What Do Cramping Muscles After Exercise Mean?
Q: What do cramping muscles after exercise mean? Are they a sign from the heavens above that I should stop working out? That would be a really huge bummer if they were. *fingers crossed* For the love of everything holy, please be a sign that this taking care of my body shit isn’t for me!!! *fingers crossed* Wait, did I just say that last part out loud? Oopsy!
A: A muscle cramp is a sudden, involuntary contraction of the muscle that results in it not being able to relax, which can be seen with visible twitching and the area feeling hard and tender to the touch. Cramps are usually painful and depending on the severity, the duration can vary from a few seconds to 15 minutes or longer and then you may experience soreness for hours or days after the cramp stops.
Muscles can cramp at any time but those that do while exercising or immediately following it are known as exercise-associated muscle cramps. Exercise-associated muscle cramps occur mostly in the quads, hamstrings, calves, and feet but other areas can cramp as well. Whatever the case, the research is inconclusive so it’s not known definitively why or how exercise can induce muscle cramps. There are a few theories, however.
Dehydration is one of the oldest explanations for exercise-associated muscle cramps based on the fact that inadequate water intake can reduce the amount of blood that’s in the circulatory system, which can then prompt the body to direct blood from less critical areas to the vital organs as a matter of priority. The theory follows from here that the redirection of blood hinders the circulation of nutrients and oxygen to working muscles and the removal of waste products from them. As a consequence, the muscles function improperly and cramp.
Another popular explanation for exercise-associated muscle cramps is electrolyte imbalance. According to the electrolyte hypothesis, the depletion of sodium, calcium, potassium, and chloride can increase the potential of cramping because those salts and minerals carry electrical charges that make them essential for muscle and nerve function. As such, their loss through sweat or dilution from drinking too much plain water can impair the ability of the nerves to transmit the electrical signals that trigger muscle contractions, thus resulting in cramps.
The traditional explanations for exercise-associated muscle cramps have centered around hydration status and the concentration of electrolytes in the body but studies on the matter have yet to show abnormal electrolyte levels in active individuals at the time of their cramping nor has it been demonstrated that cramping exercisers are more dehydrated than their non-cramping study participants. The evidence is there for dehydration and electrolyte depletion playing a role in other occurrences of cramping but it’s not there for either when it comes to cramps that are related to exercise. Instead, the prevailing opinion suggests that the cause of exercise-associated muscle cramps has more to do with fatigue.
From what’s better supported by the evidence, muscle fatigue can affect the nervous system and its control of how tense or relaxed a muscle is. The exact mechanism by which this happens and promotes cramping has yet to be identified but it’s guessed that as muscles tire from repetitive contraction during intense or extended periods of use, an imbalance of nerve signals occurs and disrupts the normal communication between muscle spindles that stimulate contraction and Golgi tendon organs that are responsible for relaxing the muscle, with the muscle cramping when muscle spindle activity increases from the motor neurons receiving too many excitatory signals.
Exercise-related cramping having to do with neuromuscular control and fatigue is just an educated guess but what helps substantiate it is that this type of cramping frequently happens when you’re already well into physical activity instead of the issue taking place at the beginning when you’re fresh. Also working in favor of the theory is that exercise-associated cramps are localized in working muscle groups, which doesn’t make sense if the cramping were brought on by a systemic imbalance. Further disproving the theories concerning systemic imbalance is that drinking plain water to restore hydration and ingesting salt and minerals to improve electrolyte concentration don’t bring relief to an exercise-associated muscle cramp. What’s effective in this instance is passive stretching because pulling on the tight muscle increases the strain on the muscle’s tendon, which in turn activates the Golgi tendon organs and decreases muscle spindle activity that’s responsible for the strong, unregulated contraction.
At the moment, the altered neuromuscular activity theory is the most promising explanation for exercise-associated muscle cramps. So with that in mind, let’s go back to your question about what it means when your muscles cramp after working out.
Based on what’s better supported by research, cramping that’s associated with exercise has to do with muscle overload and fatigue causing abnormal reflex activity and sustained motor drive in overworked muscle fibers. As such, experiencing muscle cramps during or after your workout means that you’re exceeding the level that your current fitness allows for. That being so, cramping is a sign that you need to cut down the intensity, duration, and/or frequency of the exercise you’re doing, especially if it’s a regular occurrence when working out.
That’s right, muscle cramps that are related to physical activity appear to have a neurological origin and be an indicator that you’re doing too much and should tone things down.
Yes, that’s right, a muscle cramp you feel during or after your workout isn’t indicative of dehydration…or a mineral deficiency…or the existence of a higher being by way of your prayers coming true for there to be something that you can use as a legitimate excuse to get out of having to work out!
Now, does anyone else have a fitness or nutrition question of their own that they want to ask?
Glossary: exercise, exercise frequency, fitness, intensity, lifting form, muscle, muscle group, nutrition, work out, workout
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