How to Relieve a Charley Horse

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Tanya Batts, and I am a personal trainer with Gold's Gym. I want to talk to you about how to relieve a charley horse. We have all seen it happen. Soccer player, basketball player, somebody on the court goes down hard. What is the first thing you do anytime you hurt any part of the your body? You want to automatically start to massage that area. Just kind of an instinct that we have. So you really want to massage that calf muscle, because that is right where that charley horse gets. You want to massage not really hard. Just gently massage with your thumbs into the calf, and all around the pain. So a charley horse is just a sudden contraction of all the muscle fibers. So when you are massaging you are releasing all those muscle fibers. Now dehydration plays a big part in any type of cramping. One thing you might want to think about if you have low levels of calcium, magnesium, or potassium they can also cause a charley horse. So if you are one of those people at night who kind of wakes up with a big cramp in the calf you might want to think about drinking a glass of milk right before bed. So drink milk for calcium. Looking for magnesium eat your green vegetables. Potassium, banana is the best way to go. And if you really do a lot of activity, get a lot of cramping just do, you might want to go see a doctor, and have him check all those levels. But that is just a great way to relieve a charley horse."