Nick Panella
911 posts

Nick Panella
@NickPanella_
Missouri Southern State Alum and former Martin Warrior












There was a clear difference in the Texas A&M / ND game tonight that doesn't show up in the box score. Cramping. All summer we heard Notre Dame has to prepare for the Texas heat... Yet I didn't see a white jersey on the ground getting stretched out. Instead we saw a lot of maroon laying on the ground, yelping in pain, clutching their legs. Why? Both teams drink their Gatorade, they get their electrolytes in. What's the difference? First game cramps are NOT. A HYDRATION ISSUE. They are an intensity issue. If your body is not prepared for the intensity of a game, that's where you see cramps become an issue. It's a neuromuscular fatigue issue. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9232553/ If you run practices at 50-80% speed, that's what you've prepared your body for. If you try to then go into a game and play at 100% for a full 60 minutes... You won't last. You'll cramp up. When fatigue sets in, bad things happen. TL;DR: Cramps aren't just a hydration issue. It's a neuromuscular fatigue problem. If you don't want to cramp up in a game: prepare your body to handle game like intensity.












