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Short Stuff: Charley Horse · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It's just the two of us. But we're here with
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: a horse named Charlie a k A crippling temporary leg cramp.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: You know what I immediately think of when I think
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: like cramps? Now right? Remember round up? That's right. You
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: totally got one of these, didn't you? Like whow we
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: were recording? Yeah, it's on video everyone. If you want
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to go look up one of our internet roundups. I
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: wish I could remember which one. Maybe I'll should you
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: should suffer through all of them to try and find it,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: but I gotta just out of nowhere, like cramping. It
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: was so funny that we were like, all right, we
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: should just leave that in there. We have to keep it.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I think I demanded that we keep it, and that
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: was just just so great. Yeah, which is weird. I
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: don't cramp up like that much, so it was very
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: much out of nowhere. Um, I don't know what happened. Well, Chuck,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: you could have been over age fifty at the time. No,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: you might have been hydrated maybe, but I drink a
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: lot of water. Perhaps you've been sitting too long without moving.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: There's always a chance of that, or standing too long
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: on a hard surface, probably not a chance of that.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Or you could have been sleeping in your brain may
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: have misdirected your leg to move, confusing your leg resulting
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: in a cramp. So those are some risk factors for
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: getting a Charlie horse. But before we explain what a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Charlie horse says, we should talk about the origin of
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the word. Do you did you read about this? Yeah,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: it's a word that is very much American. You won't
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: hear that word in England apparently. And there are a
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: couple of different stories that I saw, maybe more than
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: that even but in the late eighteen hundreds in baseball,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: one story said that there was a lame horse named
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Charlie and it said it pulled the roller at the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Chicago White Sox ballpark. I'm not sure what that means. Um,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: probably whatever flattened out the dirt. Maybe that's what That's
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: what I was thinking. That's all I can come up with.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: There may be the thing that the hot dog spin
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: on as they're cooking. I'm not sure what's the other story.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: The other one is that Charlie Radborn who was a
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: picture you mean old hoss, Old Hoss was another name
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: of his knee. I looked him up. He's the greatest
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: picture of all time based on the r A. Yeah. Um,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: he was also a terrible person, Um, Lobster Boy asked,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: From what I can tell, Uh, no murder involved, I
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: don't think. But he apparently got a Charlie horse in
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: a baseball game in the in the middle of a
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: baseball game. He played for Providence in Boston mostly um,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and it's possible that it was named after him in
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: that significant event. Yeah, what I've always heard of Charlie
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: horse was, or how I've always used it, was not
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: just a leg cramp, but it was when you got
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: punched in the thigh or something, or or nie somebody
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: in the thigh and you would give someone a Charlie Horse,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and you had to say Charlie horse, as if they
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: didn't know what was happening. Don't freak out, you're not
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: imagining things. I just gave you a Charlie horse. And
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: this is called having the wind knocked out of you.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: So the yeah, but it does seem to um. It
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: can come from that from a sudden blow to a
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: leg muscle, and usually it's your thigh muscle. Your calf
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: muscle or your hamstring is where you get a Charlie horse.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: But as you also know, I didn't touch you that
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: time you got one for Internet round up. It just
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: came out of the blue. So Charlie horses. It's different
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: from like a leg cramps, say, like your muscles cramping
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: up from overuse on a long run. That's probably just
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: from dehydration or a loss of electro lights from sweating
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: too much. Charlie horse is kind of leg cramp, but
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: it's a little more specialized in that it's like a
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: not that just suddenly comes out of nowhere and affects
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: one of those areas and your legs. And what's interesting
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: to me is that medical science is like, no, I
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: don't know. Here's some best guesses, but we're not sure.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Have you what did you used to do? The thing
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: called frogging someone? Yeah, that's it's essentially the same things
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: that your knuckles on your fingers are a certain held
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a certain way when you punch them right. Totally, it's
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: a knuckle punch. And I always was um frogged. I
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: didn't do much frogging because I was a nice guy,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: but uh, someone would stick out their center knuckle and
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: do sort of a swiping punch across the arm, not
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: like a straight punch, and the knuckle would hit it
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and cause the same sort of sensation like a little
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: not in a bump would form. Yeah. I was never
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: very good at that either. But some kids had like
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: almost a preternatural sense of like a muscular pressure point,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, I have a feeling you were a
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: champion pencil breaker though, No, I don't remember pencil breaking.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: What was that? Oh, you guys didn't do that? I mean, yeah,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: like some somebody would hold two winds the farthest ends
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: of the pencil and somebody you just karate chop it. Well,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: you would use another pencil and you would just take
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: turns until the pencil broke. But there are all sorts
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: of various techniques, you know, for maximum breakage. I'd forgotten
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: all about that. When I think pencils in school, Chuck,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I think, did you guys have the smelly pencils like
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: caramel corn? Yeah? Yeah, that's what I think. That This
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: tastes to great. Were you good at pencil breaking? I
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: wasn't very good. You know. There was always the one
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: bugs mini you could do it in one fatal blow.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Is that another Encyclopedia Brown reference? I think, so maybe
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: we should take a break. Yeah, then we can go
