Aerobic exercise utilizes your muscles repeatedly for a few minutes or longer. If you perform these exercises during hot weather or without drinking a sufficient amount of liquids, you can lose significant amounts of calcium or other minerals. Loss of these minerals can lead to the development of painful, involuntary contractions of your muscle tissue called a cramp.
Calcium and Your Muscles
Every voluntary muscle in your body relies on ionized, or electrically-charged, calcium for its normal function, according to Medline Plus. When your muscles receive a nerve signal that tells them to contract, they open special calcium channels in their cell membranes and let a small amount of calcium pass into the interior of each cell. In turn, this calcium binds with a protein called troponin-c and triggers a larger release of calcium already stored inside your muscles. The end result of this process is a muscle contraction.
Dehydration and Cramping
Along with electrically-charged minerals such as potassium and magnesium, electrically-charged calcium belongs to a class of substances called electrolytes. In addition to helping you control your muscle contractions, electrolytes help regulate your body's water content and blood acidity, or pH. If you sweat too much or don't drink enough fluids when you exercise, you can lose too much body fluid, as well as calcium and other electrolytes, and become dehydrated. In turn, dehydration and electrolyte depletion significantly increase your chances of developing a muscle cramp.
Aerobic Exercise
You can develop a muscle cramp during almost any type of exercise, including aerobic exercises such as swimming and tennis. Marathon runners, triathletes and other athletes who perform aerobic activities for extended periods of time are particularly susceptible to muscle cramp development. People in their mid-40s or older, who typically have lost some of their muscle tissue and muscle vitality, are also vulnerable to muscle cramps during aerobics and other forms of exercise.
Considerations
You can potentially relieve dehydration-related cramping by drinking water or sports drinks that contain calcium and other electrolyte minerals. Endurance athletes typically run the highest risk for muscle cramps during preseason training, when their bodies haven't had time to adjust to the rigors of their activities. In these cases, cramps commonly occur at the end of prolonged bouts of exercise, or several hours after an exercise session ends. Additional exercise-related factors in muscle cramping include overexertion during your routine, use of certain medications and the presence of excess body fat. Consult your doctor for more information of cramping, calcium and aerobic exercise.
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