Cramps Anyone?

[Joe Hubbard]

Hi All

I was wondering if anybody here has suffered from severe muscle cramping after heavy training sessions? This is something that has been happening to me for years (sometimes it will attack both legs at once) usually after heavy ground sessions. Most commonly they happen when I am asleep. I have been to several doctors and talked to nutritionists, but still most seem to just give me the rest and recoup answer. Most recently I have developed wry-neck (cervicalgia), which feels like the world’s strongest man has your neck in a vice and won’t let go. I don’t know whether the leg cramping has anything to do with the wry-neck, but I am in deep need of specialist advice that I just can’t seem to get.

If any of you can help with alternative supplementation (right now I am in a Zombie-like-state with Valium & Ibruprofen), I would really appreciate it big time.

Kind regards

Joe

[AnthonyThompson]

Hi Joe

firstly let me just say its a pleasure to have the Uk,s leading combatives instructors on the tribe form .welcome to the tribe joe.

I been an avead reader of GM Hochheim many articals for ages.

havent had the pleasure of being able to train with you yet but I,ll makeing a point to get some training in with you at some point.

I too used to get sever cramping in my thighs and hamstring ether during the traing session or some time later inculding when sleeping :cry: this tenden to happen when i was holding a tight gurd or sturgling to pull on a cross armbar .

I manages to solve the prioblem by working on my strenghting my hips abductors and hamstrings .

I had neck pain for years of abuse through training warrior wellness has pretty much cleared it up now , dont know if is relates to your problem but Coach sonnon recently wrote an artica on neck pain which is in this months CST mag .

Anthony

[Joe Hubbard]

Hi Anthony

Thanks for the warm welcome and all the kind words. If you are ever down this way, please look me up.

I've been thinking about getting Warrior Wellness for some time now, so I'll probably order it this week. I do a lot of core strength exercises and am heavily into breathing exercises as well. Did you take any supplements to deal with the cramps in your legs?

Ciao

Joe

[AnthonyThompson]

Hi Joe

warrior wellness is well worth trying , I can now use ranges of motion I didnt know I had before .

I dont tend to take supplemention. Hopeful some of the other tiribe members could be of asistance there :? .

some of the bodyflow exercises great at dealing with lower body issues

Anthony

[Ryan Murdock]

Joe,

I'll leave it to the medical professionals on here to comment on your neck.

It sounds to me like Warrior Wellness would really help the cramping in your legs, especially if its caused by residual muscle tension. After a couple years of daily work with the program I rarely ever have any kind of post-workout soreness or cramping, and if I do get soreness I can usually resolve it in a day. Since you've already gone the medical route, its definitely worth a try. You might want to consider dropping other strength and conditioning work to a minimum and focusing on cleaning the slate for a cycle. I'm just leaving for the weekend, but if you do a search of "cleaning the slate" you'll find lots on here. Also an article by that name in the CST Mag archives.

All the best, and please keep us posted!

Ryan

Hi Joe,
First make sure your water consumption is adequate for your training as it helps flush out the lactic acid. Secondly, potassium and magnesium are essential minerals to prevent cramp, you can get these through fruit, such as bananas, or supplements.

Creatine phosphate supplements immediately prior to excercise can help some people, due to the creatine being burnt quickly by muscle during excercise.

Likewise proper breathing, loads of articles here by Coach Sonnon on that front.

This is the advice we would give patients.

I echo Anthonys welcome to you, but can i ask you pop over to the tribe welcome mat, and post a little bit about you, as its part of the rules of the forum.

If me or Natasha (GP) can help in any other way, let us know.

Andrew Usher

Joe,
Just some more thoughts, the neck pain sounds like it could be muscle spasms, have had a bought of that recently myself, although that was due to glandular infection.

Warrior Wellness will help tremendously with the range of motion with the neck, and every where else, but one thought that did come to us, was that perhaps you are overtraining, do you want to give an example of your training routine?

A.

[kcsportsdoc]

Hi Joe,

To help clarify things a bit, cervicalgia just means painl in the neck region. "Wry Neck" is the common name for a condition known as Torticollis. Torticollis refers to the combination of massive muscular spasm and multiple levels of joint fixation in the cervical vertebrae. It's known as "wry neck" because the head tends to be stuck forward, rotated to one side and tilted to one side. This position tends to make you look like someone just asked you a really tough question and you're giving one of those "Hey, how'm I supposed to know?" shrugs! Warrior Wellness' neck, shoulder and upper back mobility drills are amongs the exercises I prescribe for all my patients suffering with this condition.

How long have you been dealing with this issue? What have you been doing from a treatment perspective?

Hope that helps a bit.

