Muscle cramps are short-term tightening of the muscles, and they usually happen when you are working out. The feeling is like when you feel a strong, uncontrollable tightening of a muscle group that you can no longer stop. There are many things that can cause cramps, but most of the time they happen because people don't warm up enough before working out.
There are two parts to a good and correct warm-up: the general one (cardio), which raises the body temperature (by running, cycling, etc.) and the specific one, which warms up the main joints and muscle groups that will be used in training. If you don't give one of these stages the time or importance it needs because you're in a hurry, don't care much about it, or don't know much about it, cramps can become a common problem.
After training, it's just as important to take some time to relax as it is to warm up. This has two stages, just like warming up: an aerobic (moving) stage and a non-aerobic (still) stage (stretching). It's meant to "calm down" the body and get rid of the tense muscles and waste products that come from training. Lack of rest can slow down the body's ability to heal, which can lead to cramps during the next workout or even when you're just resting.
Cramping can also be caused by an electrolyte imbalance, which can happen when you sweat a lot and lose a lot of electrolytes. Regaining hydro-electrolytic balance is important, and you can do that by eating a balanced, varied diet that is high in vegetables and fruit and is rounded out with nutritional supplements, poly-minerals, and poly-vitamins on a regular basis.
When you're training and you get muscle cramps, the first thing you should do is stop the work that caused the cramps. It is a good idea to massage the area. This will increase the flow of blood to that group of muscles and get rid of the waste products from training faster.
It's also a good time to do some light stretching, which will help both the affected area and the muscles that work against it. This exercise is meant to put the muscle fibres back in their normal places. This helps the muscles relax and also lengthens and makes the group of muscles that cramps affect more flexible.
A warm shower could also be helpful because it will help bring the muscles back to normal by widening the blood vessels around the muscles.
If you ignore the cramps, you could end up with more or less serious problems, like your muscles getting tighter or even tearing. The cramps can hurt the athlete physically, but they can also affect him or her mentally. He is afraid of these casual contractions, so he won't be able to train any harder. He can even become overly worried about his health to the point where he thinks that any pain in his muscles during or after exercise is a sign of cramps.
The best way to avoid these problems is to have a lot of experience in sports. This way, the practitioner will be able to tell the difference between real problems and false alarms, making the training more effective.
