Charlie Horse

cherryrobot

Hey y'all I started Crossfit about a month ago and the first week I had my first ever "Charlie Horse" cramp in my leg that woke me up from sleeping. Since then, I have had about 2 per week that wake me up from sleeping. I have tried drinking more & stretching more before and after... I can't even think of what could be causing more strain there and not anywhere else?

Does anyone experience this? Is there something else I can try or another stretch aside from the typical leg stretches? I googled this with no luck.

divemunkey

You are potassium deficient, most likely. Eat some bananas.

cherryrobot

I gathered that from google. However, I eat a banana almost every day, plenty of spinach, mushrooms, avocado, other potassium rich foods too. I really doubt that is the cause unless joining crossfit suddenly caused me to need 200% more potassium than ever before.

bostonwolf

I gathered that from google. However, I eat a banana almost every day, plenty of spinach, mushrooms, avocado, other potassium rich foods too. I really doubt that is the cause unless joining crossfit suddenly caused me to need 200% more potassium than ever before.

Potassium deficiency has always been the cause of this for me. I usually eat a banana right after CF for that reason. I do guacamole with every breakfast and usually have a spinach salad for lunch. That and a multivitamin is usually enough to avoid them for me.

I track potassium specifically on MFP and am almost always a bit deficient even given all that

I get them in my calves and they are agonizingly painful. Hopefully this helps you out a bit.