Cramp!!!!

[drathzel]

Ok i have a tendancy to get cramp in my calves during the night if i have been dancing. I wake up just in time to go through the pain. How do i stop this and what do i do when the cramp comes on? (at the moment i am rubbing it like hell trying to get the muscle to relax)

Thank you :hug:

[Simon r]

Ok i have a tendancy to get cramp in my calves during the night if i have been dancing. I wake up just in time to go through the pain. How do i stop this and what do i do when the cramp comes on? (at the moment i am rubbing it like hell trying to get the muscle to relax)

Thank you :hug:
i get the same cramps .... i have found by drinking 0.5 litres of water just before going to bed and having a bag of ready salted crisps manages to stop it and i just end up with sore calves the next day but no cramps...

[foxylady]

Ok i have a tendancy to get cramp in my calves during the night if i have been dancing. I wake up just in time to go through the pain. How do i stop this and what do i do when the cramp comes on? (at the moment i am rubbing it like hell trying to get the muscle to relax)

Thank you :hug:

replenish fluids isotonically... ie not just plain water,
and stretch calves and hamstrings and quads both before and after dancing...

an excellent calf massage exercise, but EXTREMELY painful is to kneel, cross your ankles then sit back, and use the leg on top to massage the leg underneath (you can move the top leg up and down the length of your calf)... Then repeat with the other leg crossed on top....

Hope thats of use

[Rhythm King]

1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Include a little more salt in your diet (but don't go wild!)
3. An electrolyte replacement drink, such as Dioralyte may help.
4. Stretching is better than rubbing, also try to stretch and cool down properly after dancing, or indeed any exercise.

R-K :flower:

[Piglet]

Hey Drathzel - just read your signature!!

What's the story with the pink pants then?

Also am I not right in remembering you're a hoverer! If so :worthy: to the boots and peeing thing. Respect!

[El Salsero Gringo]

My mother swears by a glass of tonic water before bed. I'm (reasonably) certain that she leaves the gin out...

[drathzel]

Hey Drathzel - just read your signature!!

What's the story with the pink pants then?

Also am I not right in remembering you're a hoverer! If so :worthy: to the boots and peeing thing. Respect!

Makes it that wee bit more difficult but still possible, the trick is to balance on one leg then the other!!!

:)

Thanks to everyone on there tips, i just have to remember to eat ready salted crisps drink water with or without an isotonic substance and a glass of gin and tonic (helping me sleep thro it)

:D

[drathzel]

oh and i need to remember to stretch! :hug: :flower:

[bigdjiver]

My mother swears by a glass of tonic water before bed. I'm (reasonably) certain that she leaves the gin out...A friend of mine was told to drink Indian Tonic water by his doctor. Allegedly it combats the build up of uric acid in the muscles. I have just finished my post dance drink of diluted down tonic water.

[angelique]

A friend of mine was told to drink Indian Tonic water by his doctor. Allegedly it combats the build up of uric acid in the muscles. I have just finished my post dance drink of diluted down tonic water.

:yeah:
Its the quinine in it that combats the acid build up
Trust me I'm a nurse! :kiss:

Alternatively, just get soooooooooooooooooo p****d that NOTHING would wake you up! :rofl:

No offence meant with my flippancy as I know that it can be excruciatingly painful so have these instead! :hug: :hug:

[Alfie]

Have you tried different footwear and heel hights? Or do you suffer all the time after dancing?
When I started to suffer really badly with arthritis earlier this year I had to change my style and footwear and found that I stopped suffering from cramp at the same time.

[drathzel]

Have you tried different footwear and heel hights? Or do you suffer all the time after dancing?
When I started to suffer really badly with arthritis earlier this year I had to change my style and footwear and found that I stopped suffering from cramp at the same time.

Its not all the time, maybe once a week (i dance 3-5 times a week) and its not after wearing any specific shoes! Used to happen more wheni first started dancing but has lessened off! :hug:

[Lynn]

I've only suffered from this once (pre-MJ dancing). It was a dinner dance in a hotel near my house so I had walked there (didn't have a car then) - and it was really painful - so I can sympathise. :hug: I had to get a lift home, no way I could have walked. I also tried rubbing my calves, not sure if it helped much. Thankfully haven't suffered from it since.

[ElaineB]

I've only suffered from this once (pre-MJ dancing). It was a dinner dance in a hotel near my house so I had walked there (didn't have a car then) - and it was really painful - so I can sympathise. :hug: I had to get a lift home, no way I could have walked. I also tried rubbing my calves, not sure if it helped much. Thankfully haven't suffered from it since.

I had cramp two years ago at a competition. I find that Isotonic drinks are the answer, although rubbing the affected bits sounds fun to me!!!


Elaine

[El Salsero Gringo]

... although rubbing the affected bits sounds fun to me!!!
ElaineYes. Any ladies who need their calves rubbed, just get in touch.

[CJ]

Yes. Any ladies who need their calves rubbed, just get in touch.

Alternatively, any ladies need to up their salt intake..... :blush:

Oh my God, I've stooped sooooooooooooooooooo low, even for me.

[drathzel]

how about both? :blush:

[Easter Bunny]

[QUOTE=angelique]:yeah:
Its the quinine in it that combats the acid build up
Trust me I'm a nurse! :kiss:

Trust the professional - yeah it is the quinine (also suggested by my doctor) -I have tried the tonic water - with and without gin (hic!), but didn't completeley clear the problem, so got a prescription for quinine tablets which helped a lot, but I think GP's are reluctant to prescribe them as they are expensive.

You used to be able to buy 'salt tablets' to suck, but can't seem to get them now (anyone ??).

Elaine is correct in saying Isotonic drinks help - that's why they sell them at gyms.

