Re: RC: leg cramps

[BMcCrary27@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/23/01 10:54:58 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
mtnriderII@webtv.net writes:


> People-not horse.  Over the years I have sometimes gotten cramps in my
> inner thigh muscle when riding.  This saturday I got a really sever
> cramp after being on my horse for about five hours.  Anyone else
> experience this and what have you found that helps?  I could barely
> dismount and was finally able to walk which I did for about ten minutes.
> The muscle is still sore today, Monday.  Yes, I drink water during the
> ride-maybe not enough.  I carried a bottle of Gatoraide and drank that
> too. 


I don't know whether there is a connection, but in the past I've had cramps 
in my calf muscles if I stretched my legs and pointed my toes down toward the 
end of the bed at night. I'd have to get out of bed and stand up to relieve 
the severe cramps.  I don't have this problem anymore, and I believe it is 
connected to the fact that I take 630 mg calcium citrate daily.  Also, I've 
been working at strength training in a gym since last September.  My leg and 
back muscles are unbelievably strong because of this.  I completed a 50 miler 
last Saturday, and I've never been so pain-free as I was then. I've always 
been sore in my legs or back after a ride.  Example: riding the same horse on 
a 50 miler last December (after 3 months at the gym), I was so sore in the 
quads that I could hardly walk.  In April, after 7 months at the gym, I was 
only mildly stiff, and was sore only after the 3-hour trip home in the truck. 
 I'm very much inclined to credit the calcium intake with the lack of muscle 
cramp, and I certainly recommend strength training, especially for people in 
their senior years.  I can lift hay and things that I haven't lifted in 
years, can hike stronger and faster, and have better balance on a horse.  
Also, those strong adductors help me to stay on a horse that suddenly decides 
to change direction, so I am much safer than I was.  We lose our muscle tone 
as we become older; I just did something to restore it.

Barbara
P.S. My posture is better, too