Comments on: Exercise or medicine??

By: yyy1

yyy1 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:12:17 +0000

I’ve tried both. I get severe leg cramps after a night of dancing. They get so bad, I can’t stand up. The cramps are up and down my legs. Leg Cramps pills work almost immediately. Exercise takes a lot longer and doesn’t make the leg cramps go away totally. There is still residual soreness. The pills make the pain go totally away. I’m all for the pills.

By: kippiw

kippiw — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:20:17 +0000

I would suggest both medicine and excersize. For the immediate relief of cramps, a muscle relaxant (ibuprofen) would relieve the pain, as would a hot bath or hot pad. But for long term relief of cramping I would suggest a series of stretching excerizes, yoga or calinethic (this is a book which incorporates both yoga and ballet - title is calinetics) - which would elongate the muscles and keep them from becoming tight and cramped.
Additionally I would make sure you are drinking enough water. I have found through experience that when I get cramping, its generally because I am a little dehydrated.

By: marmor653

marmor653 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:16:14 +0000

I have found exercise by doing stretching including rubbing the calf muscle works well to help with leg cramps, also calcium and magnesium supplement helps with reducing leg cramps.

By: eireprincess3

eireprincess3 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:39:00 +0000

Stretching before and AFTER exercising! Over-medicating builds up a tolerance so the medication won’t work as well later on…maybe when you really need it.

By: BastilaShan

BastilaShan — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:36:36 +0000

It depends really on if you want to treat the symptom or treat the underlying cause. The symptom is pain, and that pain can be dulled with the application of pain medication, aleve, aspirin, etc.

If you want to treat the underlying problem though, the source of the pain, you need to do more than dull it with medicine. Exercise, stretching and massage therapy will help far more in the long run in dealing with the cause.

So, to me the logical solution is, exercise and stretching if possible, but in a “quick-fix” situation go with medication.

By: megpresto

megpresto — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:33:29 +0000

Tylenol or any pain medication is a quick fix, but I’ve always found that rubbing the area and stretching is much more helpful. I used to get leg cramps much more frequently as a child, and now that I’m in my 20s, it doesn’t happen as often. I stretch before I go to bed and it really helps.

By: jojoba

jojoba — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:16:04 +0000

Gentle stretching and exercise — emphasis on the “gentle” — will help fix the problem causing the pain. Medication will help the pain, period. I’d go with exercise, personally.

By: w

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:36:39 +0000

Exercises are better than medicine