What Causes Muscle Cramps - Causes and Cures

Understanding what causes muscle cramps is important in order to try and prevent painful occurrences. Read to learn more...

A Scenario of Muscle Cramping:

It’s a beautiful sunny summer Sunday. You’re two under par on the 13th hole. You jump out of the cart and walk towards your Titleist when something happens. All of a sudden, your calf muscle spasms underneath your weight. You limp back to the golf cart in pain and agony. Your calf muscle is knotted tight with a seemingly debilitating pang.

You’ve done quite a few stretches before your outing. What in the world could be wrong with your calf, you think to yourself?

Causes of Muscle Cramps:

When the muscle contracts because of overuse, dehydration, injury or strain, the result is a similar one to what you felt above. The usual result of a muscle cramp is the incapacitation of the muscle. The pain and tightening or observed hardening of the muscle makes it nearly unfeasible for the muscle to function.

Some cramps occur when two muscles simultaneously contract - another factor of what causes muscle cramps. Essentially, the muscle cannot relax for one reason or another.

Muscle cramps often occur in the longer muscles, but can really crop up anywhere there is a problem. Any skeletal muscles, such as the front or back of the thigh (ham and quad), the calf, or even the feet can suffer cramping—the infamous “Charlie Horse” you may recall.

This type of cramp can last for seconds, minutes or hours. It’s nothing more than an extreme cramp, however. 

Though researchers and experts alike have guessed for years as to what causes cramping, no one agrees on the principal cause(s). Beginning a new sport, muscle fatigue, extreme heat and under-conditioning are all environmental basis for muscle cramping.

Dehydration, electrolyte depletion, loss of fluids, lower potassium and magnesium levels and other nutrients can cause muscle cramping too. Additionally, mineral deficiency such as a loss of calcium, a loss of bioflavonoids including Hesperidins, Citrin and Flavones through sweat, diarrhea or fluid loss are some more causes for muscle cramping.

Energy for longer exercise or movement is derived from ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). When depletion of this (85 grams total stored but we synthesize more), the muscles lack the reserves to carry out the task at hand. Moreover, an increase in age leads to about 95% of people experiencing some sort of muscle cramp at some point in their life.

Solutions to What Causes Muscle Cramps

In September 1965, four doctors at the University of Florida came up with a solution to some of sport’s biggest performance challenges. They didn’t necessarily solve the mystery of what causes muscle cramps, but they did invent a re-hydration drink that would later become world famous.

About a month after September, the four doctors got approval to try their concoction on the freshman squad. Battling tough opponents in over 100-degree heat, the varsity team drank the brew and won 14-7, against the LSU Tigers. At first called Cade’s Cola (one of the inventor’s name), it later changed to Gator’s drink, and then later to Gatorade.

After The Miami Herald ran an ad, University of Florida’s secret drink got out. Gatorade was soon marketed and sold the world over.

Most experts agree—as the maker’s of Gatorade surely would—that dehydration is a definite constituent to muscle cramping. One of the best solutions, then, is to drink plenty of water before and after exercise. Energy drinks, which rejuvenate exhausted electrolytes, may help stave cramping.

Eating foods high in potassium, such as bananas and potatoes, is a natural remedy used by some athletes. Low potassium levels can be a factor in what causes muscle cramps.

One sure-fire way to ward off those muscular constrains is to warm up before a workout or sporting activity. Stretching and light muscle movement elongates the muscles, preparing them for their upcoming use. Cold muscles, in fact, neither have the same elasticity nor the comparable flexibility of warmed muscles.

Stretch those longer muscles: such as legs, upper- and lower-back, neck, calves, arms, hips, and wrists to better counteract the possibility of muscle cramping.

Whether you’re finishing a workout or round of golf, it’s just as important to cool down as it is to warm up. A cool down implies doing something less strenuous than what you have done. If you just went for a run, for example, you should jog slowly and then walk for 5 to 10 minutes afterwards.

This helps “flush” out all those nasty chemicals that would otherwise lie in the muscles for days. Some suggest this is lactic acid; however, though the build up of lactic acid does exist to some extent, it may not be the origin to what causes muscle cramps that was once thought.

Depending on which physical trainer you talk to, suggestions of when and how to stretch vary. Anytime you can stretch, before and after competition or workout, will benefit not only your skeletal and muscle systems, but will make you stronger, more flexible, and therefore less prone to muscle cramping in the future.

What causes muscle cramps? More golf stretching tips here.