Supplement Muscle Building

Muscle Spasms Spasms may affect many different types of muscles in the body, leading to many different symptoms and presentations. Spasms of skeletal muscles are most common and are often due to dehydration and electrolyte abnormalities. The spasm occurs abruptly, is painful, and is usually short lived.

In medicine, a spasm is a sudden, involuntary contraction of a muscle, a group of muscles, or a hollow organ such as a heart, or a similarly sudden contraction of an orifice. It most commonly refers to a muscle cramp which is often accompanied by a sudden burst of pain, but is usually harmless and ceases after a few minutes.

Muscle spasm results from inflammation that occurs when a muscle is overstretched or torn. It begins as a muscle strain, which doesn't sound like a serious injury, but it can cause severe low back pain. Many people go to the emergency room each year because of a muscle strain.

Muscle pain and spasms are spontaneous muscle contractions. Normal voluntary muscle contraction begins when electrical signals are sent from the brain through the spinal cord along nerve cells called motor neurons. These include both the upper motor neurons within the brain and the lower motor neurons within the spinal cord and leading out to the muscle.