There is this widespread notion that athletes who suffer from cramp are either not in optimum shape or are poorly prepared. Conversely, there is a belief that the fittest of athletes are pretty much immune to cramping. Their bodies, after all, are trained and optimised to stay at peak levels of fitness for sustained periods. And yet, even the fittest of the fit cramp up sometimes.
In the early stages of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, for instance, a handful of England players struggled with cramp during the first match against Italy. Manager Roy Hodgson and his staff assessed the matter and believed it was due to dehydration. Yet some experts suggest that this isn’t the case.
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The scientific world is actually divided on what causes cramp. This is especially true for football players, whose level of fitness is quite remarkable, as we explained before in ‘Football Fitness vs. Gym Fitness’. The training footballers go through is geared towards playing physically taxing matches that last well over an hour, yet some still suffer from cramp.
One factor to consider is that those with low levels of fitness are generally at risk of suffering from cramp, and it is a fair enough conjecture. But again, we are talking now about elite athletes, who are the fittest of the fit. With poor fitness out of the equation, let’s look at some other possible theories on why even world-class athletes cramp up, too.
Dehydration
Dehydration adversely affects the body in various ways, and it is believed that cramp is just one of the many side effects of losing too much body fluid.
A Shortage of Salt
In an interview with FourFourTwo about cramp, Southampton director of performance Mo Gimpel reckons that a shortage of salt, is a possible culprit that causes elite level footballers to cramp up during games. He says that the body removes quite a lot of salt when it perspires, and as those salt levels decline, the possibility of cramp increases.
Constriction
Another theory Gimpel forwarded is that constriction may play a part in a player cramping up. In other words, tightly tied up boots or extremely tight socks, shin pads, or compression garments have the potential to cause cramp. But again, Gimpel emphasised that there is so far no clear evidence pointing to a singular cause of cramp.
Mineral Depletion
Another hypothesis as to the cause of cramp is too little potassium, calcium, or magnesium in an athlete’s diet. Of course, this conjecture seems to make little sense in the context of elite athletes, whose nutrition is always strictly monitored by some of the world’s finest nutritionists.
Bottom line is, no one really knows for sure why elite athletes — or everyone else for that matter — suffer from cramp. The reality then is that even the world’s fittest players can be at the mercy of cramp at any given time. The great Roberto Baggio of Italy knows this only too well, as he valiantly battled through severe leg cramp in the final of the 1994 World Cup against Brazil. It was a courageous effort that ultimately went for naught as Baggio’s crucial penalty kick in the climactic penalty shootout soared high above the crossbar, handing Brazil their fourth World Cup title. Brazil, of course, won it all again in 2002, giving them five World Cups in all — the most of any nation, according to Coral’s ‘World Cup Guide’. Reigning champions Germany have won four World Cups, but have just been dumped from the tournament without looking like they were going to equal Brazil’s record this year in Russia. Italy, meanwhile, also have four World Cups, though it could have been five had Baggio not suffered from cramp during that fateful final 24-years-ago.
Let’s just hope then that cramp won’t be an issue in this year’s World Cup.
Submitted by XtremeEliteFitness18
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