Hey Thar, You are bang on about the Magnesium. NZ diet is often low in magnesium and its the building block in the chemical reaction that allow our muscles to contract and return to extension- which in turn means we are able to work and undertake activity. Its key to the process and a good baseline of it in our bodies keeps the reaction going past where you normally would need to top up with all the electrolytes and ingredients needed.
I was always told by my coach to take magnesium daily or every other day when training as I was a prodigious sweater and would loose a lot of liquid and be a candidate for bad cramping so much of the supplements I took this.
The cramp stop - allowed some short term relief from this by tricking the body into relaxing the muscles allowing you to carry on.
But we should all listen that cramp means we are short of fluids and electrolytes and top up again asap!
Hope this makes sense and explains how the two work slightly differently. My FIL is like you Thar in his 80's and gets terrible cramps in the night. But he's very grateful for the relief he can get from spray and I have a jug of electrolytes in the fridge he can go and get and be fine the next day.
CD
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