Best,

[Joe Hubbard]

Hi Doc

Thanks for the clarification. This just happened to me on Friday morning. I had to be rushed to hospital via an ambulance because my neck was cramping so much it felt like it was in a vice-grip. I really haven’t experienced that kind of pain in a long time- kind of eye opening to the fact that we are all like time bombs just waiting to manifest some weird condition for no apparent reason.

The Doctor said it must have been caused by some form of whiplash, but although I still train hard, there has been no noticeable situation that could have led to this problem in the last few weeks. I read today on the Internet that it can appear after a viral or bacterial infection. Have you heard of this? Interestingly, I have just got over a bout of conjunctivitis. When I was admitted to the Emergency Room, they pumped me with Valium and Votorol as well as gas & air. They gave me a prescription of Valium and said take Ibuprofen on top of that. I have stopped taking the Valium- just too damn depressing and have been concentrating on breathing exercises and light stretching on the four quadrants of the clock. It is starting to ease up, but I am going to order Warrior Wellness tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it helps.

Andrew

Thanks for the reply. I heard you are brining Scott over in Oct. Unfortunately, it coincides with Hock’s next London Reality Ground Seminar with Jim McCann. Let’s make contact, so I can help you get Scott down to London in the future. No problem in helping you find venues, I am sure many in London would love to see Coach Sonnon here.

Best

Joe

Hi Doc

Thanks for the clarification. This just happened to me on Friday morning. I had to be rushed to hospital via an ambulance because my neck was cramping so much it felt like it was in a vice-grip. I really haven’t experienced that kind of pain in a long time- kind of eye opening to the fact that we are all like time bombs just waiting to manifest some weird condition for no apparent reason.

The Doctor said it must have been caused by some form of whiplash, but although I still train hard, there has been no noticeable situation that could have led to this problem in the last few weeks. I read today on the Internet that it can appear after a viral or bacterial infection. Have you heard of this? Interestingly, I have just got over a bout of conjunctivitis. When I was admitted to the Emergency Room, they pumped me with Valium and Votorol as well as gas & air. They gave me a prescription of Valium and said take Ibuprofen on top of that. I have stopped taking the Valium- just too damn depressing and have been concentrating on breathing exercises and light stretching on the four quadrants of the clock. It is starting to ease up, but I am going to order Warrior Wellness™ tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it helps.

Andrew

Thanks for the reply. I heard you are brining Scott over in Oct. Unfortunately, it coincides with Hock’s next London Reality Ground Seminar with Jim McCann. Let’s make contact, so I can help you get Scott down to London in the future. No problem in helping you find venues, I am sure many in London would love to see Coach Sonnon here.

Best

Joe

Hi Joe,
This is interesting, as a few months ago I had a bacterial infection, and my glands went up, and had some serious neck pain, couldn't move it, and similar to you ended up on valium for a few days. Fortunately for me, I am married to Natasha (GP as mentioned), and a short course of antibiotics cleared up the infection, and with Warrior Wellness I have seen great improvement.

If you have been unlucky enough to catch a viral infection then its just going to be a case of time, until it clears. Take it easy on neck exercises, and general stretching and it should go away. I can sympathise with the pain, thinking back on it makes me squirm.

I'm going to email you today via your website Joe.

Andrew.

[Joe Hubbard]

Well, after about five days my neck started to get back to normal. I was directed to Scott’s article about “Neck Stingers” and applied the movements that he suggested with great success.

I have started the beginner’s programme for Warrior Wellness and felt an overall difference straight away! Some of the stuff I have seen before, but not in the organised flow that Scott has delineated on the tape. I felt I got a bit of a jump-start with coordination issues because many of the large to small circular movements are present in our stick programme.

One interesting point- last October I suffered ligament injuries in both ankles. Along with the Doctor’s evaluation, it was sort of deduced that these injuries were brought on as an accumulative result of simulating foot stomping my opponent once he was grounded on either a hardwood or matted surface. I have been wearing ankle supports ever since. After doing the 4-corner balance drill for the first time, I have felt a difference in my ankles and have taken the supports off for everyday use (I still wear them for training). Thanks for that Scott!

All in all, a double thumbs up for Warrior Wellness!

Ciao

Joe

[Ryan Murdock]

Joe,

Congratulations, that's really great news!!! :D

Best wishes on your recovery, and please keep us posted!

Ryan

[Matt_OZ]

Hi Joe,

Great news on the recovery.

RE the foot stomping. We used to do a bit of this at Wing Chun and the use of a kick shield on the ground was certainly helpful in reducing the jarring of one's body. I know it may take a little mucking around to get the right position but perhaps you can lay a shield along side where you are doing drills (obviously not so good in sparring) and then you can still drop a sim stomp. I've also seen that one of the leading CQC (Applegate, Fairbairn, Nelson) guys over here uses car tyres with his guys to drill stomps and low kicks/shin scrapes (the guys name is Geoff Todd). Could be worth consideration.

Cheers mate, congrats on the progress,
Matt :D