UpClose & Personal - Mike McGillicuddy

Cramps are one of the most common problems a sports massage therapist has to learn to deal with at events or during a massage on an athlete. Muscle cramps can disrupt an athlete's performance to the point that they may not be able to continue competing. Many post-event sports massages are interrupted by the athlete suffering from muscle cramps while lying on the massage table

An important part of understanding how to treat muscle cramps is realizing that they are a symptom of some other problem. The two most common reasons why an athlete can suffer from cramps are dehydration and overexertion.

At events such as professional tennis or professional volleyball athletes compete outdoors for long periods of time. Because of the nature of the games they do not allow the athletes to drink a great deal of water while they are competing. Both competitions require the athletes to compete over a period of days so you are likely to encounter both dehydration and exhaustion at these events.

Hopefully a medical team is always there to deal with severe dehydration. Cramping can become so severe from dehydration that the athlete must have fluid replacement administered intravenously. A common sign that an athlete is severely dehydrated is that they suffer from muscle cramps in more than one major muscle group.

While working at many of these events I have been asked to work with an athlete with mild cramping. After placing the athlete in a comfortable position, my first choice of treating a cramp is simply to elongate the muscle tissue that is cramping. The lengthening should be done gently to avoid pulling the muscle out of cramp. (You may have experienced a cramp in your foot yourself and realized that if you stretch the bottom of your foot the cramp lessens. If you point your toes toward the ground the cramp usually gets worse.) This usually works well and I follow the gentle stretching with massage of the muscles that were cramping.

Another technique you can try is reciprocal inhibition. It requires the therapist to identify the antagonist muscle group to the group that is cramping. The therapist stabilizes the joint while the athlete contracts the antagonist muscles to those that were cramping. The resisted contraction is then followed by a gentle stretch of the cramping muscles. Avoid putting the muscles that have been cramping back into a shortened position.

Offering the athlete fluid to drink and icing the cramping muscles can also be helpful.

In some cases there may be muscle soreness up to 48 hours after severe cramping. Often an athlete may not be able to return to competition the next day.

I always like to remind massage therapists that diagnosing medical conditions is beyond the scope of our practice. Most cases of cramping are not serious and can be handled safely and effectively. However, some cases of cramping can be quite severe and dangerous to the athlete's health.

If you ever have to deal with a severe case of cramping, always request medical assistance. If an athlete you are working with complains of cramping often, request that they consult their physician just to be safe.

E-mail: SpiritMcG@aol.com