ESCAPE MUSCLE CRAMP HELL

IT’S AN ATHLETE’S worst moment: a hammy seizes like an old engine down the homestretch to Olympic glory or in the middle of your pick-up game. Suddenly, instead of chasing gold or bragging rights, you’re crumpled on the ground praying for deliverance. And it’s not uncommon: research reveals exercise-associated muscle cramps affect up to 70 per cent of endurance runners and cyclists. Who hasn’t experienced a cramp at some point while exercising hard?

You’d think science would have discovered a cure. After all, researchers have been studying cramps in industrial labourers ever since the early 1900s. In 1932, researchers from Harvard’s “fatigue laboratory” travelled to the construction site of the Hoover Dam to take samples from workers who developed cramps in the heat.