What Exactly Are Brain Cramps?

Eerybody talks about them and plenty of athletes and sports men and women get them - brain cramps!

It's that time when people just do the dumbest things imagineable - it could be dropping a ball when you're about to score a try, missing a kick at goal when you're right in front and there's no defenders, miss-hitting a 'winner' . . . and the list goes on.

Brain cramps generally occur when players are fatigued to the point that thy can't think straight and even doing something that's so obvious to us spectators becomes difficult.

The reasons for fatigue are simple - not enough energy, not enough fluid or a combination of both.

If you're suffering muscle cramps, leg cramps etc and don't do something about it, then brain cramps are sure to follow.

They appear in the form of poor decision making, fatigue, poor coordination, lack of care in performance and to fix them is quite simple.

A sports drink with a 4-6% carbohydrate concentration should fix those brain cramps in about 20 to 30 minutes.

Of course the key is in preventing them in the first place . . . and that's where the Ultimate Cramp Busting Guide will save you from either looking a complete idiot, hurting yourself or both.

With comprehensive plans for training, nutrition, hydration, boosting energy levels and much more, it's the book that you can't afford to do without - especially if you value your performance.

Cheers.

Electrolytes, Endurance Events and Muscle Cramps

Electrolytes, Endurance Events and Muscle Cramps

This is a very good article on electrolytes and is an excellent resource for all marathon runners, particularly those who suffer running cramps.

In the Ultimate Cramp Busting Guide we give you detailed information on how much and where you can get the various electrolytes needed by the muscle to prevent cramps and maintain a high performance.

Have a good read!

Click here for more information on Nutrition

Copyright - Paul Newland & Running Cramp Relief

Heat Cramps - the warning signs

Heat Cramps - the warning signs

Even elite athletes should be aware of the dangers of excessive amounts of physical endurance in the heat.

Muscle cramps and leg cramps, while they're painful, can be a useful warning sign that all is not well. Especially if you're practiced at ignoring them and running through them.

The next phase after heat cramps is fatigue, followed by heat exhaustion and if the situation continues then heat stroke leading to unconsciousness and death can result.

There are 2 points here. The first is that just because you exercise doesn't mean you're going to be healthy all the time and it certainly doesn't give you any immunity to dropping dead. Plenty of athletes suddenly drop dead during sport and exercise.

The second is that exercise, without some form of supplementation, is suicide. When you sweat you sweat out more than just salt and water. Your sweat is a soup of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and essential nutrients and if you're engaged in any type of physical activity then you need a plan to replace what you're sweating out.

The body gives you warning signs in the form of cramps and there are some very simple steps you can take to eliminate those cramps and eliminate the risks associated with sudden death during exercise.

Cramps affect goal keepers in the world cup

Coach cool to 'keeper's cramps

The fact that a professional goal keeper can develop cramps during a professional match shows once again that muscle cramps and leg cramps are due to more than hydration. While fluid intake is extremely important it's other factors such as electrolyte levels and overall training, flexibility and energy levels that will have a bigger role to play.

Admittedly the match is being played in the 2006 world cup in Germany in mid-summer and it's possible that hydration could be a factor for a player that hasn't estimated their fluid requirements correctly.

Even if you're in a sport that doesn't require much physical exertion you can still lose easily half a litre an hour in hot sun.

Runners Hydration and Avoiding Hyponatremia

Runners Hydration and Avoiding Hyponatremia

The above link is a very good article on some of the dangers of overhydrating. Main point is to have some idea of how much fluid you lose during exercise.

Hyponatremia can happen when the electrolyte concentration in the blood gets low and the consequences range from reduced performance to even death.

Long distance runners ie marathoners, who over-hydrate and running in cooler climates where fluid loss can be less are important things to watch out for.

One of our recommendations is to hydrate with a good quality sports drink and then alternate your intake of sports drink and water during an event. Pre-race nutrition is also a key factor.

In the Ultimate Cramp Busting Guide we discuss this subject and electrolyte balance in great detail and it's well worth a read if you're looking to maximise your running performance and reduce the likelihood of cramping.

Extend Your Sporting Life - Here's The Clue

Extending Your Sporting Life

In the The Ultimate Cramp Busting Guideit's no secret that we give you a lot of detailed information on nutrition.

Why?

Well, it's not only one of the eaiest ways to prevent leg cramps, if you follow the same strategies we give you that prevent muscle cramps you'll notice a rapid improvement in your verall health and a boost in energy levels.

Imagine - you'll be able to turn a problem into a bonus that will extend your sporting life, give you better health and ensure you never suffer from leg cramps and muscle cramps ever again.

When Heat Cramps Get Life Threatening

When Heat Cramps Get Life Threatening

This article raises an important point in relation to heat cramp and hydration.

When the body stops sweating in extreme heat, it basically means that it’s lost it’s ability to regulate temperature.

If this situation isn’t treated, fast, then the next stage is heat stroke – and this is a life-threatening condition that has killed many people, both professional and amateur.

If you’re training in extreme heat, by the time you feel thirsty your body is already in an advanced stat of dehydration.

