How to prevent muscle cramps

The muscle spasms or cramps occur when a muscle contracts or involuntarily, which becomes rigid causing pain and discomfort. Often arise at night during sleep or during and after physical exercise. Its causes can be several, from muscle fatigue, lack of minerals and vitamins in the diet to bad postures. Besides knowing treat them properly, it is important to know some tips that can help prevent muscle cramps.

Leading a sedentary life and not doing any physical activity is one of the main causes for the occurrence of muscle cramps. In fact, people who do not exercise in your daily routine are prone to muscle spasms more frequently. That is why sport or follow a regular routine of exercise will help you prevent and also enjoy better health at all times.

Yet it is also true that muscle cramps occur regularly during or after physical exercise, which may be due to prolonged exercise or muscle overload. In this sense, there are certain practices that we can take to prevent muscle cramps in training sessions:

• Prepare the muscles of our body doing a good warming before starting the exercise, and perform stretching exercises at the end, will help prevent muscle cramps or spasms.
• Increase our exercise intensity progressively and gradually. It is also essential not to exercise the body to reach a state of maximum exhaustion. 
• Avoid physical activity when temperatures are extremely high or low.

Another of the most common causes of muscle cramps is the loss of fluids and minerals from the body. Therefore, it is essential to stay well hydrated throughout the day. Do not forget to consume the recommended daily amount of water (2 liters) and, especially, hydrated with plenty of water and sports drinks to make sport and exercise.

Watch your diet is also a key factor in preventing muscle cramps, as its recurrent appearance may be due to a lack of minerals such as potassium, magnesium or sodium in the diet. These minerals are essential to keep our muscles in good shape and regulate the distribution of water in the body.

Try to include in your daily diet foods rich in potassium such as bananas, legumes, green leafy vegetables and nuts, and rich in magnesium such as brown rice, soybeans, dry beans, wheat bran or oat, sunflower seeds, etc. It is also good to consume foods high in vitamins C, D and E.

At bedtime, try not to take bad posture. Remain long with poor posture may involve muscle contractions that lead to the occurrence of nocturnal muscle cramps. This condition also occurs in women who abuse the use of high heels in their day to day.

Finally, a good way to prevent muscle cramps or spasms is by performing massages muscle in those areas of the body in which we usually have. The result will be excellent if we go to a good therapist, but we can also try to make them ourselves if possible.

If we follow the above procedures we will be prevent muscle cramps or spasms problems from our daily life and enjoy a healthy life.

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Foods for Healthy and Strong Bones

Having healthy and strong bones is essential at every stage of our life and to achieve this and prevent, to the extent possible, diseases such as osteoporosis, it is important to take care of food and include two essential nutrients, calcium and Vitamin D. Both help to keep the bones in optimum condition and ensure good growth. If you want to know what ingredients you can find, in this article we suggest you through a selection of the best foods for healthy and strong bones.

The milk and other dairy products like yogurt and cheese are, as we know, one of the main sources of calcium and are essential to healthy and strong bones. Are preferred low-fat dairy products, they are healthier and offer the same or greater calcium intake than the rest. It's recommended daily consumption of 3-4 servings of dairy products, so you can complement or supplement the milk with yogurt and a few ounces of cheese. A highly recommended product today, for lactose intolerant, is soy milk, although it does not contain much calcium, is very rich in vitamin D, essential for the body to absorb calcium and growth bones.

Among the blue fish, find some like salmon, sardines and tuna are excellent for strengthening bones. Its rich content of vitamin D and omega 3 makes it especially good for increasing bone mass, since they increase the absorption of calcium in our body. They are very tasty and healthy food, so do not hesitate to include them in your diet, you can take them in different ways, either grilled, marinated or with salad, pasta, etc.

Another food that helps maintains strong bones are the spinach. In fact, this vegetable dish contributes approximately 25% of the recommended amount of calcium, and also allows us to benefit from their content rich in fiber, iron and vitamin A. Similarly, other vegetables that are good for the care of our bones are broccoli, chard, turnip and cabbage.

Nuts such as hazelnuts and almonds are also a rich source of calcium. Besides being great for the strength of our bones, provide an important contribution of vitamin E, iron and protein to our body, so take them without overdoing it a good choice for our health.

The egg yolk contains enough amount of vitamin D and, being one of the more easily incorporate foods in our diet, turns out to be an ingredient that we can use to promote bone density and strengthen bones.

Other ingredients that can be taken daily and that will help us to have healthy and stronger bones are cereals such as oats and wheat. They are ideal to take with milk, yogurt or as a component of salads or other dishes.

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