The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › General Hot Yoga Discussion › Diet, Clothing, Hydration and Drinking › Cramping
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Hi! My first time here…love this site! I’ve been doing Bikram yoga for 5 years now. I’ve been teaching now for 4 years. About a year ago, I started cramping BAD! My whole body was cramping for over an hour; I could not get my body under control. I ended up at the hospital, seriously dehydrated. I fight cramping continuously. Recently, I’ve been cramping very bad again. I can’t seem to get my body balanced. I’m in the hot room 2/3 times a day sometimes. I take EmergenC daily, S-caps (sodium), magnesium, calcium, C, B complex, B12. I drink plenty of water. HELP!
Hi Kim
Wow you are in the room a lot! But that’s not EVERY day is it?
Can you please tell me more about what you eat?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Thank you for your quick response! No, I’m not in the room Every day that often. I teach 7-8 classes per week; take 3-5 (5 when I’m feeling good!) I eat red meat maybe once a week or so; I love fish and shrimp. I have a banana or smoothie (banana, strawberries & blueberries) for breakfast. I eat salad about every day, love most veggies. I eat dairy. I stay with a low carb diet; I’m very carb sensitive (O neg blood). I take Vit C, Vit B12, B Complex, Multi, Magnesium, Vit E and drink lots of water. I know one of my downfalls is soda…caffeine! I try to stay away from that, but do not always succeed! I recently bought freeze dried greens and organic juices that seems to give me energy.
Hi Kim
Are you still cramping? You know, I would love to know WHERE you are cramping too! There could be something in the location of your cramps that we can ‘unpack’.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Gabrielle,
The cramping seems to be under control. I’m not in the hot room more than twice a day, and I practice now every other day. I thought it was practicing every day that would cause the cramping, but last week I took 9am, taught 430/630pm. The next day I taught 9am and took the noon. By Balancing Stick I was cramping. I cramp mostly in the feet, calves, hips and hands. I’ve been taking green supplements for two weeks now, maybe that too has been helping?!
Namaste,
KimHi Kim
Your situation is odd, as you know! 😉 Normally cramping happens repeatedly with some kind of repeated movement. For example when someone points their toes they could get a calf cramp. Is there any pattern at all to your cramping?
It’s great you are finding some improvement!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Kim, I just thought I’d add my 2 cents (and worth every penny I’m sure!:-P). Cramping can be a sign of both dehydration, and paradoxically, hyponatremia as well.
You mention you are drinking plenty of water, but I wonder if it’s really enough? You are in the hot room quite a lot, and even though you may not be practicing, you are still sweating a lot when you teach. Sometimes people think they are drinking a lot, but in reality they aren’t getting enough water for what their body needs. General recommendations are to divide your body weight (in pounds) and drink half of that in fluid ounces. So if you weight 120 pounds, drink 60 fl. oz. You need to drink even more if you are doing hot yoga, teaching, etc.
An easy way to find out if you are dehydrated is to weight yourself without clothes before a class, then again afterward. You should be the same weight, if not, you have lost too much fluid and need to replace it.
Hyponatremia, (low blood sodium) on the other hand, can also cause cramping. This is caused by drinking too much water without replacing electrolytes An easy way to help prevent this is to add some unprocessed sea salt or Himalayan rock salt to all your water. This will particularly help if you are drinking purified water which has been stripped of all its minerals
I hope that helps!
Thank you Nola
That’s very valuable information.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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