Getting Rid of Midnight Leg Cramps

Audio Transcript

Coach Sinead: Hi everyone. Today, we have a really interesting question about muscle cramps.

Questioner: My question is about cramping in between runs, not during runs. I’m increasingly experiencing severe muscle cramps randomly whilst resting.

Often, in the middle of the night, my calf or quad would cramp severely, leaving the muscle very sore, like I’ve strained it.

I hydrate well, stretch well, strength-train, cross-train, rest well, foam roll, and I listen to my body and take time off if I need to.

My sodium intake is usually around the recommended daily allowance, however, I’ve noticed my potassium is a little on the low side.

Could this be the cause or it’s simply muscle fatigue from training hard? What action can I take to prevent and ease muscle cramps between runs?

Coach Sinead: At the beginning of this question, when you stated that you’ve been experiencing cramps between runs and not during runs, I’ll admit that my mind immediately formed a checklist of all the things that you might not be doing correctly, between not foam rolling, and not hydrating properly.

I thought that maybe you’re overtraining, but as I continued listening to your question, you obviously checked off quite a few of those boxes, so I do think there is an underlying issue here that might not be quite so obvious.

The cramps you’re experiencing could be a product of a lot of contributing factors. The first thing I want to do is touch on the one red flag I noticed in your statement, and that was when you admitted to not getting adequate potassium in your diet.

The cramps that you describe are fairly common.

These often occur not during running but in a resting state, often during the night when you’re asleep, and these are commonly known as Charley horses.

I couldn’t tell you why they’re called that but I do know that they are excruciating. I don’t have to tell our questioner that, and these usually occur in your calves, your hamstrings, your quads, and sometimes at the bottom of your feet.

It just feels like your muscles are spasming and it’s so painful; definitely not a pleasant way to wake up in the middle of the night.

These are extremely common. If you’re listening to this and you haven’t yet experienced a Charley horse, you are incredibly lucky and I hope you stay that way.

The research surrounding cramps has developed significantly over the past two decades but it’s still widely thought that cramps are a product of either dehydration and/or electrolyte depletion.

This is where potassium comes in. The thinking here is that the fluid imbalance caused by these conditions, increases the excitability of nerves and that leads them to spasm, and cause this severe pain in your muscles.

This is where inadequate potassium can really throw things off.

Potassium plays a vital role in restoring cellular fluid balance. Where sodium sucks water molecules into cells, potassium pumps these molecules out, and so when you have insufficient potassium levels, your cellular fluids become imbalanced.

Many believe that that excites your nerves and leads to muscle cramps.

While our questioner gets the recommended amount of sodium, it seems her potassium levels might not be enough to balance out that equation.

While adults are advised to get about 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, the average American consumes about 3,300. That’s nearly 150% of the recommended amount.

On the other hand, most Americans only get about 60% of the daily recommended amount for potassium, which is 2,790 milligrams.

Our questioner very clearly is not American. We Americans are a little notorious for our sodium intake.

I’m not sure I can speak for our questioner with these statistics I’ve just given, but as you can see, any sort of discrepancy within this equation, whether it be with the sodium or potassium, will result in a cellular fluid imbalance which again tends to prompt these muscle cramps.

That is why it’s important to make sure you’re getting your daily recommendation for potassium which again is 2,790 milligrams.

You can get these through food sources; bananas are a powerhouse for potassium. You can also get it in dried apricots, salmon, avocado, and sweet potatoes.

There are tons of food with potassium in them but if you feel like you’re not getting quite enough just through your diet alone, you can also get a supplement.

I would recommend either getting a potassium supplement on its own or getting a multivitamin, because the multivitamin will include other vitamins essential to muscular health.

Vitamin K, magnesium, and vitamin D is another big one. If you want to cover all your bases and go with a multivitamin, that is certainly a good way to go.

Also, because you noted that you hydrate very well, I will say that you should make sure that you are not purely hydrating with water.

You want to make sure that you’re not flushing out your electrolytes by drinking water alone. Be sure to get some sort of electrolyte drink in there.

Every day, runners expend a lot of their vitamins and minerals through sweat. You’ve got to make sure you’re replacing those properly with, I would say anywhere between eight to sixteen ounces of some sort of sports drink a day.

There are so many options out there that don’t have loads and loads of sugar in them for instance, Nuun is a really good one.

It has very little sugar, uses all natural ingredients and it’s a great way to [buoy00:08:05] up your electrolyte stores.

Another good source of electrolytes is coconut water which I think is an acquired taste. It took me a while to like it myself but it’s full of vitamins and minerals and it’s great for you.

It really helps to replace all these electrolytes that you are expending while you’re running.

Now that I’ve talked about potassium, I want to say that there are some other theories as to why you might be experiencing these cramps.

A few of these theories negate the theory that dehydration and electrolyte depletion is the cause for cramps.

A number of researchers now believe that because dehydration and electrolyte depletion is a body-wide phenomenon, those two things shouldn’t be held responsible for these Charley horses that we almost always experience in our legs.

According to this theory, there are a lot of different causes for cramps, one being that they could be a product of fatigued or damaged muscles.

This theory maintains that cramps are a product of overtraining, so you do have to be careful.

I know our questioner said that she takes time off when she needs to, and she foam rolls, and she does all the little things to facilitate recovery in her muscles and make sure they’re functioning properly, but sometimes you can over train without realizing it.

You have to be careful that you aren’t overworking your muscles to the point that you can’t recover for your next workout.

That accumulated fatigue can add up and can add some wear and tear to your muscles, so you’ve got to be careful that you are putting a lot of emphasis on your recovery as well.

These cramps are also thought to be a genetic condition as well, so if you have a family history of cramping, then you might be genetically predisposed to cramping, unfortunately.

But I think with proper care and making sure that you’re getting all your vitamins in and you’re not overtraining, you’re doing all the little things like our questioner has been doing, you’ll really help to minimize any risk you have that might be genetic.

Thank you so much for this question. I really hope I’ve helped you out. If your cramps persist and you’ve tried everything, you’ve upped your potassium intake and you’ve done everything you can think of, I would definitely go see a doctor and see if you might have some underlying issue.

Muscle cramps can be a symptom of so many different conditions, whether it be thyroid issue, or restless leg syndrome.

It can also be a symptom of different medications you’re on, so I definitely recommend seeing your physician if these cramps persist, and hopefully your physician can determine what might be a possible cause.

I know the struggle, as I’ve had these myself time and again, and they are absolutely awful so I hope what I’ve said today helps you and you get to the bottom of this very soon.

I also hope I’ve helped other listeners today who have most likely experienced one of these cramps before, and I hope what I’ve said today has given you a few good pointers for preventing them in the future.

If you have a question you’d like answered in a future podcast, head on over to runnersconnect.net/daily.

We would love to hear from you and we love to help in any way we can. Thank you so much again for joining me today and I hope you have a great day.

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