It is not uncommon for weight trainees to experience muscle cramping for any muscle which has been recently trained, if put into a fully contracted position and tensed. Is this intense involuntary muscle cramps good for progress or should you try and avoid muscle cramps like the plague?
Let me first explain that I do not believe in flattering people with terminology or anything fancy like that. What I will give you is my opinion as to what causes it, why it happens, and how to reduce muscle cramps from my own experience.
Why do you get muscle cramp?
Generally when we subject our muscles to intense training, we tear the fibers. To look at a smaller level when you work your muscles the bands of fibers are forced to shorten or contract from the firing of the neurotransmitter ATP (Adenosine Tri-Phosphate). Grueling set after set the fibers experience more and more trauma, to prevent us from seriously damaging the tissue beyond repair the body begins to produce some serious byproducts, mainly lactic acid.
In the day after working out you experience this to the fullest extent with delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). So what is likely happening is when you contract the muscle hard the body tells it to do so but when you stop the signal to relax is a little slow getting there. During this point in time the muscle stays contracted, cramped, and you experience the pain of a hard contraction and the burn from the waste products on the damaged fibers.
Were you adequately hydrated?
Using workout supplements like creatine monohydrate can cause dehydration, and many weekend warriors simply don’t drink enough water to build muscle. As a result, electrolyte depletion is a common cause of muscle cramps. Of course, taking creatine supplements affects hydration as well, and depleted electrolytes occurs more frequently when during intense exercise because you lose electrolytes through your sweat, so an inadequate water intake is necessary to support hydration.
Is this good for progress and should you encourage it?
For this I would have to say if you are experiencing this fairly regularly you are definitely training with high intensity. This is not a bad thing because it’s required for basic progressive training to gain muscle.
How to Stop Muscle Cramps After Working out
If muscle cramps are a problem, try building up your weight lifting program slowly, and perhaps focusing on strength training exercises that focus specifically on the muscles that have cramped in the past.
Stretching, as a preventative measure, and while you’re experiencing painful cramping could help. Vince Delmonte’s muscle building program has a whole section dedicated to stretching which helps because stretching exercises help to lengthen the muscle fibers and is especially useful for muscles which are prone to cramp up.
Looking at your diet is also important if you want to reduce muscle cramps. What I would do if you are experiencing this too often is to make sure that you are consuming a good multivitamin and lot’s of milk. You can conveniently add milk to protein powder, fresh fruit, and oats to make a tasty weight gain shake which is good for post workout nutrition.
If you don’t like milk a good calcium and potassium supplement should help with muscle cramping problems. A research study has also shown that drinking pickle juice can stop muscle cramps, although in the study the muscle cramping was electrically stimulated since its difficult to emulate muscle cramps as a result of intense training.
Be sure to pay close attention to your diet instead of being too concerned with these cramps, because I think it’s normal to experience it every now and then when you are pushing yourself hard in the gym, but you shouldn’t be plagued by them.
Training very intensely can sometimes cause a real shortage in these vital building blocks, no matter how good our diet is, so that is why I encourage you to start with these. If after a couple of weeks with the above you are still experiencing bad cramping often try reducing your overall volume of your training and cycle your weights, heavy for so many weeks then light and so on.
All in all, I think it is healthy and good for muscle growth to experience muscle cramps every now and then, just as long as the involuntary cramps are not ruining your workouts. Cramping can be particularly troublesome for those new to weight training because their muscles simply aren’t used to the workload and they experience muscle fatigue quicker.
If you enjoyed this article, please like it on Facebook.
Related Posts
- Training to Failure – Good or Bad for Hardgainers?
- Drinking Milk After Exercise Encourages Muscle Gain And Fat Loss, Study Finds
 |
Do you struggle to gain weight? Click here to get the complete guide for gaining weight and building muscle fast. |
|
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
As a former athlete, I can honestly say that I have had plenty of cramps and aches along the way. No fun, but kind-of goes with the territory right? Now that I am a mom and wife, I still value exercise and being active and especially living green. I have tried to reduce/eliminate harmful chemicals in our home and one thing we use for our aches and pains is the Topricinkids and adult Topricin pain cream. It is natural and effective for our minor aches and soreness and even works on inflammation! Thanks for the article on this!
This happens all the time.
When i get back to my weight training after those 2-3 weeks of business trips.
I can deadlift 320 LBS and after a gap of 2-3 weeks when i deadlift i do get cramps in my glutes and hamstrings and they stay for atleast a week, before they go away.
Cramps are not an indication of overtraining. In my experience overtraining is when u get that sick feeling in your stomach ( when your glycogen levels have hit a low point and you don’t replenish them asap) and reach a point where get a feeling that your body is telling you to stop.