One of the next warning signs will be muscle fatigue, cramp and even headaches. It’s at this point you need to stop and replace the fluids and energy reserves rapidly.

A sports drink with about 4% carbohydrate is best – in the The Ultimate Cramp Busting Guide we explain in great detail how sports drinks work, what the best ones are and how to distinguish one sports drink from another.

We also give you a comprehensive hydration plan that applies equally well to anyone doing sport just planning to enjoy a great day outdoors.

Running Through Leg Cramps

Running Through Leg Cramps

Sometimes we have no alternative but to run though leg cramps, especially in a race . . . but there's really no need to do this.

To prevent leg cramps, calf cramps and muscle cramps in athletes is really very simple - improve the nutrition in specific areas and you get no more cramps!

Athltes are, often times, guilty of not eating enough of the right foods often enough.

I can hear the screams of opposition, but you have to think about it . . . if you're sweating out your minerals regularly in training and competition, you have to do much, much more than eat good food. You have to eat a alot of it and regularly.

And if the food doesn't contain the specific minerals you need to prevent cramp, then you need to suplement.

In The Ultimate Cramp Busting Guide we show you what minerals and how much of them you need and also give you the warning signs that you may be depleted in these minerals.

Athletes who lose vital minerals whenever they train and sweat need more than your average couch potato, otherwise they develop health ises as they get older.

The cramps are just a warning sign of worse to come, so do something about it other than just trying to 'run through them'.

Leg Camps and Hydration

With the French Open tennis being played in high temperatures, it's not surprising that even elite athletes suffer leg cramps during - particularly during long matches.

As some games move into their third and even fourth hour a number of things start happening that lead to cramping.

Hydration and energy reserves along with muscle fatigue are the main issues.

In The Ultimate Cramp Busting Guide we give you an energy, hydration and training plan that will gve any sports person an egde in their ext match.

When some matches go into overtime, it seems that the person who is most focused, has more energy and less in the way of injury will win - skill doesn't seem to be as big a factor.

Give yourself the advantage, read the information and the strategies we give you for aximising your energy reserves and preventing cramps and I guarantee you will benefit.

Massage for Cramps

Tennis - Sharapova crashes out - Eurosport

Read on in this artilce and you'll see how trainers are used to give massage treatment for cramps.

In the The Ultimate Cramp Busting Guide we show you exactly what prefessional trainers do when their atheltes suffer leg cramps.

Leg Cramps Whe Wearing Flippers

Travel Times

Getting leg cramps in this type of situation is interesting . . . in fact it’s happened to me in very similar circumstances – bodysurfing.

I tend to get leg cramps (mainly in the hamstrings) and calf cramps when I go body surfing with fins.

I spoke to a massage therapist friend of mine and his theory was this, “you get the cramps because your les are at an usual angle, they aren’t fully contracted or relaxed or going through a full range of motion and you have flippers on that are actually creating leverage and making the problem worse”.

His suggestion was to make small incision up either side of the flipper inside the outside ‘rail’ to make it more flexible.

What I’ve found works is to ‘train to the task’ more often. I found that I always got these leg cramps if I went bodysurfing after a long period. As soon as my legs got ore used to the motion, then the cramps stopped.

Training is such an important part of cramp prevention and in the Ultimate Cramp Busting Guide I’ve written several sections on how to train to prevent cramps.

MURRAY REFUSES TO PANIC AFTER DEFEAT

MURRAY REFUSES TO PANIC AFTER DEFEAT: Sporting Life - Tennis | French Open Live, Roland Garros, Tim Henman Live, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, ATP & WTA Tennis News, Scores, & Updates

If you read the article you'll see that 19 year old Andy Murray is suffering from regular cramps, fatigue, soreness and ill health.

He attributes it to 'growing' however it's clear that this is a sign of nutritional deficiency.

As young bodies grow, the demand for nutrition, particularly mineral nutrition, also grows.

Growing bones need Calcium, Zinc, Boron, Magnesium and much more and if you're persistently fatiguing the body and growing, then your demand is going to be a lot higher.

Fix the mineral problem, in this case and you fix the cramping and the associated health issues.

You can read more about it in the Ultimate Cramp Busting Guide - there's specific plans on nutrition that will not only extend your sporting life and get over the cramps, you'll be guranteeing good health all the time.

Vermont marathon features swell views, summer sun & Leg Cramps

One of the many reasons why we all enjoy marathons is the scenery . . . and what could be better than Vermont in summer!

But the great scenery can quickly fade into a bad memory if our race is interrupted by leg cramps, calf cramps and calf stain.

The way I see it, is that you're likely to get a calf strain at any point in the race where you start to increase your workload.

Leg cramps in marathon events, however, tend to happen in the last quarter of the race on account of fatigue. And that's the time when you're also going to be more dehydrated and depleted of electrolytes.

If this has been happening to you time and time again, it's time to change the pattern, learn why this is happening and organize a plan to prevent them from occuring.

Vermont marathon features swell views, summer sun & Leg Cramps

Vermont marathon features swell views, summer sun debut

Why is it that we tend to cramp up more near the end of a marathon, rather than earlier on.

