Muscle Cramps while Swimming
Everyone has experienced a cramp some time in thier athletic career. These links will help answer the questions what causes them, how to get rid of them, and how to prevent them.
A cramp is an involuntary and forcibly contracted muscle that does not relax. Cramps can affect any muscle under your voluntary control (skeletal muscle). Muscles that span two joints are most prone to cramping. Cramps can involve part or all of a muscle, or several muscles in a group.
That sharp twinge of pain just below the rib cage on the right or left side. The infamous side stitch is believed to be a spasm or cramp in the diaphragm muscle.
Muscle cramps can occur at the most inopportune moments, such as playing tennis, golf, bowling, swimming, and exercising. Muscle cramps also occur while sitting, walking or even when we are asleep. The most inconspicuous movement can suddenly precipitate
Perhaps more good swimmers have been drowned by cramp than by anything else, and only those who have suffered from it can conceive its fatal power.
THis article explains, in some detail, the causes of muscle cramps.
The old caveat, "Don't go swimming for one hour after eating," is borderline mythology — an old wives' tale — folk medicine. There is nothing magical about water that gives a sated person stomach cramps.