Twitching in the Legs After a Long Walk
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Twitching in the Legs After a Long Walk

Twitching in the Legs After a Long Walk
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Updated on July 31, 2025
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Twitching leg muscles aren't uncommon after a long walk or exercise session. Although muscle twitches may cause you to worry about the health of your leg muscles, in most cases, twitching doesn't indicate a serious underlying medical problem.

Staying hydrated and not pushing to the point of fatigue can help reduce annoying twitches.

What Causes Legs to Twitch After Walking?

Muscles twitching after a walk occurs due to tiny involuntary muscle contractions in your leg. It can also occur in muscle fibers served by a single nerve.

When twitching occurs, you may feel a slight pulling sensation in your leg. You may see small, rapid movements in the affected muscle too. Other symptoms may occur with twitching, such as a tingling feeling in your leg or sudden involuntary movements of the muscle.

A variety of things can contribute to muscle twitching after exercise:

Muscle Fatigue Twitching can occur due to overworked muscles.

Dehydration Not drinking enough water before, during, and after exercise can lead to muscle twitching.

Reduced Electrolyte Levels Electrolytes are minerals with an electrical charge when dissolved in water. They're responsible for maintaining water levels in your body, keeping your pH level stable, supplying nutrients to your cells, and removing waste products from cells. You lose electrolytes when you sweat. You may notice twitches or cramping occur more often when you walk in hot or humid weather, since you tend to sweat more in those conditions.

High Caffeine Intake Consuming large amounts of caffeine can lead to muscle twitches.

Inadequate Nutrition Following a diet that doesn’t provide all of the nutrients you need can affect your muscles and cause twitches. In particular, consuming inadequate carbohydrates before exercise can contribute to muscle fatigue.

Certain Medications In some cases, the medications you take to manage medical conditions can cause twitching. This symptom can also occur as a side effect when taking diuretics, corticosteroids, or medications containing estrogen.

Disease or Injury Muscle twitches can be a symptom of certain conditions or diseases, including fibromyalgia, restless legs syndrome, nerve damage, muscle injury, muscular dystrophy, atrophy of the spinal muscles, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). However, twitching alone would not be enough to diagnose one of these conditions.

How to Reduce Muscle Twitching

In many cases, you can help reduce muscle twitching after walking and other exercises with these steps:

Rest Allowing your muscles to rest between workouts can help alleviate muscle fatigue. It also helps to gradually build your exercise duration and intensity so your muscles don’t get overtired.

Fluids and Electrolytes Replacing fluids and electrolytes lost during sweating is important to prevent twitching and muscle spasms after walking. While water will help you replace lost fluids, you'll need to drink sports drinks or beverages containing electrolytes to replace depleted minerals as well. Including foods such as fruits, leafy green vegetables, fatty fish, low-fat dairy products, nuts, and seeds can also help you maintain adequate electrolytes in your body.

Stretching Stretching before and after walking or exercising may help reduce or prevent muscle spasms, which are involuntary and often painful muscle contractions. If your muscle twitching is accompanied by spasms and cramps, stretching could help.

Massage Massaging a twitching muscle or using a foam roller on areas that twitch may be helpful in reducing the twitching.

When to Seek Help for Muscle Twitching

See a doctor right away for an accurate diagnosis if the twitching is severe, chronic, or occurs outside of exercise, or if you notice weakness, loss of sensation, or shrinkage in a muscle.

The Takeaway

  • Muscle twitching in the legs after a long walk is usually harmless. It can often be addressed by adequate rest and hydration.
  • Dehydration and reduced electrolyte levels are common causes of muscle twitching, so ensuring you drink enough water and consume foods rich in nutrients like potassium and calcium may help.
  • If you experience persistent muscle twitching alongside other concerning symptoms, such as weakness or numbness, it's important to consult a healthcare professional for further evaluation.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Muscle Twitching. MedlinePlus. March 31, 2024.
  2. Annoying Muscle Twitch? When to Seek Help. Rush.
  3. Making Sense of Post-Workout Muscle Spasms. Henry Ford Health. July 8, 2020.
  4. Electrolytes. Cleveland Clinic. September 24, 2021.
  5. Food as Fuel Before, During and After Workouts. American Heart Association. July 31, 2024.
  6. Food as Fuel Before, During, and After Workouts. American Heart Association. July 31, 2024.
  7. Muscle Spasms (Muscle Cramps). Cleveland Clinic. October 20, 2023.
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Natalia Johnsen, MD

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Natalia Johnsen, MD, practices internal medicine and lifestyle medicine. She works as an internist for the Vancouver Clinic in Vancouver, Washington.

Johnsen trained and worked as ob-gyn in Russia before coming to the United States in 2000. Subsequently, she interned in internal medicine at the University of Nevada and completed her residency at a Stanford-affiliated program in Santa Clara, California. After that she worked as a general internist for two years before to switching to full-time hospital work.

Johnsen has always been fascinated by the effects that lifestyle can have on physical and mental health, and she fell in love with the concept of lifestyle medicine as a specialty after seeing patients struggle with issues that could have been prevented had they known more about a healthy lifestyle. To make an impact on her patients through lifestyle interventions, she launched her own lifestyle medicine clinic, Vivalso Health and Longevity.

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