Charlie Horse.

[Bryson#221]

Have ya ever been woke up in the middle of the night by one of those things? Friiiiick.

So it's 3am and I'm totally out of it (probably the best sleep I've gotten all week long) when all of a sudden I get a charlie horse in my calf. I tried rubbing it out and then resorted to beating my tweaking muscle with my fist...until I realized 10 minutes had passed & my leg was still so rock hard from the muscle straining I could have bent a kitchen knife on the thing. So here I am writhing around from one end of my bed to the other trying to fight it with no luck but to wait it out. Annnd today I can barely walk without this pain shooting up my leg!

I don't get it. I faithfully take vitamins..drink lots of fluids..and eat bananas (potassium) at least once or twice a day- literally. I get them in my legs & shoulders & the arches of my feet when i'm riding...sleeping...stretching...racing. Any ideas?

[LTandRaptorider]

Ok, I will be out tomorrow to rub your calves. This is the only surefire cure. ;)

Sounds like you do all the right things. When you say you drink lots of fluids, is water a big part of what you drink? That is very important. I get them once in awhile too. Nothing wakes you up quicker than the calf muscle starting to seize. I immediately jump out of bed, then point the toes on the cramping leg side upward. IF you can get out of bed in time and do this before the muscle cramps fully, it usually works. Stay in that position for a minute or two. Then sometimes I will put a wrist band or ace bandage around the calf to prevent it from cramping again that night. The slight pressure seems to help. Ok, now my fingers are cramping from all this typing! :p

[Guy400]

As he said, is water part of your fluid? If you find a majority of your fluid intake is soda, energy drinks, coffee, tea, sports drinks, etc. than I would start there. Were you doing any type of physical activity that included your legs that day prior to going to bed that night?

About the only time I get cramps in my legs is when I work them out extremely hard because legs isn't a part of my normal workout routine.

[gcart2]

Urgh.... :scary:

always get them at the wrong times. I play Middle line backer for defense and Full back/running back for offense. it was fourth down (we were on defense) and i had just got the sack the down before. the offensive line walks to the line, my leg freaks out. i fall to the ground screaming lol. i had the worst charlie horse. they had to carry me off the field, i looked like an idiot.

Most recent one was right after my first heat watching my brother race. i walked that one out though.


its all about water. drink drink drink.