How to Get Rid of Muscle Spasms in Arm, Neck and Shoulder
Muscles spasms can be irritating and even painful. Well, how to get rid of muscle spasms, anyway? And how is it different from the side stitch which is usually happening to athletes, especially swimmers, cyclists, lifters, and runners? Well, muscle cramps include involuntary muscle control. The main characteristic is the painful and sudden jerks and movements that may even happen in your sleep. So, how do you deal with such an issue?
How to get Rid of Muscle Spasms, Some Solutions
In most cases, scientists say that muscle cramps are likely to happen because of shortened contraction or muscular fatigue, like the muscle tightness or the motion limitation. That’s why there are some solutions to address the issue.
- Proper warm up
It is crucial that you always perform enough warm up properly. Imagine your muscles as a bunch of tight and stiff boards. When you start exercising without flexing those boards, imagine the beating you do to your muscle groups. If you want to avoid straining your muscles, you need to make sure that your muscles and your systems are ready. And that’s why you should do the warm up. If your muscles are too tired or too beaten, they may be tightened or locked into place, leading to spasm.
- Hydrate, Hydrate, and Hydrate
When you are exercising or when you are exposed to hot weather, it is always a good idea to keep yourself hydrated. You see, 90% of human’s body consists of water and when you lose too much fluid, you create an imbalance and chaos in your own system. Often times, liquids are lost with the electrolytes (especially potassium and sodium) and great imbalance can affect your nerves and cause the muscles to contract involuntary. If you are exercising for more than 75 minutes, keep an electrolyte beverage handy. Even better, make sure that you replenish yourself with enough water whenever you are exercising.
- Have Various Movements
It is a good idea when you have various movements during your exercise time. You see, exercise is good to remove the tightness in your muscles and make them flexible. If you want to know how to get rid of muscle spasms, you need to do exercises with different movements and motions. Limiting yourself to only certain movements will somehow ‘lock’ your joints and muscles so they won’t be used to doing other movements. If you are doing different movements, not only you create a more flexible muscle condition, you won’t strain them too much either. After all, exercise routine can improve mobility, build muscle, and make your joints super resistant and strong.
- Relax
Even when exercising, you need to be relaxed. Exercising will put yourself in a strained condition – there is no need to add up the stress and pressure. That’s why it is advisable that you are doing the exercise you like because it will make you enjoy the process. When you are relaxed, the possibility of strained muscle is very little.
- Stop when Painful
When you start noticing any discomfort or pain, stop whatever you do immediately. It is a sign that your muscles are working extra hard. Before it leads to muscles fatigue, stop right away and ease up.
Muscle spasms can still happen even with all those precautions, but it would be better if you can minimize the possibility, right? As long as you know how to get rid of muscle spasms, you can have an enjoyable exercising time without putting yourself into pain.