# muscle cramps

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muscle-cramps/249737>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 10, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muscle-cramps/249737 "2004-06-10T23:29:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muscle-cramps/249737/1 "2004-06-10T23:29:27Z")

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Often when I exercise, particularly when I’m doing a stretch such as trying to touch my toes in a sitting position, I experience a cramp in one particular spot on the left side of my stomach. I’m not particularly knowledgable of anatomy, but I think it’s one of my abdominal muscles on the left side. The cramp goes away after a few seconds if I lean back so as to stretch out my stomach muscles. This has been going on for years, always in the exact same place, and I virtually never experience any other cramps. My question is, what could be causing this? Is it just that I have one ab that’s less flexible than my other muscles? Or could it be related to the way I’m stretching? Is there anything I can do about it?

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**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muscle-cramps/249737/2 "2004-06-10T23:41:21Z")

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I had leg cramps and my doctor prescribed Tonic Water because it contains just the right amount of Quinine that helps relieve the leg cramps.

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**Author:** ![LuckySevens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@LuckySevens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LuckySevens)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muscle-cramps/249737/3 "2004-06-11T05:48:00Z")

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not enough salt in your muscles

Increase your potasium uptake, and see if that works.

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**Author:** ![Pucette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/278dde/32.png) [@Pucette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pucette)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muscle-cramps/249737/4 "2004-06-11T14:37:50Z")

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> [@LuckySevens](#):
>
> not enough salt in your muscles
> 
> Increase your potasium uptake, and see if that works.

Bananas are a good source for that. I used to get really bad ones in my toes after I quit ballet, and the bananas helped.