Prevention and solution of unpleasant cramps

You certainly know the unpleasant feeling when you are enjoying your activity and suddenly a cramp appears. Cramps can limit you during your activity or even force you to stop the activity at all. Muscle cramps affect almost everybody during the activity. Can we get rid of these unpleasant feelings? What should we do to prevent this uncomfortable muscle contraction and how can we forgo cramps?

What causes unpleasant muscle cramps?

Uncomfortable states can be very often caused by ignoring basic principles of right drinking regime and energy supply during activity. If you do not supply liquids during performance and do not refill energy, the energy stores are emptied and water and electrolyte surrounding is destroyed which necessarily leads to muscle cramps creation. 

What is a cramp?

Cramp is a non-physiological state during which long-lasting and excessive bone or muscle contraction appears. It is an unmanageable and reflexive contraction. Mechanism of cramps creation lays in muscles innervations, concretely in increased nerves sensitiveness. Cramp of bone muscles is very annoying as it forces people to interrupt their sports performance but it is not life threatening. 

What can we do to prevent cramps?

Basic thing is that we have to follow principles of right drinking regime and energy supply. If you underestimate these basic rules, you can be almost certain that you are on the best way to get the muscle cramp. Even if the muscle cell consists by 70 % of water, it is not sufficient to drink only water during your exercise. Especially if we talk about long-lasting activities. Liquids loss at the level of 2,5 % of human weight (when talking about 70 kg heavy sportsmen, it is about 2 litres of sweat) causes decrease in overall performance level about 20 to 30 %! Moreover this liquids loss leads to mineral loss, mainly loss of sodium chloride (salts). It can be about 400 – 600 mg of sodium chloride on each litre of sweat. Basic prevention against cramps thus is to supply liquids by drinking ion drinks each 15 to 20 minutes of your exercise. Ideal solution of drinking regime is a sport drink ISODRINX(hypotonic solution) which supplies you not only with required liquids but it is also rich in minerals and carbohydrates (energy).

Minerals – why are they important?

Minerals management issue cannot be narrowed only to sodium deficit caused by increased sweating during activity. Important is also amount of calcium which plays important role in muscle contraction and its shortage can lead to muscle cramp. This shortage is not common because bones have huge calcium stores. Potassium shortage will not appear if one eats a lot of fruits and vegetable and it cannot be accused of being the cause of muscle cramps. So the mineral which is very much in connection with muscle cramps and regards our attention is magnesium, substance that takes part in several biochemic reactions connected with nutrients metabolism and energy production. Magnesium furthermore plays very important role in nervous system functioning where it regulates impulses transfer to nerves peripheries and due to the fact that muscle cramps are connected with muscles innervations and nerves stimulation, sufficient intake of magnesium as cramps prevention is very important.

Where can we get magnesium from? What are the best sources?

We have good news for those who love chocolate – good source of magnesium is cocoa. Among other sources of magnesium belong cereal products, bananas, potatoes, oranges, spinach etc. On the other side there also exists food that make the usage of magnesium from food worse such as white bread, sausages and similar meat products and also alcohol. It is important to balance magnesium and calcium intake. If we consume a lot of milk products we should also increase magnesium intake. If you have any doubts about sufficient magnesium intake we recommend consuming MAGNESLIFE. It is a great source of magnesium in liquid form which has a very good absorbency and utility and functions in the organism immediately. That is why it is good to use MAGNESLIFE also during your activity when you feel first signals of coming cramps. MAGNESLIFE also contains vitamin B6 which supports better utility of magnesium. 

Prevention – way to success!

Even when we talk about cramps it is valid that prevention is very important. To prevent cramps creation during your activity, we recommend consuming ANTICRAMP about 3 days before the activity which in optimal ratio supply the body with all necessary minerals (sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium). ANTICRAMP also contains carnosine – substance which helps to lower amount of metabolism waste – lactic acid (lactate) – in organism. 

Do not forget about energy supply!

To do the maximum to prevent cramps creation you have to do another important thing before starting the activity – you must be full of energy !

Muscle cells must be filled with glycogen (sugar stores) which serves as a basic source of energy. And its amount is very important for our activity. As decreasing glycogen stores means muscle tiredness and cramps will come very soon. To prevent this situation we must supply simple carbohydrates which supply energy immediately. We recommend energy gel CARBOSNACK.

Do not forget to refill energy and renew your energy stores after the end of your activity. We recommend consuming REGENER or ENDURO GAINER immediately post your workout to refill all used energy sources. Thanks to this you will recharge the energy and prepare the best conditions for your muscles recovery. 

If you follow all the above mentioned principles and supplementation, you will enjoy your activity and unpleasant feelings connected with muscle tiredness and possible cramps will not appear anymore.