Changing heel heights makes things worse, because your calf / ankle muscles either stretch or tighten to that shoe height (blokes probably wouldn't appreciate this problem) - hence it's when you get home and take off your shoes to a flat foot that can bring on the cramp.

I know the pain is excrutiating sometimes and it seems to come on just as you are relaxing and dropping off to sleep around 3am in the morning after a dance night.

The only bonus once for me was getting agonising calf and foot cramp at Britroc 2003. just as I needed to be on the floor to dance in a final and the gorgeous Ben Berego came to my rescue :drool: (he is a physio you know as well as being a fantastic dancer and gorgeous to boot!) - anyway I digress - he massaged by calf muscle and pressed very very hard on the most painful point of the muscle to stop the blood flow I think, and that worked, I just felt very bruised and sore the next couple of days or so. :tears:

If you can't stop the pain in the middle of the night put the front part of your foot on the edge of a stair and gently drop your heel down below the trea of the stair and that should help the calf muscle to re-stretch.

Failing all that - ask Ben to go everywhere with you!

Hope this helps!

[Graham]

Oh my God, I've stooped sooooooooooooooooooo low, even for me.
I'm not sure whether to chastise you or to congratulate you on achieving the seemingly impossible. :wink:

[El Salsero Gringo]

Oh my God, I've stooped sooooooooooooooooooo low, even for me.Don't worry, buddy. We're right down there with you.

[bigdjiver]

I have no idea how medically valid this is, but when I start feeling a bit drained after hours of dancing I munch a choccy bar to up my sugar level, and have a packet of crisps. In order to get the salt into my bloodstream more rapidly I munch the crisps very small, and store them temporarily in my cheeks, chipmunk like. The theory is that the salt can get into the bloodstream more rapidly by being absorbed through the cheek walls. I repeat, this may be a medical old wives tale.

BTW I have also seen it written that the aphrodisiac in oysters is mostly destroyed by the digestive system, and to get the effect the oysters should be similarly be munched and contained in the cheeks where direct and more rapid absorbtion is possible. This is not something that I have tried.

Sainsbury's own brand tonic water is very cheap in 2L bottles..

OT absorb - absorption It is not our kids that cannot spell, it is our ancestors and us.

[Bangers & Mash]

Hi Drathzel

Cramp has been the bane of my life since I started dancing - but not just the calf. I used to get it in my calfs, feet, arms, back and ribs.

In fact it was relly scary. The first time I got it in my ribs I thought I was having a heart attack. In one case the cramp was so violent that it caused bruising on my chest.

I've read a lot of things, tried a number of things, and consulted my doctor. The result I found for myself was:

Be very wary of salt. I tried increasing my salt intake on the assumption that it was salt loss through sweat but the danger of this is increased blood pressure. I don't do that any more after my blood pressure went up.

I tried taking magnesium tablets - which worked a treat along with isotonic drinks and bananas as a cure for jetlag when flying to New Zealand but did not provide as much relief as I hoped.

I always drank lots of water - there is a simple check for dehydration which is the colour of your urine so I knew that it was not dehydration.

To put things in perspective, I used to train in the gym and in circuit training to the tune of approx 2 hours a day and I used to swim up to 30 miles a week 2 years ago - and only suffered really bad cramp once and that was in the pool after 5 miles.

I think that dancing is a really demanding physical workout and if you're like me you just cannot sit out a track. I am currently doing 2 hours a day in the gym - of which 65 minutes is intensive cardio vascular work - and I still don't cramp like I do after dancing.

Anyway, I managed to survive Edinburgh last thursday and Jive Addiction in Doncaster yesterday without a single problem. What I did was:

Ate a decently sized meal 2 hours before - including both protein and carbohydrate (in this case rice)
Ate a banana
Drank plenty of water before, during and after the dancing - if you wait until you're thirsty then you've left it too late!
Took a multi-vitamin in the morning of the dance (not salt, not magnesium.. just a bog standard multi-vitamin)
Ate a snack after the dance - in this case a bowl of cereal
Sat out from a couple of dances when I could feel myself getting too hot, too exhausted or my heart rate increasing.
(note that your heart rate also increases with dehydration)


Hope this helps.

Bear in mind that everyone suddenly becomes an expert when you pose a question like this. The trick is to find what works for you. When you do, let me know.

:hug:

[Bangers & Mash]

A little reading

Take a look at Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook: The #1 Nutrition Resource for Active People (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/073604602X/qid=1115578918/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/026-1629417-8186814?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

[bobgadjet]

You used to be able to buy 'salt tablets' to suck, but can't seem to get them now (anyone ??).


I still get this VERY badly, but less as I take preventative steps if I can, like streaching, water with additives etc etc etc.

When first experienced "regularly" the doc told me to increase my salt intake SLIGHTLY(like salty crisps, Celery sticks with lots of salt etc), but gave no prescription, and also take in more water, with a little additive, but not essential.
Salt tablets are apparently not openly available anymore, but friendly local chemist who sympathised DID give me some salt tablets as he knew I would be sensible, but under the express instruction that I took
NO MORE THAN ONE in a TWO day period.

I only take them after a very lengthy dance session if I have been sweating a lot, and not been able to intake the required water (too expensive ! ! !)

If you get the cramp, try forcing the big toe as high as possible. this will streach the affected muscle and WILL hurt :tears:

[Lynn]

:yeah:
Its the quinine in it that combats the acid build up
Trust me I'm a nurse! :kiss: A dancing friend told me yesterday he was prescribed malaria tablets recently for cramp - and I was able to say that it was because of the quinine (see how useful this forum is? Well, that and knowing that anti-malaria tablets contain quinine from having taken them while in West Africa!) Though not something you want to take long term.