Leg pain following intense cramp (3 days later)

[street3r]

1. When did the pain begin?
3 days ago

2. What were you doing at the time? Or did the pain come on gradually over time?
I had 2 leg cramps (one in each leg) come on very suddenly during the night, and have been sore/stiff ever since.

3. Where, anatomically, is the pain?
Calves, back of the knee, lower back side of my thights/glutes. When stretching, I have some extra tightness/soreness in my lower back.

4. What does the pain feel like? Sharp? Dull? Aching? Stabbing? Shooting?
Dull, aching.

5. Is the pain constant, or intermittent, or only on certain motions?
Constant.

6. What motions make your pain worse?
Any stretching involving leg extension seems to make the pain slightly worse.

7. What, if anything, makes your pain better?
Ibuprofin (small dose, 1 pill every 4-6 hours).

8. Does your pain radiate to any other part of your body?
No.

9. What things could you do before, that you cannot do now because of your injury?
Be happy/healthy/successful in life? j/k I am not limited in ability (walking, stairs, etc.) but have not been back to the gym since this began.

10. What is your main concern regarding the pain and its consequences?
Concern about the lingering pain. Also, I'm in the middle of week 44 of NROL -- I'm too far in to quit now!

11. Have you ever injured that part of your body before? If so, how?
No.

12. Is your pain getting worse over time? And if so, how much worse over what time period?
Not getting worse, but seems to be surprisingly stable; not getting better over the past three days as I would have expected.

Note: As I mentioned above, I am in the middle of my first NROL workout cycle (almost done, too!). I'm not sure if this could be related, but it seems plausible. I am doing the Fat Loss II workouts and had taken a few days off while on vacation. While away, I realized (from this forum) that I needed to be doing 12 reps per leg (instead of 12 total) for the Bulgarian Split Squat w/ Overhead press. I dropped the amount of weight I was using in order to accommodate these additional reps. The workout was intense, but I felt no pain throughout the day (approx. 18 hours) until the night cramps happened. I've experienced moderate (4.5 on a scale of 10) pain in my legs since the cramps (as mentioned above).

*Note #2: I do eat a pretty healthy amount of bananas, drink LOTS of water throughout the day, and use a pre-workout drink with lots of electrolytes. Just to answer that question.


Thanks in advance for your help and advice!

[UConnJulie]

You can get DOMS from muscle cramps ... sounds like you need to stretch ... calves, hamstrings, glutes/piriformis, quads.

[street3r]

Thanks, that seems like what it was. I was stretching a lot, but it didn't go away until day 4. Thanks for the advice!