OW!! Can foot cramps injure people??

I guess I should start from the beginning.

My showoffness got the best of me last week. In my TKD class, I was pulling kids out of a group and working with them on their forms one at a time. I finished working with one of the kiddies, so I took him back to the rest of the group. One of my instructors was doing the butterfly stretch with the kids (sit on bottom, put soles of feet together, try and put knees to floor). It's the one stretch I happen to be pretty good at. When I do it, I feel no tension or pain anywhere, even when I lean forward and put my chest to the floor.

Anyway, I join my instructor in demonstrating. I was feeling like a showoff (a pretty rare event), and I jumped into the stretch really quickly, putting my chest to the floor and everything. I felt something tighten in my foot, then all of a sudden, it cramps up. BIG time. I've never had a foot cramp in my life, so it was pretty scary. I could see the muscle bulging under the skin, and my toes pulled back on their own REALLY hard. My eyes watered from the pain, and it took me a while to rub it out of my foot. After I thought I'd rubbed it out, I gently moved my foot, and the cramp came back. Good grief! I rubbed it out again, and it stayed gone.

This happened seven days ago. And ever since, my foot has felt. . . well, a cross between painful and uncomfortable. Almost cramped. Especially when I put lots of pressure on it.

What the heck did I do to my foot? Is it possible I strained something during the cramp? What can I do to make it better?

 

Its just cramp, sounds like bad cramp, but still cramp.

I get calf cramp all the time in my sleep. The next day my calf is always in a semi-tensed uncomfortable state.

Sounds like you had it bad, but rest it, it should be ok.

 

yeah, i get those occasionally.

just try to rest it as much as possible, and maybe try some Deep Heat or Voltaren, or your local equivalent.

 

Yeh...those calf ones when you sleep are bloody killers, and I have to limp for like the next two days, but like everyone said just rest it and make sure you do a proper warm up next time

 

Not permanently.

 

Phew. Glad I've gotten some optimism. Eases the mind a bit.

Thankfully, I got the cramp on the last class before our week-long spring break. I've got another full week's worth of rest before I'm back in class and the foot's been doing better; it'll probably be okay by then.

By the way, I've never heard of getting cramps during sleep. Sounds rough - you guys have my sympathies.

 

When there is a slow down in the fight season I often will take longer breaks from bag and pad work. This sudden stoppage often results in severe cramping in my hamstrings... right where the come up into my glutes.

For those of you that don't know where that is... it's right at the edge of your ass! (well actually the edge of my ass).



They can literally throw you right up out of bed and have you doing the bo-jangles dance trying to figure out how to get rid of them! Nightmare.

I've found that remembering to ease-in and ease-out of training cycles really helps me to avoid these kind of cramps.

Cramps are a bummer because if you don't do something to negate it right away... they get worse by the second... to the point where you feel like your muscle is going to just pull clean off the bone. :cry:

Diet also can help. Bananas tend to help... if you eat them on a regular basis it seems to keep the cramps away. Perhaps the pottasium?

At any rate - your not alone with muscle cramps - try easing into things with a proper dynamic warm up.

 

Thanks for the advice, slipthejab.

I don't eat many bananas. Come to think of it, I haven't in months. I'm craving bananas now.

 

Cramps suck. The worst ones are either your toes in a swimming pool, or your hams in the bath because it's hard to stretch out! When I started getting back into football I got calf cramps really bad too. So annoying.

A lot of people link cramps to electrolyte balance and a lot of people seem to get good results from eating bananas and sometimes even crisps (spawn of satan food!).

 

Crisps? As in potato chips?

 

Cramps are a nightmare. When I first strated thai boxing I used to get them really bad in my hip flexors. A bag of crisps and a glass of water is a great cure I find.

 

Crisps= chips
Chips= french frys

 

Nah, I wouldn't worry about it. I get these muscle spasms fairly often, though I mostly get them in my neck (which I imagine is about as pleasant as rubbing your crotch region with sandpaper, it's *that* painful! )

The only suggestion I'd say is keep the muscles relaxed as I seem to get them particularly in my neck when I'm tense and suddenly move. If you keep doing warm ups and try staying relaxed it should occur less, but it happens to most people and isn't anything serious.

 

Flutter, cramps can happen at anytime and for a multiple of reasons. Sounds like you did the right thing by 'kneading" your foot and then resting it. My feet will cramp (not a severely as the episode you described) when I am doing an extreme toe point. All I have to do is rub the arch for a bit, pull back on the toes, and I am fine but the minute I point the toes again- WHAM! Back to rubbing. Maintaining good hydration and mineral uptake is important too. Ask any competitive bodybuilder how many times they cramped up right before, during, or after a show. Night cramps are cause for concern for us "older" people and should be monitored carfully and thoroughly discussed with a physician. Hopefully you have no more issues with cramping! :Angel:

 

Yes i regularly jump out of bed and end up rolling around in agony. I find that bending and straightening the leg can stop it. But bugar me it hurts.
Just a pointer too, try not to get calf cramp during sex. Its quite embarrasing.

 

I used to suffer from horrendous calf cramps, not a nice thing to wake up to.

Since I started wearing a hematite ring....not had cramp since. Don't know how it works, the only thing I care is that it does!

Oh, my pregnant pal started to get night cramps and hers have also stopped since I gave her a hematite ring.

Tidy :love:

 

LMAO! What is this, Zelda?!?

 

Thanks for the advice, guys!

I'm sorta surprised I don't get cramps often. I practically drink no water. Bad, I know. . . I don't know why, I just hate drinking the stuff.

Just an update: My foot's back to normal now, and I have my first class this evening now that the week long break is over. Wish me luck!

 

Drink squash. I can down 4 litres of the stuff a day.

 

Squash? I didn't even know the stuff was drinkable.