Muscle Spasms Treatment


Muscle Spasms/Cramps (Charley Horse)

You decided to take a jog to start your day. Later that night, as you were drifting off to sleep, it happens. Your calf muscle becomes rock hard and extremely painful. The pain is so intense that your perception of time slows, you feel as though the cramp will never end. You are suffering from a classic muscle cramp or “Charley Horse.” Muscle cramps are involuntary contractions of one or more muscles causing severe pain. Some of the most common muscles to spasm are located in the foot, calf, thighs, hands, forearms, abs. Almost everyone experiences muscle cramps, which can come without warning.

Possible Causes of Muscle Cramps

Muscle cramps can have many possible causes. They include:

  • Poor blood circulation in the legs
  • Overexertion of the calf muscles while exercising
  • Insufficient stretching before or after exercise
  • Exercising in the heat
  • Muscle fatigue
  • Dehydration
  • Magnesium and/or potassium deficiency
  • Calcium deficiency in pregnant women
  • Malfunctioning nerves, which could be caused by a problem such as a spinal cord injury pinched nerve in the neck or back

Treatment of a Muscle Spasm

When muscle cramps occur, there are several things you can do to help ease them, such as massaging, stretching, or icing the muscle, warming the muscle, or taking a bath with Epsom salt. For a charley horse in the calf or a cramp in the back of the thigh (hamstring), try putting your weight on the affected leg and bending your knee slightly, or sit or lie down with your leg out straight and pull the top of your foot toward your head. For a cramp in the front of the thigh (quadriceps), hold onto a chair to steady yourself and pull your foot back toward your buttock.

A more advanced tip that has more of a neurological component on the cramp itself, is called reciprocal inhibition. This has proven to be the most effective means of reducing a cramp. Essentially, this theory relies on the neurological relationship between the agonist and antagonist muscle groups. For example, the calf muscle is used to extend the foot, the antagonist muscle to flex the foot is the tibialis anterior. These muscles work in concert to provide you the ability to walk with fluid motion. When your calf is stimulated to contract and extend you foot, you brain also tells your tibialis anterior to relax and stretch as to provide the foot the ability to be extended by the calf muscle. Taking this neurological phenomenon, one can apply it when the calf muscle (or any cramping muscle) is cramping, simply by activating the cramped muscle’s antagonist muscle, the tibialis anterior in this example. In this case, when the calf muscle seizes, find a solid structure you can place your foot under, and attempt to flex your foot by activating your tibialis anterior muscle. Activating this antagonist muscle will cause your brain to neurologically tell your calf (agonist) to relax and stretch as to allow your foot to be flexed.

To help reduce the risk of cramps in the future, try the following:

  • Eat more foods high in vitamins and calcium.
  • Stay well hydrated.
  • Warm up adequately before exercise/activity.
  • Stretch properly AFTER exercise/activity.

In most cases, self-care measures are sufficient for dealing with muscle cramps, which typically go away within minutes. But if you experience them frequently or for no apparent reason, you should speak to your doctor. They could signal a medical problem that requires treatment.