mikez913 :
rcarter2 :

I thought you two might be the most able to help me, although I may just be beyond it right now. lol

So..... this doesn't happen often.
BUT.....
there are times when I sleep and wake in agonizing pain simply because I've stretched my leg out. I've only ever done it while sleeping, and basically, I point my foot downwards, stretch... and BAM..... I feel like my muscle on the backside of my leg below the knee is being ripped to shreds. I don't know if the muscle is seizing up, if that's what a Charlie Horse is.... no idea. But it hurts like HECK. It takes several moments (maybe two minutes or more) to die off, and the next morning, the muscle feels bruised and sore.

Oddly enough, it only ever seems to happen to my right leg. It happened last night, and I just about screamed from the pain. I had to rock back and forth and resist the urge to hit my leg. I did, however, grip my leg very tightly right below the knee, and I put a lot of pressure at the top inside of that portion of my leg. I don't know if that helped, or I just had bad timing, because the pain diminished greatly when I did that.

If you know what this is, can you explain it to me? Why does it happen and how can I prevent/help it?

Singelli : My wife is a PT and I asked her.  She said it's most likely dehydration and a lack of flexibility in the calf muscles.  You also may be sleeping in a position that tightens the muscle at night and you cramp up.

She suggested drinking more water throughout the day.  I know you teach so bathroom breaks are at a premium but dehydration is easily the most likely reasons for cramping.  You can also put a tennis ball on the ground if you don't have an animal that will eat it and roll it along the bottom of your foot with your toes pointed up towards the ceiling to stretch out the foot.  

Most likely: Dehydration.  Drink more water, especially when you go to bed.

Least likely: If it happens more regularly, you could have a small arterial blockage which may lead to an embolism.

But probably not the second one.  The pain may be very acute to a small area.  It's dehydration.

warmaker :  I actually thought it MIGHT be dehydration, but it just seems like an extreme amount of pain to be caused by dehydration.    I have a high pain tolerance, and it's pretty agonizing. I don't know that I'd describe it as cramping. XD

I'll try drinking more water though, and the tennis ball thing.

Just out of curiosity, what is a Charlie's Horse anyways?

Singelli : warmakers right a lot of problems can come from dehidration some not so bad and some like pretty bad my dad has a condition if he goes without water for like 1-2 days he'll have a panic attack it happens way less often wwhwn he has some water

There is one detail that caught my eye. You said that when you stretch, you point your foot downward. I have found that if stretch out while pointing my foot downward, I feel strain in my calf muscle. If I stop immediately, nothing happens. If I keep doing it, This is what happens. A specific part of my calf muscle feels hot, followed by a shooting pain. Also, my calf muscles pretty much lock up. While the pain is happening, I can't point my foot back upward. Any of this familiar? Particularly, does your foot lock up in the pointed down position while this happens?

rcarter2 :  You know, the pain is SO intense, that I honestly have no idea. I kind of freeze my whole body and try not to panic, crying and screaming inside my head.  "No no no no stop stop stop stop!"  It just hurts THAT bad.  I did once or twice try experimenting while I was awake though. I started stretching my leg with my toes downward, and I could definitely feel a strain. I can actually feel that strain on either leg. However, I simply can not push myself enough to replicate the same pain.... I'm not willing at ALL to experience that pain even if just for a few moments... for the sake of sating my curiosity.  I think it's a case of stretching past a certain point, and that while I'm sleeping, my brain must not register "Hey, that's starting to hurt... stop stretching now."  I'm almost positive if I kept pushing my foot downwards while I'm awake, I'd be struck by that same crippling pain.  My calf STILL hurts from me doing it last night, even.

Singelli : Sounds like the same thing. You said at the end that you are sure that if you continued to hold your food in the downward position, you would trigger it. So I am pretty positive it is the same. You would likely trigger the event if you kept it going. I can trigger it consciously by doing that, and it does hurt. A lot. When it happens in the future, focus on keeping your leg strait at the knee, and then focus on bringing your foot up to point as high as you can get it. The goal is to stretch the calf muscle instead of contracting it. It will likely be very difficult to pull your foot upward, so just keep trying. What I do at times is find something that I can do this with-


A shirt, blanket, towel, etc, will do. Really pull those toes up to stretch out that calf. It usually makes a big difference in the pain later. If I don't stretch it out while it is happening, I (like you) feel pain for hours past.

Singelli : A charlie horse is a cramp or spasming of the muscles.  It's exactly what you're talking about.  Muscles spasm and cramp because poor circulation, dehydration, and possibly a lack of potassium or overexertion during exercise.  They happen when people sleep or run very long distances.

Stretching is okay but it won't decrease the spasms in your legs.  Cramps are extremely painful and involuntary cramping can be similar to the cramps women feel during menstruation or when they're in labor.  Labor pains hurt, I can ask my wife, and they are spasms like your calves.

Try more water throughout the day, eat more bananas or find another potassium source, and see what happens.

rcarter2 :
warmaker :

You are both wonderful men. Thank you so much.  
I'm gonna start trying to drink more water and consume more potassium.  (My eating habits are horrid.)

And if it happens again, I'm going to try that trick you shared, rcarter.  I hate being knocked breathless and wide awake by it.

Singelli :  
Sorry I'm late to the party here, but everything you see above here is 100% and they did a great job explaining it. 

The muscle cramps are caused both by the dehydration and low potassium. If you're dehydrated, you'll have a lower blood volume, so your blood will have a more difficult time getting to the deeper parts of your muscle that are the farthest away from your heart (which is why this almost always affects the calf muscles). If the body isn't using oxygen to help produce energy, it changes things around and the byproduct is lactic acid, which once it builds to high levels, elicits that intense cramping pain you get in the middle of the night (ie. Charlie Horse). Since you're sleeping, you don't notice it building up, so you'll wake up in much more pain than during the day when you can feel it coming on.

On top of all that, after the muscles contract, potassium needs to travel back into the muscle cells so you can use the muscle again. If your potassium is low, your muscle cells can't go back to the resting state, which then fatigues the muscle. A fatigued muscle builds up lactic acid at a much higher rate, leading to more muscle cramps.
 
Foods like bananas are certainly the best bet for helping low potassium. For fluids, soda and coffee will make you urinate out excess potassium, so those are big things to limit. Water is great, and you could use sports drinks as well (Gatorade, etc...) but just be careful with those, as lots of those are surprisingly high in calories.

If you have any more questions on all this, I'd be glad to help again. But looks like you got some great people to turn to as well. Well done everyone.

never really got it. I get cramps sometimes, but I never got a Charlie horse.

Mega Mewtwo X :  Don't necro old threads for TdV spam.

Local Mods : Please close this before it gets worse.

Singelli : i don't try to spam, im sorry.

Mega Mewtwo X :  It's okay. A good rule of thumb though... is not to post in threads that haven't been responded to for awhile.  If it's been two months, really, it's better off just to let the thread die out.  Especially when a competition is running.