How Magnesium Can Prevent Muscle Cramps
Feb 10th, 2010 - written by Stephan in Health (0 comments)

Almost any athlete is familiar with cramps within the active muscles during physical exercise. It usually affects runners, but also other intense physical activities such as swimming, squash or ball sports can lead to these painful muscular contractions. However, with the right diet you can prevent cramps.

What causes Muscle Cramps

Mainly an insufficient concentration of magnesium in the blood is responsible for cramps. Magnesium itself is a vital mineral that we take in by the food we consume. A deficiency can occur due to low supply or through an intensive excretion of magnesium, such as sweating, which results in a more spontaneous responsiveness of the nerves that are responsible for the contractions of the muscle, especially within calf and thigh muscles. If cramps happen very regularly, put your diet to a test. Eat more foods that contain large amounts of magnesium.

Magnesium Sources

Magnesium Rich Foods

The daily need of magnesium is about 300-600 mg. The following table shows foods that are very good magnesium suppliers.

Food	Magnesium content per 100 g
Whole wheat bread	82 mg
Whole grain pasta	52 mg
Brown rice	68 mg
Oatmeal	140 mg
Fish	82 mg
Sunflower seeds	420 mg
Pumpkin seeds	168 mg
Nuts	270 mg
Sesame seeds	340 mg
Potatoes	30 mg
Greens	90 mg
Bananas	27 mg
Oranges	14 mg
Mineral water	10 mg

A balanced diet is a great prevention of muscle cramps. Compensating the fluid balance during or after physical activities with magnesium-rich mineral water is decreasing the risk of suffering from magnesium deficiency even more. Remember to drink one liter of water per hour of exercise.

Magnesium Tablets and Liquids

Another way to increase the magnesium intake is to consume magnesium tablets as a dietary supplement. These are usually available as an effervescent tablet to dissolve in a glass of water. A look at the packaging reveals the amount of magnesium per tablet; usually it is about 200-400 mg. In addition to that, you can get magnesium in liquid form in a special ampule. They provide magnesium ready to eat and usually contain 25 ml of liquid with about 300 mg of magnesium.

Further Action against Muscle Cramps

Stretching

If a cramps occurs, stop the the current activity o be stopped to stretch the particular muscle. There are two options:

• Active stretching by flexing the antagonist.
• Passive or static stretching by applying external forces.

Stretching exercises for the leg muscles:	Calves
	Front Thighs
	Rear Thighs

Massages

Then have a slight relaxation massages to relax the muscles even more. Here it is important to act cautiously and gently, because strong external forces can lead to further muscular contractions.



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