CRAMPS

What are Cramps? A muscle cramp, technically, occurs when your muscle tightens and shortens causing a sudden severe pain. Muscle cramps generally result from overexertion and dehydration. When you don't have enough fluid in your system, it leads to an electrolyte imbalance. Cramps may also occur after inactivity, such as sitting too long in one place without moving a muscle. Sometimes you can even get a cramp when you're just lying in bed. Most often people get cramps in their calves, however, you can also get them in your thighs, feet or just about any muscle.

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Treatment of Cramps
If you have persistant cramp your doctor can prescribe you medication to help alleviate the problem. However cramps can generally be eased and in some cases even avoided by a few simple methods. First, relax the tightened area. You should gently massage the area that is prone to cramping on a regular basis, whether it's a crick in your calf from over exercising or a spasm in your feet. Second, stretch the muscle out slowly and gently, as long as you don't feel pain.

Posture of the legs when resting in bed
Positions which prevent the calf muscle from shortening when you are asleep may help. The following are not proven treatments (from research studies), but some experts believe that they help to prevent cramps.

• Elevating your legs with a bend in the knees while sleeping on your back.
• hanging the feet over the end of the bed while sleeping on your front.
• keeping blankets loose at the foot of the bed to prevent toes and feet from pointing downwards during sleep.

Client reported benefits for cramps include:

• Reduced pain levels by relaxing associated muscle tissue.
• Reducing any associated fluid retention.

To read more about our therapy click here or to learn more about the general benefits of massage therapy click here

To see if you can receive similar or possibly even better results why not take us up on our offer of a free in-home demonstration.

Remember you have nothing to lose but your pain and just like many of our current clients in the years to come you could be reporting back to us your improved quality of life.