The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons offers these guidelines for treating and preventing muscle cramps:

• Always warm up before exercising, including before stretching.
• Properly stretch your calves, hamstrings and quadriceps.
• Stretch gently -- never to the point where you feel pain.
• If you get a muscle cramp, stop what you are doing.
• Gently stretch out and massage a cramped muscle to help relax it.
• Treat tense or tight muscles with heat, and sore muscles with cold.

-- Diana Kohnle