People with cramps

[Josh]

Hi there.

Saw a few posts about people having cramps. I'm a massage therapist and trigger point therapist by trade. The change in diet may not be 'causing' the cramps as such, but for some reason increasing haptic tension in the muscles which is activating latent trigger points.

Some trigger point problems e.g. ankles are easy to get rid of with self treatment. I'll copy below a post I did on another forum about ankles. Other parts of the body follow the same principle...if you want to get into it I recommend clair davis' book http://triggerpointbook.com/

Hope this helps.
 

Hi. Don't recommend a rolling pin - too broad. I would lie on your back or sit on the edge of the bed. Bring your calf over the opposite knee. Use the knee to massage from the very top of the calf in short strokes down to the ankle. Imagine three or four 'strips' running vertically down your leg and make sure you cover the whole area. When you reach an exquisitely painful spot, which is a myofascial trigger point, massage it slowly and deeply so that you feel 7/10 of the maximum pain you could by pressing. Massage each trigger point 6-12 times only. Do both legs. Do this up to 6 times a day until the acute problem is gone, then make it a morning routine to get rid of it for good and prevent future problems. Mail me on here if you have any q's.

Oh yeah, be extremely gentle with the stretching until the trigger points are gone.

[Ioanna]

ha, what great timing you have!  my ankles are terrible!!  i haven't had a problem with them since i stopped playing lacrosse in college, but out of no where (and in the beginnings of no carb if that's any relation?) it seems they are not happy with me again.  i went to a doctor yesterday, he says i have secondary tendonitis due to very loose joints.... he was moving my ankle around and then he told that movement isn't normal... huh?  so, is this what you mean in your post?  i'll be checking your info out anyway cuz my ankles are pretty sore, though there's no inflammation going on.

[RawZi]

  Thanks.  I did have cramps a few days ago- in my feet (real bad) and in my abdomen (mild).  I don't usually have cramps.  I used massage to get rid of it.  Thank you for the link.  I Will look into it. 

[Josh]

Hi there. I'm not saying your doctor's definitely wrong, but I've learned to become very skeptical where things like this are concerned.

For example with RSI doctors often prescribe a series of ineffective measures sometimes culminating in surgery, when it's simply trigger points in muscles that have been overused or overstressed. Myofascial trigger points can have effects other than simply causing local pain.

My guess is that your muscles have bad trigger points left over from lacrosse and simply from walking around on pavements etc that everyone does. When a muscle has these contraction knots, it shortens the muscle and it's range of movement. Naturally, the joint movements become restricted or unnatural, because the body is trying to compensate as best it can.

What I said in my post should work, but bear in mind that there may be other muscles involved...e.g. once your ankles loosen you may get pain in your back as your posture attempts to straighten up.

I can't recommend learning to self treat with the book enough. It takes some doing, but it has changed my life.

[hellwe20]

My guess is that your muscles have bad trigger points left over from lacrosse and simply from walking around on pavements etc that everyone does. When a muscle has these contraction knots, it shortens the muscle and it's range of movement. Naturally, the joint movements become restricted or unnatural, because the body is trying to compensate as best it can

[TylerDurden]

This post about massage simply proves my point in another thread , that diet isn't the only answer to health, and that other methods are sometimes necessary(and which may even work much faster than diet).

[wodgina]

That last post was spam.

[TylerDurden]

That last post was spam.

No. It was just fair comment.