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: solve an Encyclopedia Brown crime and then come back and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: talk more about Charlie horses. All right, Well, now we're
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: on the road, driving in your truck. Want to learn
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: a thing or two from Josh Damn Chuck. It's stuff
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: you should know, all right, Okay, So Charlie horse, leg cramp,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: sudden spasm, sudden muscle. Medical science is baffled. Go yeah,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: so you can get a Charlie horse at night when
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: you're sleeping. It's called a nocturnal leg cramp, and just
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: like a daytime when it can go away very quickly,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: or it can be a few minutes. I can't imagine,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: like the one I had an Internet round up was
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: such a tight, violent thing. I can't imagine that going
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: on for several minutes because it lasted maybebe thirty seconds,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: probably the longest thirty seconds of your life. Full minutes
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: of that would just be hell. Yeah. And this is
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: not the same thing as restless leg syndrome that also
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: happens at night, but that is when you sort of
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: have the Jimmy legs and you have the urge to move. UM.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: But in I think both cases they don't know exactly
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: what's going on. No, they don't. UM. But and you
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: can actually solve both cases if you get Charlie horses
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: at night while you're sleeping and they wake you up,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: or if you have restless leg syndrome the Jimmy legs, um,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: you can solve both by doing stretches before bed. Um.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: And sometimes I get restless leg syndrome. I don't I
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: don't know if I have it to a clinical degree
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: or whatever, but like, especially when I first lay down
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: to go to bed, sometimes I can't sleep because my
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: legs are just bugging me. And get up and do
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: this hamstring stretch and it works like a charm, Like
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I'll be asleep in thirty seconds afterward. You know, they
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: say stretching is just sort of one of the keys
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: to life. Like if you start in your twenties and
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: thirties just stretching a really great uh every morning and
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: every night, then your body is going to be the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: better for it. Do you remember we did an entire
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: episode on Sarcopania that's stoop that you get from old age,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: did we? We totally did. And I think that that's
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: a really good way to combat sarcopenias, to to be
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: limber and stretch your back muscles too. Yeah, it's all
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: about keeping those muscles lumber. YEA, let's do it, chuck.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Let's let's commit to stretching at least five nights a week. Okay, okay,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: so uh the other thing you have virtual Pinkie swear.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: The other thing you can do, like you mentioned, is
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: plenty of fluids if you're exercising, especially because your muscles
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: need those fluids to relax and contract like they should.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: And you just gotta you know, if you're going out
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: there and running or even doing a good exercise walk
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and you're not stretching beforehand, and what are you doing.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: You're a chump. You're a sucker. You're just a stump.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: You know you're a chump. You're a chucker. Oh, speaking
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: of Charlie, I called you Charlie on an email I
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: think yesterday. I noticed that my head just ripped into afterward.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: It just blew my mind. Why you're not a Charlie.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: You're a chuck. But the idea that it's almost like
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: you turned into went with Paltrow and sliding doors all
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, like you very easily could have gone
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the life of a Charlie, but you went the life
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: of a Chuck. And I guarantee you your life would
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: be different in noticeable ways had you been a Charlie.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Will you call me Charles sometimes though totally different from Charlie,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: agreed Charlie. And in New Jersey I went by Charles.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Oh did you have a little pencil than mustache? Too?
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: You were nothing but turtlenecks, Charlie horses. I think we're done. Oh,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I know there is one more thing right about the
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: old eat a balanced diet thing, which they literally say
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: for every single condition known to humanity. In this case,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: it's really true. If you eat a balanced diet, you're
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: gonna get some good calcium and potassium, magnesium, and that's
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: really going to help how your muscles operate. Those minerals
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: are super important to your muscles. Yeah, especially I think
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: read sodium and potassium have like a twenty three to
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: one ratio for your intake. Is what you're going for
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: on a daily basis, which is harder to do than
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: you would think. But they as I think, sodium goes
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: in potassium comes out and vice versa. And when they're
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: doing that, they actually produce this battery, this electrical charge
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: across your cell that helps conduct electricity throughout your muscles.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: So yeah, you want to have these minerals and like
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: good amounts, and you also want to have water because
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: water is like the thing that everything, all of these
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: magnificent metabolic processes take place in. So if you're dehydrated
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: and you lose a bunch of electro lights or your
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: electro lights are out of proportion, you're much more susceptible
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the muscle cramps of all varieties. So yeah, eat a
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: banana or I saw an avocado is a really good
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: balance of potassium and sodium too. We had a lot
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: of avocado in our house. Same here you be found
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: five for nine cent avocados yesterday. I was like, yeah,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: she's like they must have been about to rot or
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: something like that, and I checked and they were all
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: like pre ripen. They're like on their way to being ripe.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: They're not rotted at all. She got them from h
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Mart and I just couldn't believe it. You're like, she
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: got it at covid r Us. So I think you're fine. No,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I'm worried. I hadn't thought about that part. No, I
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: don't think that's the case. COVID are us great? Are
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: you got anything else about Charlie horses? Sir? Are you
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: having one right now? I'm not. Well. That's good. Then.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: That means everybody that short stuff is out. Stuff you
• 11:43
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• 11:46
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• 11:48
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• 11:51
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