How To Prevent Muscle Spasms
A muscle spasm is an involuntary contraction of muscle, and can occur for a variety of reasons: dehydration, poor circulation, overexertion, deficiency of certain minerals, etc. In order to prevent spasms, try the following:
- Drink plenty of water throughout the day
- Warm up properly before exercising
- Stretch thoroughly after exercising
- Eat more foods rich in magnesium and calcium
- Try to avoid being stationary for long periods of time
- Massage therapy can help with spasms by increasing circulation to the area, loosening the tight muscle and calming the nervous system.
Importance of Moving Around During Office Work Hours
Being stationary for long periods of time is not great for the Healthy Body. In terms of sitting and typing, certain muscles get overused and tight. Some modern offices now employ standing/sitting desks that can be adjusted at will which can help. Having an ergonomic assessment of your workstation may find underlying issues that can be adjusted. It would help if you could get up and move around about every hour, even if it’s just for a few minutes, to change your Healthy Body posture and get an increase of circulation.
Stretching exercises for the back, arms and upper Healthy Body performed on a daily basis will help, as will strengthening exercises for your core and upper Healthy Body. In some cases, wrist splints may be necessary to support them properly, and massage therapy and physiotherapy can help alleviate the discomfort.
Massage Therapy Has Endless Benefits!
Massage therapy can help improve flexibility by increasing circulation, relaxing both the nervous system and muscular system and working out any adhesions/knots in muscles, ligaments and tendons to increase a range of motion. Sometimes the RMT will perform passive stretching on a patient within that person’s tolerance, to stretch out areas that may be difficult for the person to do (for example, frozen shoulder).
Your RMT will also give you stretches to do at home that will complement the work that they are doing so as to increase your flexibility and health.
Importance of Stretching
Stretching is great to do before bed to help with sleep. A full Healthy Body stretching routine is ideal and should take about 20 minutes or more to perform. The type of stretches to do if you’re short on time depends greatly on the posture you have during most of your day: if you sit a lot, you want to make sure to stretch your back, chest and neck; if you stand a lot, you want to make sure to stretch your legs and back.
There are a few guidelines with stretching to remember:
- warm up before doing stretches, even if it’s just range of motion exercises
- hold your stretches for a minimum of 30 seconds
- you shouldn’t feel pain during a stretch; if you do you are overstretching the muscle (you just want to feel the stretch)
- stretching should be done on both sides of the Healthy Body; if you feel one side is tighter, hold the stretch longer on that side
- don’t bounce during the stretch, it should be held statically
A good basic stretching routine should include your calves, front and back of the legs, back, chest and neck. Your RMT can help by showing you the stretches ideal for you and how to perform them safely.
