muscles that cramp

canadianlbs

i don't mean the kind of spontaneous cramps that make you shoot off the couch or out of bed at 3am. i have a couple that will cramp up if i push them too far during workouts. like, for instance: one of my four quad muscles will do this to me - on both sides - if i overload them during an overhead press. it's no fun having to stop with the bar overhead and try to shake out your legs. and yeah, i've done about as much as i think stretching can do. they're still a problem sometimes.

i get that they're 'weak' compared with the stuff that doesn't react in this way. i just don't know the right way of dealing with the weakness, since they react badly to being pressured. it's always the contraction work that triggers them . . . so should i give them extra reps of some kind of eccentric isolation exercise with easier weights to make them better at contracting? or should i be finding something that will work them in a lengthened format instead?

thoughts/ideas/experience appreciated. but please don't tell me to stretch. i'm more asking about how to improve their strength here.

krokador

Ever tried having a banana before your workout, or swapping your candy for a Gatorade? It might just be dehydration/loss of electrolytes. Usually when you're around the OHP point, it's late in the workout and you've already sweat a good bit, so just replenishing the ol' sodium and potassium (and magnesium if you can) might just be what the doctor ordered.

Also, Charlie Horses are terrible, but I find I really don't get them often (if at all) if I'm eating properly

Llamapants86

My cramping has always been due to dehydration or not enough magnesium. In fact since I have started taking a magnesium supplement the last round of foot cramps during lifting was when I was dehydrated as crap from camping

jessiefrancine

I wonder if some muscles are just more prone than others. I have one abdominal muscle that acts up if I work it too hard (at least I assume that is the cause - it does usually happen after an ab workout). The next day I might be leaning back against the couch and I tense my abs up to sit a little higher and all of a sudden my abdominal mutineer siezes up (it is visible from the outside) and is hard to the touch for 30 - 60 seconds. That stuff freaking hurts. It's definitely not an electrolyte/hydration issue for me - I get lots of all those things, and it is only a single muscle that is affected.

So far I haven't found anything that really helps. I'll be following this in case someone has any other ideas.

canadianlbs

jessiefrancine wrote: »

It's definitely not an electrolyte/hydration issue for me - I get lots of all those things, and it is only a single muscle that is affected.

yup, same. probably tfl in both legs, and (dammit) something on the left side of my bum. it's always the same muscles and always the same cause, and i don't think these ones have ever thrown me a random cramp while i was at rest.

i'm sure it's a relative-weakness thing. i'm just hunting for answers on how to train them up to a better standard when they act like such divas if i look at them with both eyes at once.