This entry was posted on Mar 17 2010 by admin

Preventing and Dealing with Muscle Cramps While Underwater

Maximize your enjoyment underwater by preventing muscle cramps

Learn more in order to enjoy more

Muscle cramping is a sudden, involuntary, spasmodic muscular contraction that causes severe pain which oftenly occurs in the legs or shoulders as a result of chills or muscle strains. Aside from the physical distraction and discomfort, muscle cramps could also cause underwater anxiety, which could lead to further problems. And you know you wouldn’t want to have problems underwater. Nevertheless, there are still several things that could be done if you ever experience cramping underwater.

The initial thing to be done once you get a cramp underwater, of course, is to alert your dive buddy about the situation. In that way, he/she could help you mobilize underwater.
Establish neutral buoyancy by breathing correctly. Neutral buoyancy would allow you to float steadily and stretch your muscles. Neutral buoyancy is always to be practiced in all scuba diving simulation exercises.
It is recommended to stretch and massage the cramped muscle to ease the pain. If you ever experience cramping in your calf muscle, it would be best to pull the tip of your fin and pull it towards you to stretch the calf muscle. Or you could just have your dive buddy do it for you.
Getting enough potassium in your diet would prevent your muscles from cramping. Bananas are a very good source of potassium, with 1 banana containing 451 mg of it. It would be good and healthy to include bananas during meals before scuba diving.