Cramps, soreness and mobility: what helps

01The short answer

02Cramp or soreness?

• A cramp comes on suddenly: the muscle tightens and causes pain that can make it hard to move. It lasts from a few seconds to 10 minutes, and the muscle may stay tender for up to 24 hours afterward (NHS).
• Muscle soreness comes later, after exercise your muscles are not used to. Anyone can get it, even people who have been exercising for years, and it lasts a few days, usually 3 to 5. It follows exercise in which the muscle lengthens while producing force, known as eccentric action (American College of Sports Medicine).

03Cramps: what the NHS advises

During a cramp, stretching and massaging the muscle may ease the pain; standing up and putting your weight on the affected leg may also help.

To prevent them, the NHS suggests a regular calf stretch, which may reduce cramps without always stopping them: facing a wall, arms stretched out so your hands just touch it, feet flat, stand up straight; lean forward, pressing your hands against the wall until you feel your calf stretch, hold for 2 or 3 seconds, then stand up straight again. Repeat the stretch for 5 minutes, 3 times a day, with the last session just before bed.

Among possible causes, the NHS lists aging, putting too much strain on muscles during exercise, which can be worse in hot or humid weather, late pregnancy, certain medicines and dehydration; sometimes the cause is unknown. See a doctor if cramps are disturbing your sleep, if you also have numbness or swelling in your legs, or if a cramp lasts longer than 10 minutes.

04Muscle soreness: progress slowly

According to the American College of Sports Medicine brochure, ice, massage or a pain reliever may ease the pain, but there is little evidence that these treatments speed up recovery: less pain does not mean the muscle has recovered. One of the best ways to reduce the severity of soreness is to progress slowly in a new program. If it makes activity difficult or too painful, it is better to hold off for a few days and return as the symptoms ease. See a doctor if the pain becomes debilitating, if an arm or leg swells a lot, or if your urine turns dark.

05Foam rolling: a small extra

A meta-analysis published in 2019 in Frontiers in Physiology pooled the studies on foam rolling. Before exercise, it slightly improves sprint performance and flexibility; after, it slightly reduces perceived muscle pain. The authors find these effects “rather minor and partly negligible”, and see foam rolling more as a warm-up than as a recovery tool.

06CIRCL Mobility™, at the dojo

CIRCL Mobility™ is a mobility class launched by Zumba®: flexibility, breathing and joint movement, set to music, open to all levels. Introduced in 2023, the program works the large and small joints to improve range of motion, to music produced for it. It was created by Ai Lee Syarief, a karate world champion, and Joy Prouty. Joanie Roussy is a certified CIRCL Mobility™ instructor and teaches it at the dojo; to find out which days, ask at the dojo.

For cardio and strength, Joanie's women's classes run at noon on weekdays: Strong Nation™, cardio and strength set to music, with no equipment; Bootcamp, from station to station, with and without equipment; Zumba®. Joanie also offers private, personalized 60-minute training sessions on request. Adult karate, mixed and open from age 14, runs in the evening.

07After a run along the river

Do you run the riverside path (piste des Berges) in Verdun, or head to the urban beach behind the Verdun Auditorium? An outing longer than usual can leave you sore the next day: lengthen your outings gradually, from one week to the next. To reach the dojo at 550 chemin du Golf, suite 010, on Nuns' Island, see getting to the dojo; the schedule gives the class days.

Sources

1. NHS, “Leg cramps” — www.nhs.uk/conditions/leg-cramps
2. American College of Sports Medicine, “Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness” brochure (Braun and Sforzo, 2011) — www.hsph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/143/2016/10/9_2015Delayed-Onset-Muscle-Soreness-doms.pdf
3. Wiewelhove et al., meta-analysis on foam rolling, Frontiers in Physiology (2019) — doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.00376
4. Zumba, CIRCL Mobility™ launch release (2023) — www.americanspa.com/press-releases/zumba-launches-first-its-kind-circl-mobilitytm-program

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