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I was experiencing these really strange bouts of muscle cramps/tightness through my pectorals. Sometimes I felt it right at the sternum, sometimes up near the pec-delt tie-in. For awhile I started asking myself "are these chest pains...is something wrong". My calves were always tight too but at the time I thought it was due to the higher intensity cardio I was doing and completely unrelated.
It got bad enough that I got fed-up/scared and went to the doctor over it. Got a whack of blood work, an ECG too to make sure my ticker was ok. Well, good news: ticker is perfect, and I found out what was causing the cramping and tightness:
LOW MAGNESIUM
I take a daily multi and eat pretty darned well, but turns out that when you have a high calcium and/or high protein intake (as most of us downing tons of meat and shakes do), it can mess with your magnesium levels, and that causes muscle tightness and cramping. I started taking two 150mg caps of magnesium a day, one at breakfast and one at dinner, and the problem was gone within two days.
If this saves even one person the stress I was going through for about a four-week period, then the time it took to type this post was worth it. It's funny how too much of one nutrient can mess with another...it's a real balancing act.
It got bad enough that I got fed-up/scared and went to the doctor over it. Got a whack of blood work, an ECG too to make sure my ticker was ok. Well, good news: ticker is perfect, and I found out what was causing the cramping and tightness:
LOW MAGNESIUM
I take a daily multi and eat pretty darned well, but turns out that when you have a high calcium and/or high protein intake (as most of us downing tons of meat and shakes do), it can mess with your magnesium levels, and that causes muscle tightness and cramping. I started taking two 150mg caps of magnesium a day, one at breakfast and one at dinner, and the problem was gone within two days.
If this saves even one person the stress I was going through for about a four-week period, then the time it took to type this post was worth it. It's funny how too much of one nutrient can mess with another...it's a real balancing act.
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