Health and Fitness

It's a common scenario. You are biking or running along, reveling in the sensation of speed, the fresh air, when all of a sudden your calf muscle tightens up. You hunker down and try to pedal or run through the pain but you just can't re-capture the reverie as the thought enters your mind: Why do I keep getting these muscle cramps? While there are too many possible causes and solutions to go into at length here, there are a few things you can do to lessen your chances of experiencing muscle cramps before and after your bike rides or work outs.

Eat Right
First and foremost with most health issues, is the importance of eating a varied, healthy, balanced diet. Eat plenty of nutritionally dense foods. This means choose "God" made whole foods rather than man-made or processed foods. A good rule of thumb is: If it has a bar code it is not food! Dehydration is another major cause of muscle cramps, so it is of utmost importance to drink plenty of pure water. Tap water is not pure as it usually contains chlorine, chemicals, hormones and steroids and some bottled water sources are questionable.

To Gatorade or not to Gatorade?
Excessive sweating, during which we lose electrolytes, is another potential cause of muscle cramps. While Gatorade and other sports drinks replenish these minerals, they use tap water, their carbohydrate source is sucrose syrup and glucose-fructose syrup and they contain chemicals in the form of artificial flavor and color and table salt, all of which are detrimental to the body. Table salt has been exposed to chemical and heating factory processes that strip it of its minerals, leaving a substance that causes inflammation in the body.

It is essential to maintain a proper balance between electrolytes as potassium and calcium permit a muscle to contract and magnesium allows it to relax. To replace electrolytes and carbs lost you could add a liquid trace mineral supplement to pure water and snack on a banana and trail mix containing almonds, raisins, apricots, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Reduce acidity
A body that is overly acidic is one that is highly prone to muscle cramps and is also very susceptible to demineralization, infection, fatigue, insomnia, inflammation, disease, calcium deposits, and so much more. There is a simple test available to do over 5 days to check the acidity level in your body which I can evaluate. Acidity and reducing acidity levels is an extensive subject that will be explored in a future article.

Be prepared
Of course, warming up before and stretching after exercising as well as proper training leading up to exercise are important to prevent cramping.

Your Plan
If you try some of the above suggestions and still experience pain, it is important that you determine the cause of your muscle cramps and from there work out a specific plan to eliminate them. A Naturopath can help with this process by creating a specific nutrition plan, based on your dominant metabolioc-energy type and lifestyle. If you're curious to know more feel free to contact me though my website.

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Sue-Anne Hickey is a naturotherapist and yoga teacher whose passion is helping her clients achieve optimal health and high energy http://www.health-and-natural-healing.com