How Cramps Influence Mood

Good morning!

Hoping your October is off to a great start. It seems crazy to say, but there’s only 91 days left in 2025, time really flies!

This week, we’re diving into a topic we’ve touched on before but deserves a closer look… how the state of your muscles can actually influence your mood.

As we’ve mentioned in past editions, there’s a strong connection between mind and body, a true psycho-somatic relationship where each influences the other. 

Let’s jump into it!

Key Takeaways:

• Stress and tension send constant “danger” signals that can keep your muscles tight and your mind anxious.

• Overactive muscles can hold onto calcium, keeping them tight. Magnesium competes with calcium to help muscles relax faster and longer.

• Use PMR for systemic relaxation and magnesium spray for focused, rapid relief, together, they’re a powerhouse combo.

CORE

How Your Body Talks to Your Brain

Our brains are constantly taking in information from the world around us. Our five senses give us a lot of that info, but they’re not the whole story. Our bodies also talk to our brains through something called somatic feedback. In simple terms, your brain is checking in on how your body is doing. Your heart rate, breathing, and muscle tension all to help it figure out what’s happening and how to respond.

Why Stress Can Give You Cramps

Everyone’s had cramps at some point. They can show up from dehydration, missing electrolytes, or stress. If it’s dehydration or an electrolyte imbalance, the fix is usually straightforward. Replace what’s missing and the cramp usually disappears.

Stress-induced cramps are a different beast. They’re not just about your muscles, they’re part of a feedback loop between your body and your brain.

Picture this: you’re stressed about an interview. Your sympathetic nervous system (your fight-or-flight response) kicks in. Muscles partially contract, your heart rate rises, you breathe faster, and your brain interprets everything as urgent. That tension in your muscles sends signals back to your brain, which makes you even more anxious. See where I’m going with this?

Two Ways to Combat Stress Cramps

One of the most effective ways to calm a tense area is progressive muscle relaxation, or PMR. It looks simple on paper but works surprisingly well to reset your nervous system.

Here’s why it works. Muscles have sensors called Golgi tendon organs (GTOs) that monitor strain. When a muscle contracts strongly, these sensors trigger your spinal cord to send signals that force your muscles into deep relaxation. This process is called autogenic inhibition. In other words, your muscles literally help your nervous system learn how to chill out.

Another way to reduce cramps is with magnesium, calcium’s counterpart. Muscles contract when calcium is released into the cells. If your muscles are tense, sometimes too much calcium builds up, keeping them tight. Magnesium competes with calcium in the cells, helping your muscles relax and letting tension dissipate.

OmniBlue Magnesium Spray is an easy to use and effective way of delivering ionic magnesium and 70+ other minerals directly through the skin and into the target area. Within minutes it has been able to enter the local microcirculation and modulate the effect of calcium helping to achieve a deep and prolonged relaxed sensation.

ENDNOTE

Final Thoughts

Cramps aren’t just annoying; they’re a full-on mind-body drama. Stress, tension, and overactive muscles send your brain the wrong signals, keeping you stuck in fight-or-flight mode. But the good news? You can break the cycle. Whether it’s using progressive muscle relaxation to hit the “reset” on your nervous system or applying OmniBlue Magnesium Spray to calm the calcium chaos in your muscles, relief is achievable, fast, effective, and totally within your control. Your muscles (and your mood) will thank you.

Until next week!

Adrian Macdonald | Team Dietitian | The 8% Newsletter Author