs, which provides temporary relief. Since they get temporarily better when standing or walking, their ability to sleep is negatively affected.
Why Should I Be Concerned About My Foot and Leg Health?
Your feet are powerhouses! They carry your weight with every step.
- If you walk down the stairs, your feet may be absorbing 2 times your body weight
- If you jog or run, your feet can carry up to 8 times your body weight.
For example, if you weigh 180 pounds, have you ever asked yourself if you would attempt to lift your body weight with your bicep muscles or even set the resistance to 180 pounds to do repeated leg presses? Not likely!
We often have unreasonable expectations of our feet and legs and take them for granted. Rarely do we think about foot health. We expect our feet and legs to take unlimited strain and expect them to be back to normal the next day.
As children and teens, we are not usually taught about foot and leg health.
As a result, we tend not to think about our feet and legs until they start hurting, and by then, some damage may have already occurred. Tension tends to build up in our muscles and tendons, and without stretching daily to reduce that tension, injury is more likely to occur.
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Stretching the foot/leg muscles each day can be compared to brushing your teeth, and massages can be compared to flossing.
Many people who stand more than 6 hours a day without rest and daily stretching are likely to have over-exerted muscles and develop muscle fatigue.
It is unreasonable to expect to be able to stand and work on your feet for 12 hours for days on end, without foot and leg discomfort.
Despite various theories, currently, there is little or no evidence that muscle cramps are due to:
- electrolyte imbalances in athletes (such as low magnesium, calcium, salt, or potassium levels) and that eating potassium-rich bananas before a race can help prevent cramps
- dehydration
What are Risk Factors for Muscle Cramps?
Factors that can set you up to experience muscle cramps: If you:
- have pes planus and flat feet
- ignore your feet and legs unless you experience pain, as most people do
- are unaware of how important the feet are to your overall health as well as how to care for your feet
- have tight foot and calf muscles (either naturally or acquired)
- don’t know how to stretch all the important muscle groups in their feet and legs (there are six basic stretches that address specific muscle groups).
- don’t stretch your feet/leg muscles daily
- don’t stretch before and after exercise, sports, long walks
- never massage your foot and leg muscles
- wear the wrong size or shaped of shoes for your feet, which is quite common
- use the wrong shoes for the type of activity you participate in, particularly when you were not expecting to do it, for example, during a vacation, family picnic, or social gathering
- have extremely fatigued leg muscles from standing many hours a day for work, from overexertion
- have a job that involves sitting for long periods during the day, which leads to shortened muscles and tendons
- smoke
Why Most Muscle Cramps Occur?
To date, there is very little well-designed research on how to prevent muscle cramps.
In the medical literature, muscle cramps are often referred to as idiopathic, meaning that the condition arises spontaneously or for which the cause is unknown.
However, given the high number (80%) of people who experience cramps in their feet and calf muscles, it is our doctor’s experience that most muscle cramps have a known biomechanical cause.
Our doctors have helped many people to completely get rid of their muscle cramps over the years.
Your muscles get used to functioning in certain ways. Based on your postures, movements, types of activities and exercises you do, your muscles become accustomed to contracting and stretching in certain directions, speeds and angles at various times of day and night. Often, a muscle cramp will occur when you:
- move your body or limb in a certain direction and the muscle contracts at an abnormal angle (for example splay your foot and toes into a stretch quickly)
- attempt to contract the muscle while it is in its lengthened state (for example, if your leg is straight at the knee, planted on the ground in front of you (hamstring in a stretched position) and you attempt to contract extend your thigh
- shorten the muscle too much (for example during a foot stretch where you pull your foot into inversion)
- moving your muscles in a way that you are not prepared for, such as doing a new exercise or one that you have not done for a long time
The cramp may occur during the activity, after the activity or later at night.
We offer effective, drug-free treatments to relieve back spasms. Some of these are:
- Massage and trigger point therapy
- Progressive muscular facilitation
- Chiropractic manual manipulation
- Pulstar spinal mobilizations
- Physical therapy modalities such as Ultrasound and Interferential Current
- Lifestyle modification suggestions
- Education about exercises and postures to avoid and therapeutic stretches
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