Spasm

Any muscle in the body can go into spasm: involuntary and painful contraction of a muscle. It is generally based on an “engineering defect” in humans and basically all animals: when our muscles are working, they need more oxygen, glucose, proteins hormones and just about everything, and since their metabolism is higher, need to dispose of more of the toxic products of metabolism, such as lactic acid. But when the muscles are contracting, the capillaries are constricted, and less nutrients get in to them, and the lactic acid cannot get floated out. The lactic acid is irritating and stimulates the muscles to get still tighter, worsening the problem, which means more of it is produced, and even less gets out. This vicious cycle is what makes spasm so painful. The basic solution is simple: stretch the muscle that is in spasm: if it’s in the back of the calf, draw the foot up; if it’s in the abdomen, stretch backwards. If it’s in the lower back, do forward folds. In general, whatever that muscle usually does…do the reverse to stretch it. If the spasm returns, do it again, only for longer. This simple strategy almost always works. If it is in the lower back, it is usually the quadratus lumborum. See the poses below.