The way I see it, is that you're likely to get a calf strain at any point in the race where you start to increase your workload.

Leg cramps, however, in marathon events tend to happen in the last quarter of the race on account of fatigue.

If this has been happening to you time and time again, it's time to change the pattern, learn why this is happening and organize a plan to prevent them from occuring.

Vermont marathon features swell views, summer sun & Leg Cramps

Vermont marathon features swell views, summer sun debut

Why is it that we tend to cramp up more near the end of a marathon, rather than earlier on.

The way I see it, is that you're likely to get a calf strain at any point in the race where you start to increase your workload.

Leg cramps, however, in marathon events tend to happen in the last quarter of the race on account of fatigue.

If this has been happening to you time and time again, it's time to change the pattern, learn why this is happening and organize a plan to prevent them from occuring.

Vermont marathon features swell views, summer sun & Leg Cramps

Vermont marathon features swell views, summer sun debut

Why is it that we tend to cramp up more near the end of a marathon, rather than earlier on.

The way I see it, is that you're likely to get a calf strain at any point in the race where you start to increase your workload.

Leg cramps, however, in marathon events tend to happen in the last quarter of the race on account of fatigue.

If this has been happening to you time and time again, it's time to change the pattern, learn why this is happening and organize a plan to prevent them from occuring.

Vermont marathon features swell views, summer sun & Leg Cramps

Vermont marathon features swell views, summer sun debut

Why is it that we tend to cramp up more near the end of a marathon, rather than earlier on.

The way I see it, is that you're likely to get a calf strain at any point in the race where you start to increase your workload.

Leg cramps, however, in marathon events tend to happen in the last quarter of the race on account of fatigue.

If this has been happening to you time and time again, it's time to change the pattern, learn why this is happening and organize a plan to prevent them from occuring.

Leg Cramps & Adventure Racing

Adventure Racing News

If there’s one thing we’ve had plenty of experience with, its injuries from adventure racing . . . and leg cramps can be a big factor in certain races.

Having worked with Dr Adrian Cohen on 5 EcoChallenge multi-sport endurance events, you could say we’ve see our fair share of injuries, including leg cramps, calf cramps and abdominal cramps.

Dr Adrian Cohen, medical director for EcoChallenge puts it down mainly to extreme fatigue, compromised nutrition and dehydration.

“A lot of racers tend to get leg cramps when they’ve been racing for long periods without rest, without good nutrition and particularly when they’re dehydrated and pushing very hard”.

The best advice is to “stay ahead as much possible in terms of hydration and to use a sports drink high in carbohydrate energy and protein for the long events, and to alternate a bottle with water every hour, as a very rough guide”.

You can read more on how to prevent muscle cramps in the Ultimate Cramp Busting Guide.

We take you through all the strategies of hydration, nutrition, energy, treatment, massage therapy, training, flexibility and stretching and much more and we guarantee that you’ll never suffer cramps again . . . AND extend your sporting life.

Running and Leg Cramps -Patrick Bird PhD from the University of Florida

Running and Leg Cramps - A Good, But Not 100% Correct Article from the University of Florida

Dr Patrick Bird is recognized as a world expert in Sports Science, however I believe he’s got it wrong in being too quick to re out the role of electrolyte minerals.

To say that you should get enough of these electrolyte minerals from food is fine, however there are several assumptions here:
• that you are consuming enough of the required foods
• that you are consuming them in the right proportions – for example, it’s desirable to have a 2:1 calcium to magnesium ratio in your intake
• that you can consume enough of these foods to replace what you’re sweating out – and that means you should know how much you’re sweating out every hour
• that there are actually enough minerals in the food you at to replace what you’re losing and keep pace with the body’s requirements.

If you ask me, there are enough studies to prove that our soils and food crops are declining in the major minerals from between 30% to 70% - so even if you do eat the right foods, how do you know you a getting enough of the minerals.

Athletes and sports people sweat more than the average couch potato and while I agree we all try hard to consume 7 to 9 servings of fruit and vegetables per day, you have to ask yourself, “am I really getting enough”.

The answer in most cases is no. And when you consider that as we hit 40, our ability to absorb this nutrition from food declines substantially with our drop in production of stomach acid.

Overall, Id say it is a pretty good bet that electrolytes, while they are not the only source of cramping, are still likely to be a contributing factor – and this will depend on how much you sweat and how good you are at replacing it.

As a final note, it’s worth considering that the more deficient you get in these minerals, the more you open the door to a range of deficiency diseases such as arthritis, osteoporosis, weakened immune system, cardiovascular disease, just to name a few.

For me, I like the idea of taking supplements as insurance for my sporting future and my long term health and after all, there are plenty of athletes and people suffering cramps who have had significant changes and a reduction in their cramps from taking a multi-nutrient supplement high in the major minerals and antioxidant vitamins.

It’s cheap insurance if you value your lifestyle.

You can find out more about nutrition and it’s role in cramps by checking out the Running Cramp Relief website and more about nutritional information and products at Global Longevity.