Why do I have spasms and what do I do about them?
There are many reasons you might have spasms and the hard, painful clenching of contracted muscle can hurt enough to wake you up in pain. What you do is not the same for everyone
Overuse or overtraining can cause your body to go into spasm, especially if a nerve is involved. This serves two purposes: it gives you temporary if somewhat distorted support and gets you to stop what you are doing. Use an analgesic that reduces pain and moves blood like aspirin or Dr. Christopher’s Antispasmodic formula or a Chinese martial arts dit dat jiao trauma formula.
A dit dat jiao is a liniment or topical tincture made up of herbs that increase circulation (including microcirculation of the capillaries), release the muscle layer and relieve pain. If there is a lot of redness and swelling a cooling effect can be added with mint or menthol the first day since this relieves inflammation without the bad effects of ice.
There has been controversy about using ice when a spasm first starts. Don’t. In Chinese medicine ice has always been proscribed because it drives the pain in deeper while giving surface relief. Blood can congeal (clot) deep inside, blocking the circulation necessary to nourish the tissue, so it takes longer to heal the spasm. Heat both increases circulation and relaxes the spasm. Western medicine has finally caught up with Chinese medicine, although some trainers and doctors have [...]
