Preventing Night-Time Hamstring Cramps

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MsCzar
MsCzar Posts: 1,039 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
What are the best exercises and/or stretches for preventing those painful middle of the night hamstring cramps? Might dehydration be a contributing factor?

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  • Cody0103
    Cody0103 Posts: 14 Member
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    Water deffinatley helps. I drink tons of water especially on leg days.. beleive it or not, doing some stationary bike or elyptical after your leg excersise will help reduce soreness later. Also i foam roll my hamstring before I go to bed. Hurts like a B, but it helps
  • tbilly20
    tbilly20 Posts: 154 Member
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    Eating a banana can help with leg cramps as well. It’s a lot of sugar before bed, but potassium is great for cramped leg muscles.
  • swiftgirlm
    swiftgirlm Posts: 17 Member
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    I get muscle cramps in my feet and toes unless I take magnesium. Sometimes I've had hamstring cramps at night as well. I take 150mg magnesium citrate 1x daily. Clears it up in a couple of weeks.
  • mnbvcxzlkjhgfdsa12
    mnbvcxzlkjhgfdsa12 Posts: 204 Member
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    I get muscle cramps at night in my calves. The only thing I find solves the problem is magnesium. I take a tablet every night before bed and have no cramp. If I don’t take them for a couple of days the cramp is back like clockwork.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Calm - brand name magnesium supplement. You can get it on Amazon or at GNC.
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,210 Member
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    For me, avoiding lots of carbs or sodium in the evening, because they tie up water in the body. Drinking more during the day helps too.
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,039 Member
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    Thanks everyone. I will look into magnesium and try the foam roller. Is it a matter of strengthening the hamstring muscles or is it always a water/nutrition issue. As part of my daily cardio, I do several sets of 'speed skater' moves that involve bringing my leg up behind me. Not sure if that makes things better or worse.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    It easily could be a matter of weak muscles, but not what you'd think.

    https://youtu.be/54yBZLiQNT4

  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,039 Member
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    Thanks for the video! I will be adding more pelvic lifts to my workout. My thighs tend to take over and do all the work; I definitely need to target the glutes.
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
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    No suggestion on how to avoid, but when I do get cramps, we have a massager called the Purewave that has this soft head on it that is amazing for muscle cramps in the calves, because you can use it next to the bone and not worry about hurting yourself hitting bone with a percussion massager. Both my wife and I are like, we don't know what we'd do now without it. Works out muscle cramps within a few seconds (and I know about massage guns, etc. This one is just hard enough without being painful).
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,428 Member
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    Another vote for magnesium citrate- pill form works fine for me.

    As my doctor very technically explained it,”start with two, add one a day til you get diarrhea, subtract one, and that’s your dosage.”
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
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    Yet another vote for magnesium, and you can get a topical magnesium to put on when they are cramping to calm them right down pretty instantly...search for "magnesium oil" which is actually a water based spray, but for whatever reason they call it oil...
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
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    Cramps are almost always from fatigue. By practicing good load management cramps are minimal for most people.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
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    springlering62 wrote: »
    Another vote for magnesium citrate- pill form works fine for me.

    As my doctor very technically explained it,”start with two, add one a day til you get diarrhea, subtract one, and that’s your dosage.”

    AKA to "bowel tolerance."

    I would have said "until you get unusually gassy" or some other indication short of diarrhea :)

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