"Five Reasons Your Muscles Are Cramping All The Time" - Laura Stampler
You don’t have to be a marathoner to be painfully familiar with the pangs of muscle cramps. The young, old, active, and sedentary alike are all susceptible to cramps—and they can come when you least expect it—creeping up on you during a sun salutation or disrupting a good night’s sleep. “Muscle cramping is basically an over-activation or contraction of a muscle,” said Houman Danesh, MD, assistant professor of anesthesiology and rehabilitative medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and director in the division of integrative pain management at The Mount Sinai Hospital. “And although it can happen anywhere, it usually occurs in the calf since that muscle uses the most energy in the body.” The way muscles are activated involves a balance of electric signals and ions. Dr. Danesh explained, “Dehydration changes the pool of signals. So changing that signal, the body doesn’t know if the signal is coming from the brain or just because there’s an electrical imbalance around the cell.” It’s common to get a muscle strain after holding a position for a prolonged period of time. “Doing something your body isn’t trained to do constantly activates a muscle and breaks it down a little bit.” That breakdown usually causes a buildup of lactic acid which can trigger the muscle to go into spasms.
- Houman Danesh, MD, Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology, Rehabilitative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, Division of Integrative Pain Management, The Mount Sinai Hospital