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Last posts on private forums:  sare  2008-06-16 09:56:33 matthew 2008-04-12 21:25:59 pieniadz 2008-04-12 20:52:26
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Last posts on private blogs: matthew 2008-04-12 21:25:17 mary 2008-04-12 19:27:47 |
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Lastly added medical terms:
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You are in: Main Page / Medical articles / Sports / Severe Muscle Pains
People who come back to exercising after some time of lack of physical activity have probably suffered from severe muscle pains at least once. The article tries to explain the causes of muscular pains and gives some tips on how to cope with them.
Painful muscles and cramps are not symptoms of a serious disease, it's only a sign of excess physical activity. Although they're not dangerous, it is quite a bothersome problem. It affects sportsmen as well as people who rarely practice sports.
What is it?
There are two main conditions connected with muscle pains. The first one appears after the excess exercising and gives such symptoms as stiffness and painful muscles. Doctors call it delayed muscular pain as it usually appears after 1-2 days after the activity, not directly after exercising. It usually lasts about a week.
The second type is a sudden, painful muscle cramp which lasts several seconds. They are usually placed in muscles of thighs, calves and feet. Muscle cramps can appear at night while sleeping or during the day.
Symptoms of muscular pains:
- sudden hardening of a muscle during the strenuous exercising
- pain and stiffness of the muscles which appear 1-2 days after physical exercising
- sudden muscle cramps, most often in calves during the night
- abnormally toned muscles, they are dense and hard, it's often said they are as hard as stone
- visible trembling of the muscles
- muscles are overtoned, hard, sudden cramps and pain in the chest may be a sign of myocardial ischemia
- the pain is connected with tingling sensation and numbness which irradiates through the muscles of arms and legs, sometimes to the finger tips.
- muscular pains appear often and get back quite often
- painful muscle cramps interrupt sleeping
The causes of muscular pains
Strenuous exercising may cause pain even in a person in a good physical condition. A healthy young person who practices jogging will suffer from pain in the muscles of arms after he carries heavy objects such as furniture. Scientists claim that pain is caused by microscopic damages of the muscle fibers, it needs a couple of days to heal. Those microdamages appear after a downhill jogging, lifting heavy objects because muscle fibers need to extend in order to cope with the burden. It is also possible that the main reason for sudden muscle cramps can be placed in loss of balance between the ions which take part in tensing muscle fibers: sodium, potassium, calcium or magnesium. Cramps appear as a consequence of lack of fluids in the organism or after walking in high heels, sleeping with legs sticking out of the duvet. Some muscle cramps can be so painful that they are able to wake up even from the deepest sleep.
What helps?
Muscular pains don't affect people who have a proper mineral balance in the organism. Frequently, it's crucial to use diet supplements with calcium and magnesium. If we eat enough fruit and vegetables we don't have to take potassium. People who suffer from muscle cramps should take vitamin E.
What else can you do?
1. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables in order to provide the organism with potassium, antioxidants as well as whole-grain produce, nuts, seeds, sprouts which contain plenty of magnesium
2. Drink fluids during and after exercising.
3. Begin exercising with a warm-up and finish with stretching.
4. Put compresses of ice onto the painful muscles to lower the inflammation.
Added by:
mary
not connected with health care system
Added on:
2008-09-19 11:05:09 ,
Updated:
2008-09-19 11:16:24
Bibliography:
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