MY DIAGNOSIS: Why Was I Having Horrible Leg Cramps?

Mysterious twitches and pain kept me from the thing that made me happiest-working out.

- MADISON FREEMAN

In 2021, just shy of my 25th birthday, I was in the best shape of my life I had just hit personal records in preparation for my first powerlifting competition. But one day I bent down to pick something up and a sharp, cramp-like pain in both my thigh muscles made me fall to the ground in agony. For the next few days the pain came and went; then it disappeared completely. I chalked it up to having lifted heavy weights too soon after taking time off.

Over the next months I continued lifting weights, thinking I just needed to give myself more time to recover after each workout. But my soreness intensified, and the agonizing cramps continued to return randomly. After months of off-and-on pain, I saw an orthopedist who X-rayed my legs but didn't find any problems. He prescribed physical therapy, yet the exercises didn't help.

The gym had been my safe haven, but now I was fighting pain. I went into a very dark place the thing that had saved me from mental health issues had become my body's enemy. Then a new symptom arose: muscle twitches throughout my legs, day and night.

A DIAGNOSIS... BUT NO CURE