Do you experience a sudden, numbing pain on either of your feet often?
Foot cramps are one of the worst inconveniences in a person’s life. They can happen at any time and you don’t know how hard they’ll hit you. It can either be a slight pain which you can brush off with ease or an intense spasm which makes you unable to walk in its duration.
What causes foot cramps though and how do you prevent it?
Often, these cramps happen when the muscles in your leg are either overexerted, cramped clothing, dehydration, and a lack of nutrients. These also happen when your leg doesn’t get enough movement, which is why you feel these cramps while sleeping.
Lucky for you, there are a lot of ways to prevent them. Read on to learn about 10 brilliant ways to prevent your feet from cramping.
1. Stretch Your Leg Muscles at the Start of the Day
Often, the main reason why people get foot cramps is because of poor muscle preparation. Even if you’re only going out for a walk, you’ll feel the cramps coming in if your muscles are not prepared. You should take time to stretch your legs and the rest of your body out.
5 minutes after waking up is the best time to do this. This helps jumpstart your body’s activities and ensures your muscle’s preparation for the day ahead.
2. Load Up on Bananas
Bananas are the best way to prevent cramps in feet. This is because of the potassium they provide for your body. Potassium keeps the electrolytes going in your body with the help of sodium.
Since bananas are the best and tastiest way to get your potassium needs, you should stock up on them. You can also mix it up and add in some sodium-carrying food along with your banana. Sodium is important because potassium alone can’t prevent cramps.
3. Keep Yourself Hydrated Throughout the Day
Another reason why people get random cramps is that they get dehydrated, as mentioned above. Often, this happens when people get stuck working or exercising under the blazing sun or when they’re experiencing a bout with diarrhea or influenza.
Dehydration causes the body’s fluids to flow faster as they struggle to get where they need to go. Since the legs are the most used part of the body, nutrients and oxygen fail to it in time. This results in spams and cramps you want to avoid.
You’re going to lose water in many ways throughout your day. Even breathing causes moisture to exit your body in the form of your breath. Keep yourself hydrated no matter what situation you find yourself in.
4. Don’t Overwork Your Legs While Exercising
If you like lifting weights or running long distances, then you may have experienced leg cramps at least once. This happens because you’re overexerting effort on your legs and feet.
Muscles are always on the move, contracting and expanding to do what you need it to do. If you put too much stress on them, you’ll cause them to get fatigued. When this happens, they fail to absorb the oxygen they need to get going, leading to a cramp.
5. Wear Loose Pants and Proper Shoes
Sometimes, our clothes can be the reason why we experience cramps. Tight-fitting pants or shoes can cut off the circulation of oxygen in their respective regions.
By now, you should know how important your oxygen supply is for your muscles. Some trendy clothes are tight enough that they restrict the blood flow in the area. Shoes, on the other hand, are sometimes laced too tight when someone’s in a hurry.
Wear comfortable and loose clothing and make sure you don’t lace your shoes too tight. This is a small price to pay in exchange for not getting any cramps.
6. Stay Away From Alcohol
Alcohol is something most people don’t associate cramps with. Little do they realize, alcohol can cause cramps in 2 different ways.
The first one is pretty straight forward, alcohol causes dehydration. As mentioned above, dehydration leads to cramps because of low fluid activity.
The second reason has a bit more complexity to it. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to nerve damage. There’s a specific condition for this called alcoholic neuropathy.
When this happens, you don’t only get cramps in your feet and legs. You may also experience a numb feeling on certain extremities like your toes or your hands.
7. Take Regular Trips to a Podiatrist
The best way to prevent leg and foot cramps is to nip them in the bud. Knowledge is your best weapon here, so you will want to consult a podiatrist for advice. Podiatrists are medical specialists with expertise on the lower extremities of the body.
Podiatrists like the ones in Premier Podiatry can give you advice on your condition. They’ll tell you the best move for you to make to prevent cramps from happening to you in the future.
8. Make Sure You Sleep in the Right Position
One of the reasons you have foot cramps at night is because you sleep in an awkward position. It can either be you smothering a limb or a position which causes bad blood flow to your bottom half.
When you wake up with a cramp, you should take notes on how you sleep at night. If you find a position that works, you should stick with it. If you find you move around in your sleep a lot, then you may want to put pillows around you to prevent this.
9. Switch Your Medication with Your Doctor’s Permission
In some cases, prescribed medication can cause your legs or other limbs to cramp up. This is often the case for cholesterol meds and diuretics. If this happens to you, then it’s best to switch your medication.
You should only do so when advised by your doctor. Be sure to talk to them before making any decision.
10. Maintain a Balanced Diet
For the most part, our diets are the ones which have a major influence on whether we get a cramp or not. It all depends on one thing though, whether you have a family history of diabetes or not.
The diet of a diabetic has a major influence on how their body functions. Too much of one thing and it can cause complications in their body. Cramps are a common symptom of these complications.
The problem is, it’s hard to tell if you’re diabetic or not. You should strive to maintain a balanced diet. It’s also good to practice portion control to prevent any other complications later on.
Learn How to Prevent Foot Cramps Today
There are a lot of ways for foot cramps to happen and it can happen anytime. Save yourself from feeling the pain with the help of the guide above. Use this knowledge to prevent cramps now!
Did you find this guide helpful? If so, why not check out our website, too? You’ll find more guides which will help you in any situation you find yourself in.