Foot cramps during barre

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RadishEater
RadishEater Posts: 470 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have been going to barre for a while and my feet love to cramp by the end of the class when we are supposed to point our toes. I also recently started using the elliptical which I think has been making the cramps more frequent. I would love to keep with the exercises, but sans the cramps. I do drink quite alot of water throughout the day and in class.

Have people had any luck by drinking 0 calorie electrolyte waters?
Taking a specific supplement/vitamin?
Certain stretching exercises?

Also anyone have luck doing strengthening exercises for arches ?


p.s I don't like bananas

Replies

  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    Lots of cardio exercise and little food leads to electrolyte imbalance. I address that problem by the direct consumption of salt. It seems to work.
  • fivelongmiles
    fivelongmiles Posts: 54 Member
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    Roll your feet. Tennis ball, mini roller, basically anything firm that you can really dig in with!

    Also, as I'm a ballet teacher and dancer, if you had a picture of how you're pointing your toes I can see if there's anything specific going wrong with how you're doing it that might be causing cramp. :)
  • ContraryMaryMary
    ContraryMaryMary Posts: 1,668 Member
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    I get this in yoga sometimes if my feet (or calves) are tired from running. If you’re after a supplement, magnesium can help with cramps. You may like to get a magnesium cream or spray and apply it topically to your feet.
  • kayak4water
    kayak4water Posts: 155 Member
    edited March 2018
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    As an avid swimmer I've had the same problem. My feet would misbehave by painfully cramping at the instep (arch) near the end of a 45-60 minute swim. Pointing my feet while kicking would set it off and the cramps would often afflict me even if I just let my feet flop along behind me.

    My daughter said to do exercises to beef up my arch muscles. No help.
    My health care provider, said try NUUN tablets ($$) or drink orange juice, tonic water (a zero calorie version is available) and something else. Not much help. Those things had lots of sodium, a little potassium, some calcium and some magnesium. I even took a teaspoon or two of Mag citrate, a laxative, hoping to juice up magnesium.

    After I started to watch my diet for electrolyte intake, I noticed that my daily potassium (K+) intake was often far below the recommended 4,700 mg. 4700 mg seems high, but I easily increased my K+ intake (more potatoes, fruits and veggies, legumes, etc). If I ate junk, I'd get a boatload of sodium, & not much K+. MFP's food database does a great job of listing sodium, but often reports K+ as "0 mg", likely because the food label doesn't list K+. I often look for the same food item from a different brand in the database with the right K+ values or look up the food item using Google and correct the database.

    The result of raising my K+ intake was either coincidental to my diet change or I discovered something and fixed it. Instead of almost always having cramps near the end of my swims, I have them very rarely. I probably had a long term deficiency of potassium.

    Perhaps you can eliminate potassium deficiency as one source of your cramps. Or maybe eliminate your cramps.

    Good luck!
    K4w

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