Help!! I keep getting cramp

[Shotokan-kez]

Hello everyone. I'm a pretty fit 28 year old. I train in Karate three times a week for two hours, and i even cycle two and from the lessons. I am only 8 stone 12lbs and im about 5ft 2. My gp said i am a good wieght for my height. The thing is when we do leg stretches i got terrible cramp in my thighs, your partner holds your leg on his/her shoulder and slowly lifts it as far as you can take it. When i do my kicks fast, especially round kick and front kick i don't feel a thing and i execute them well, but that stretching teqnique just kills with cramp.

Can anyone make any suggestions on how to make it go away?

Cheers Kez

[Shokei Marcsui]

Well it sounds like your muscles are stretching, which is a good thing. You can do a couple of things to minimize your cramping.

1. Take in a lot of potassium (Banana)

2. After stretching like that, you want to shake your legs out and kick slowly. Pick your leg up, chamber, extend, retract, and then put it down. Your muscles are warm after a couple of slow kicks like that work progessively faster.

Muscle cramping has nothing to do with weight, it's about your muscle condition.

"No pain, No gain"

Good luck

[Shotokan-kez]

Thanks for that, yes "no pain, no gain". Does spring to mind! My instuctor thought it was funny when this happened to me (we train in a relaxed atmosphere). Just was concerned cos im a brown belt now and would have thought i would have gotten over this by now. Thanks for the advice, i do like bananas so will get plenty in i think.

Kez

[Meguro]

You could be dehydrated. That'll give you cramps. Are you drinking enough after your work-outs and before?

[Orion]

I'm not sure if this is the reason, but I used to get cramp really badly, I changed my diet and now I never get it.

[Sohan]

Do you take creatine? That can cause dramatic muscle cramping.

With respect,

Sohan

[greenbelt_girl15]

Perhaps you are doing the stretch to far, to fast.

Try not haveing your partner stetch you quite so far at first and work your way up very slowly.

[Whitefeather]

1. Take in a lot of potassium (Banana)

2. After stretching like that, you want to shake your legs out and kick slowly. Pick your leg up, chamber, extend, retract, and then put it down. Your muscles are warm after a couple of slow kicks like that work progessively faster.

Good solid advice. A very common cause of cramping is the lack of electrolytes-namely potassium. Bananas are excellent potassium sources, as well as pretty much any hydration drink (no, rockstar does not count as a hydration drink). If I remember correctly, gatorade has the highest concentration of electrolytes, especially if you get the "high endurance," or something like that, version. If you are really hardcore, there are some/a expensive yet extroadinarily effective (or so I hear) hydration drink mixes that actually contain protein (I do not quite remember, but I think it was called either hammer or accelorade), which supposedly helps your body hydrate faster. If you really wanted to, you can also use powergel type substances, as those have a halfway decent bit of electrolytes in them, but they are more designed to just to give a sugar rush, so preferably stick to the liquids. If you are not really much of a gatorade/powerade/hammer dude, I recently discovered (not spam) this clever stuff--"elete" water--that is just an uber concentrated and flavorless (well, it is slightly salty tasting, but it's hardly noticable) mix of electrolytes that you can mix with your favorite beverage-ie water, orange juice, sunny-d, coffee, tea, whatever you please. If none of those methods floats your boat, there is mountain biking consumer review site which has a nutrition section with a massive amount of reviews of all the sports-nutrition goodys you could ever desire.

http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/nutrition/

Hope that helps,

David

[Shotokan-kez]

Thanks a lot for that i am taking heed of all advice. I have been training tonight and luckily had no cramp at all but unfortunatly i think i have damaged the tendons in my foot and around my ankle, it's very painful. I managed to get through the lesson but now i am limping and can't turn my foot round in circles. Really don't need this right now as i have a grading on friday next week.

[Whitefeather]

If you have not already gone to a sports doctor, I would highly reccomend it. If you actually have done that damage, and you keep training on it, there is a good chance that you will only damage it further, and, worst case scenario, cause permanent damage. Very bad. So, yah, it would be very good to go to a doctor.

Hope you get better,

David