Welcome to the Get Fit guys quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

Today we're going to talk about muscle cramps, which can be incredibly frustrating.

You're in the middle of a workout when bam.

Your muscle suddenly and powerfully seize up and rebel against anything your brain tells them to do.

Or perhaps they just march off into their own tiny twitching song and dance routine, leaving you unable to effectively

do your exercise. The truth is, cramping during exercise can go far beyond simply being dehydrated

and grabbing a glass of water to make the cramps go away. So in this episode,

you'll learn what causes cramps, how to avoid cramps, and the five ways to stop cramping

during exercise. The first possible cause of cramping is a lack of fitness. This is the type of

cramp you might get during a pickup basketball game, day of snow skiing, or a 5K run.

The reasoning goes something like this. During competition or intense exercise, you sometimes push yourself much harder than you normally do in training, and your muscles are subjected to a much stronger force of contraction than they're used to.

As a result, the muscles go into a state of protective spasm.

Well, this is certainly a plausible reason for cramping. It obviously doesn't apply to people who aren't

engaged in high-intensity competition or training. But this type of cramping does have a very

basic solution. Get more fit. If you're constantly cramping during competition or hard training,

then begin weight training, performing cardiovascular intervals, and subjecting your muscles to

higher degrees of stress. The second cause of cramping could be dehydration. The contraction of a muscle

is based on a delicate electrical balance within the

muscle itself. The movement of compounds like potassium, magnesium, sodium, and calcium in and out of the

muscle area is how electrical charges are maintained within your muscles. And each of these electrical

compounds move in a body fluid that's primarily comprised of water. But when the balances of

these compounds is not ideal or when the fluid in which they move is depleted, the muscles cannot

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