Leg Cramp
Massage Away Your Charley Horse

Everyone's had a leg cramp at some point in their lives. A charley horse can really be painful, especially if it wakes you from sleep in the middle of the night. There are a few simple massage techniques you can do to ease these muscle cramps that you get in your legs.

Normally, large muscles that cross over joints contract to perform a certain function. For example one muslce may contract to flex or close a joint. The opposing muscle will contract to extend or open a joint. This is the way our muscles move us about, but when you experience a cramp one muscle or a group of muscles is contracting for not reason. The muscle contracts, but no movement of the joint it crosses occurs.

Muscular cramps happen most often in legs. The leg muscles are vunerable to cramping because they're large muscles that do a lot of work. Cramps in the hamstrings and quadriceps are both common, but from my experience I'd say that the most common type of leg cramp is the calf muscle cramp.

There are a few things that contribute to getting muscle cramps. It used to be that lack of salt was the major cause of cramps, but we get so much salt in our diet these days in the form of processed foods so that's probably not the problem. Here are some other more likely contributing factors:

Electrolyte imbalance can happen easily if you're doing a lot of strenuous activity that makes you sweat and you're not properly replacing lost electrolytes.

Dehydration occurs when you don't drink enough fluids. If your muscles are dehydrated they don't have the lubrication they need to function correctly.

Lack of potassium can cause muscles to cramp. Postassium helps regulate your muscle's activity and is important for healthy muscle function.

Overwork can also contribute. If you work out too hard or strain lifting too much weight, your muscle could go into spasm.

Massage for Your Leg Cramp

Massage can be used to get rid of your leg cramps. When I was in massage school, I learned that doing static pressure on a cramp will help it go away. You can do this by putting a flat relaxed hand on the thickest part of the muscle that's cramping and pressing firmly until it stops. This technique is very helpful if you get a charley horse in the middle of the night. The pressure relieves the cramp quickly so you can get some rest.

If you weren't sleeping when your cramp occurred, you can do a few things to follow up. Try putting ice on the area. Remember that when you do ice an area you shouldn't apply ice for longer than 15 minutes every hour.

Once you've iced it you can do some petrissage on the area to get the blood flowing properly. When a muscle cramps up it restricts the blood flow to the tissue.

After a good massage be sure to stretch the area. The stretching will also help loosen the muscle tissue even more.

Sometimes the area where the leg cramp was will remain sore even after the cramp has gone away. This happens because some muscle fibers may have been damaged or torn because the cramp was so intense. Getting a massage from a professional therapist will help you deal with that injury.

Therapists who practice a therapeutic form of massage like sports massage, neuromuscular therapy, trigger point therapy, or deep tissue massage can help heal the area.