Causes of calf muscle cramps

Calf muscle cramps are quite common in our daily life. For example, leg cramps are calf muscle cramps. Many people may experience such symptoms when they are sleeping or exercising without sufficient warm-up. There are many causes of calf muscle cramps, including cold stimulation, excessive sweating, excessive fatigue, and calcium deficiency, etc.

Causes of calf muscle cramps

High fever, epilepsy, tetanus, rabies, calcium deficiency, etc. can all cause cramps, which are systemic. There are also local ones such as gastrocnemius (commonly known as calf) cramps, which are often caused by rapid exercise, work fatigue, or severe twisting of the tibia, and often occur when lying down or sleeping.

1. Cold stimulation

Exercising in a cold environment in winter without sufficient warm-up, or swimming in low water temperatures in summer can easily cause leg cramps. If you don’t cover yourself with a blanket when you sleep at night, your calf muscles will be stimulated by the cold and will cramp so much that you will wake up in pain.

2. Muscles contract too quickly and continuously

During strenuous exercise, the whole body is in a state of tension and the leg muscles contract too quickly. If the relaxation time is too short, the local metabolic product lactic acid will increase, and muscle contraction and relaxation will be difficult to coordinate, thus causing calf muscle cramps.

3. Excessive sweating

If you exercise for a long time, in large amounts, and sweat a lot without replenishing salt in time, you will lose a large amount of fluid and electrolytes in the body and accumulate metabolic waste. Poor local blood circulation in muscles can also lead to cramps.

4. Excessive fatigue

The calf muscles are most susceptible to fatigue when traveling long distances, climbing mountains, or climbing heights. Because every time you climb up, one foot supports the weight of the whole body. The strength required for the muscles of this leg to lift the foot will be six times the body weight of the person. When it is fatigued to a certain extent, cramps will occur.

5. Calcium deficiency

Calcium ions play an important role in muscle contraction. When the calcium ion concentration in the blood is too low, muscles become easily excited and cramp. Teenagers grow and develop rapidly and are easily deficient in calcium, which is why they often suffer from leg cramps.