A question about muscle

[Setra]

Specifically my elbow (well the muscles around it)...

I tried looking up what was wrong on Wikipedia but apparantly 'muscle lock' redirects to a wrestling move.

What happened was, I was lifting heavy stuff, helping my dad moved.. then all of the sudden my muscle, my elbow, ... How to put this..

I couldn't bend it, because if I didn't it would automatically... contract to the fullest possible extent, so my bicep would touch my forearm (Well not quite because that's not physically possible for me, but you get the point) and sort of lock there so I couldn't move it without pain.

After a bit of time had passed my arm would relax and I could unbend it...

Any idea what happened?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Sounds like a kind of muscle spasm.

[Setra]

Sounds like a kind of muscle spasm.
Yeah I guess, it freaked me out at the time though it hasn't returned since I slept..

(Though I did more heavy lifting the next day and strained it)

Was just wondering if it was some sort of specific condition, my stepmother said it was because I hadn't eaten that day (All of the food was in a box)

[Coidzor]

As long as you haven't hurt yourself you probably haven't pulled am uscle or anything.

And,, yeah...

When you're going to be doing work with your muscles it's important that you've eaten.

[Erothayce]

The same thing happens to my knees every now and again. I just let it sit there until it wants to move on its own again. I don't think there is actually a problem just random muscle spasms.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Yeah, my vote goes to muscle spasm. The not eating thing, I'm not sure if that'll cause a muscle spasm. Might wanna ask a doctor about that.

[thubby]

if it didn't keep hurting, probably a spasm.

[Generic Archer]

Likely was caused by not eating/an electrolyte imbalance... the biochemical process that causes muscles to contract can go a little strange if the balances get messed up...

If it hurt to move it I'd say cramp, and maybe it still was, But I've also had muscles just lock down and refuse to ease up though that's usually to do with long time exertion like an hour or more

Dane

[Elves-as-People]

Next time, drink before you move things. That works for me.

[Setra]

Next time, drink before you move things. That works for me.
I had a sprite, that lasted me about 5 hours of moving...

Well at least it's nothing major, I tend to get paranoid about oddities happening to me.

[AtomicKitKat]

Get plenty of lightly salted/glucosed water before/during/after heavy exertion. Like 1 teaspoon of salt/sugar to 1.5 litre(1-2 quarts? I hate converting liquids to Imperial. Say about the size of those foot-tall bottles of soda?) of water. This should keep the sodium channels open, and the glucose should keep your brain functional(and probably less prone to misinterpreting muscle signals).

[Takronix]

I doubt the sugar thing will work.

I'm pretty certain it's a lack of potasium. Potasium is an electrolite, so it gets used a lot when you sweat and such, it's also used in your nerves to send the tiny electrical signals to your body to tell it what to do. What happened to you happens a lot to anyone who tries weightlifting without eating properly. Eating banannas, apples, and other non citrusy fruits should help.

[Supagoof]

Drink Gatorade (or a similar style of product).

It has the electrolytes, sodium, and glucose you need to make sure your muscle's are working properly. Roughly about the same amount of sugar/glucose that's in a sprite, but all the extra fun stuff to keep the spasms from happening.