Avoiding cramps

Adrian Godwin <[email hidden]> wrote in news:5hprn1-gf7.ln1
@smaug.toynbee.org.uk:

Quoted message said:

At the weekend, I suffered some severe back pain. It
started with a couple of episodes during a lunch rest,
softened up during an afternoon of walking and then
returned with a vengeance in the evening. The pain in the
small of my back was so bad that I was kneeling on the
floor and couldn't stand up without triggering it again.

Medical attention was quick and effective - they diagnosed
muscle spasms and gave me muscle relaxants and
painkillers. Since then I've had some soreness and minor
twinges, but despite using very few of the painkillers
have had no real problems.

Obviously, I don't want this to happen again, but the
doctor seemed to have no idea what caused it. I can only
blame my walking (which included more hills than I
normally find, but certainly wasn't anything extreme ..
Saturday in the Malverns, Sunday in one of the few bumpy
bits of Bedfordshire - and Sunday morning was largely on
flat ground).

I might be inclined to blame dehydration/loss of salts
etc., as the sun came out for the first time this year but
I drank plenty and ate regularly. And as far as I can
tell, cramps for this reason are more likely to affect my
legs (which were fine, except when I was stretching every
muscle I had to try to releive the back pain!).

Any ideas what might have caused it ? And how to avoid it
.. perhaps with different food/drink, or muscle stretches,
or relieving shocks through my legs on downhill sections,
or slower ascents .. ?

-adrian

My sympathies, Adrian. I suffer the same thing periodically
- most recently yesterday (ongoing). If it's any
encouragement, although my first (and most ghastly) episode
was whilst camping in the Lakes five years ago, I find that
walking eases it rather than causes it. The real cause was
cumulative bad habits - posture whilst sitting etc. - so the
very minor movement that finally caused the spasm was only
the final straw, not the root cause.

I went to Pilates classes for a couple of years to
strengthen the muscles supporting the spine and was able to
walk in the hills without recurrence or concern. Then I
stopped Pilates and have had a few repeats, but never when
walking.....

Speaking for myself, bad posture caused the muscles to
become inflamed. I had dull back ache on and off for several
months but ignored it - then one bad movement did the damage
that caused the muscles to lock down protectively (spasm).
In my case there are bony protrusions on my vertebrae that
cause pressure - 25% of people have them but they don't
necessarily cause problems.

I recommend that you keep taking the anti-inflammatories for
a while to ensure that the muscles settle down properly.
Then be more aware of how you're using/abusing your back
from day to day and cure the bad habits, and hopefully you
wont have any more problems.

Best of luck!

Stuart

I had something like this not so long ago - it turned out to
be my tight hamstrings pulling my lower back around a bit,
all out of balance and whatnot (I hope my medical jargon
doesn't go over your head).

Regular stretching, and suitable sleep (it happened when I
was at my most tired / after using loads of energy) and it
hasn't troubled me since!

"Adrian Godwin" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

At the weekend, I suffered some severe back pain. It
started with a couple of episodes during a lunch rest,
softened up during an afternoon of walking and then
returned with a vengeance in the evening. The pain in the
small of my back was so bad that I was kneeling on the
floor and couldn't stand up without triggering it again.

Medical attention was quick and effective - they diagnosed
muscle spasms and gave me muscle relaxants and
painkillers. Since then I've had some soreness and minor
twinges, but despite using very few of the painkillers
have had no real problems.

Obviously, I don't want this to happen again, but the
doctor seemed to have no idea what caused it. I can only
blame my walking (which included more hills than I
normally find, but certainly wasn't anything extreme ..
Saturday in the Malverns, Sunday in one of the few bumpy
bits of Bedfordshire - and Sunday morning was largely on
flat ground).

I might be inclined to blame dehydration/loss of salts
etc., as the sun came out for the first time this year but
I drank plenty and ate regularly. And as far as I can
tell, cramps for this reason are more likely to affect my
legs (which were fine, except when I was stretching every
muscle I had to try to releive the back pain!).

Any ideas what might have caused it ? And how to avoid it
.. perhaps with different food/drink, or muscle stretches,
or relieving shocks through my legs on downhill sections,
or slower ascents .. ?

-adrian

Stuart Mann said:

I recommend that you keep taking the anti-inflammatories
for a while to ensure that the muscles settle down
properly. Then be more aware of how you're using/abusing
your back from day to day and cure the bad habits, and
hopefully you wont have any more problems.

Thanks, that does strike a chord : I find it difficult to
get comfortable in 'good posture' chairs (they make me feel
as though I'm sliding forward onto the floor) and I lean
forward more than is recommended. I've also changed office
and got a different desk / chair combination which might
have had an effect. Unfortunately, much of the advice I read
about keyboard posture seems to contradict each other.

My car seats, too, are difficult to make comfortable even
though they have lumbar adjustments. In fact, they're worse
than the simpler seats in a previous model!

I couldn't recall any single incident that seemed to have
tripped it off, though : the only possibility might have
been getting down on the ground at lunchtime (I usually
stand). It's certainly true that the first problem seemed to
ease off as I walked in the afternoon.

On a related note, I wonder how much damage all those laptop
users are doing - laptop designs seem to fly in the face of
all the adjustable-height screen, low-profile keyboard
trends of the '80s.

-adrian

Adrian Godwin

Ditto Stuart's comments on posture.

Quoted message said:

On a related note, I wonder how much damage all those
laptop users are doing - laptop designs seem to fly in the
face of all the adjustable-height screen, low-profile
keyboard trends of the '80s.

Speaking personally, with a port replicator. They come in
many guises but the one I use is a simple split cable that
plugs into the port replication socket on the back of the
laptop and allows you to use a full size keyboard and mouse
instead of the onboard ones. The mouse and keyboard plug
into each of the split ends of the cable. You can then place
the laptop onto something to raise it to the proper height.
I think mine cost something daft like a fiver. A real back
saver, I can tell you.

Chris