Fifty Plus (50+) - I have decided to turn to drugs

It is time for me to turn to drugs. I have completed 4 centuries this year, along with numerous metric centuries. Every mile century has resulted in leg cramps. I am so tired of the pain of leg cramps, so I have decided to turn to drugs.

I drove over to GNC and started shopping. There is so much there. The operative word here is confusion.

What drugs work for leg cramps?

What have you been hydrating with? That may be your problem - I use a total electrolite replacement called Nuun, no cramping.

For my latest century, which was the Hottern Hell century in Wichita Falls, TX, I hydrated all week before the ride, I took salt substitue pills, I drank power ade, I worked very hard to be hydrated in every way.

I still cramped.

Please note that I have done this all my life. In high school and college I would cramp in baseball or basketball quite often. I played hard, but I would have leg cramps when no one else did.

It is time to turn to drugs, if I can find the correct drugs.

Magesium. Potassium, but you can't get enough in 'drugs', try this, I add 1/4 teaspoon to my 'flavored' water bottle:

Magesium. Potassium, but you can't get enough in 'drugs', try this, I add 1/4 teaspoon to my 'flavored' water bottle:

Yes - some runners make thier own capsles out of this and table salt and ground up Tums. Check out the runners forums, you may find some interesting suggestions.

I take Endurolyte capsules from Hammer Nutrition and carry only plain water.

BikeArkansas-I've tried every trick and like you I still cramp to varying degrees. I consulted my physician to get his advice. I've tried all kinds of supplements, tums, hydrating very well the week before etc. I still cramp......I continue to find muscles in all parts of my legs I never knew existed......and when the cramping starts I often wish those muscles didn't exist!!

Here is what I'm doing more recently and it seems to help some-but it is still not a cure:

Eat at least one banana a day
Hydrate extremely well several days leading up to the ride-keep a water bottle with fluids with you all the time
Supplement V8 Fusion for fluids a day or two ahead of the ride-it has tons of potassium
Take Electrolyte pills a day or two ahead of the ride and the morning before the ride
Drink electrolyte or sports drinks during a ride rather than water-if drinking water use electrolyte pills
Eat several bananas during a ride
Spin easier gears!!

The weather and how hard I push seems to have the most influence on how bad I cramp. Quinine is helpful to alleviate cramping and can be found in Tonic Water and also in over the counter meds called Leg Cramps. However I don't use it during rides. I tried Tonic Water before a ride (per my doctor's advice) and the carbonation wreaked havoc on my stomach. Leg cramps seems to affect my power output and heart rate (quinine has been and is still used for some minor heart issues) so I only use it at night when I wake up with leg cramps.

Good luck and let me know when you find a cure.......I'll be right there with you buying drugs!!

Gatorade has about 30 mgs. of potassium per serving.
A banana has close to 600 mgs of potassium per serving.

I try to stay with real, whole foods as much as possible. Here are some good natural sources of potassium:

http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/1740.html

I eat bananas at every stop. Also, I have tried drinking several types of fluids. Also, I have inceased my cadence considerably. As I said before, I have worked at hydrating carefully for a full week before a century.

I really enjoy the challenge of a century, but the pain from leg cramps is draining my enthuasiam. I want to continue and will search for something to stop the cramps.

All suggestions will be received with gratitude.

Check with AmGen....I hear EPO works pretty good. :roflmao:

jppe is the climbing king....listen closely to his advice.

12 oz of V-8 has 720 mg of potassium. Drinking one before cycling and if a really hard ride, one after really helps me. I use the low sodium version and then defeat that aspect by adding enough Worcestershire sauce to make me sweat. Lovely. YMMV

I start taking "Potassium Pills" when I start having cramps at night. If I keep my legs a little warm when riding or coasting down hill it helps

I have also had some kind of leg cramps all my life.
Lifting three days keep my legs in good shape also.

I used Isostar for years and No cramps. Even had a friend that cramped bad on most rides that tried it and No More Cramps. Must be something to do with Essential salts or Vitamins- but an Isotonic supplement in my bottle works for me. I now use one called lipin-and works in the same way.

And I did have cramps last year- when I went off the supplement for 3 months due to what may have been an allergy. Straight water on the rides and less salt in my food. Cramps hurt.

I have a similar problem. In fact, at the Hotter Than Hell, I cramped so badly, I had to hit the first aid tent. I couldn't stand up w/o cramping. I took 3 of these and drank a cup of PowerAide and 10 minutes later, I walked out and rode back to my car.

http://www.amazon.com/Trace-Minerals-Research-Electrolyte-Stamina/dp/B00014DV1A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1222275107&sr=8-1

I had been taking them all day and hydrating pretty well, but I was well into no mans land (distance) for me and ended up hammering WAY too hard to get finished.

I highly recommend these tablets and for longer rides, I take about one dose an hour (depending on how much you sweat).

You say you have tried different types of fluids? Have you used Perpetuem, Heed, Cytomax during the ride? Do you weigh yourself before and after the ride? The last time I had bad cramps was a hot day and I was 7 pounds lighter after. I tried to drink a lot but failed.
I have found if I do hard climbing rides every Saturday I rarely get cramps, but if I slack off and then do a bunch of climbing, cramp city. Sometimes if I feel a cramp starting I will spin very high cadence and it will go away. Of course this won't work when climbing unless you're Lance or Andy Hampsten.
There is a product called Sport Legs, supposed to help cramps, but I haven't tried it.

I take Endurolyte capsules from Hammer Nutrition and carry only plain water.

Ditto!

HI,
Many of the meds have side effects, some raise K other's lower Sodium.
WHen you sweat you may loose alot of your lytes or salt, most humans eat way to Much NA, and very little K, The bannana is great idea cause it prevents overload of K and also provides some energy.
Have you had your ridding style checked you may not allow enough blood flow to the calves if your seat is not perfect height/angle.
My guess is your and old pro, so this is a mute point.
You may be reaching your physical limits of endurance and training, maybe you over train for that extra long ride and need to rest up more.
Doug
Heck what do I know I ve only road 3o miles in one day..

I have ridden 7,700 miles without cramps.
Did a 100 mile ride Tuesday, another last Saturday.
I Take 500 mg of Magnesium. 500 mg Lysine daily.

Good luck with that plan. A week from now, you can come back and report on your terrific placebo effect.

What drugs work for leg cramps?

Depends on the results you want. If you just want to not mind having leg cramps your choices are many. However, I personally suggest a visit to this site instead:

http://www.cptips.com/muspain.htm

What drugs work for leg cramps?

Bananas and water.

Do you do enough stretching exercises to keep your legs from getting tight? If you are riding lots of miles a week, your leg muscles will get pretty tight.

Might be worth a try. I've heard it works and you can mix up your own if it works for you.
http://www.sportlegs.com/about/welcome.asp

Bananas and water.

Are you trying to get us arrested?:eek:

Have you ever tried a calcium-magnesium supplement? It may do the trick. I've had calf muscle cramps all my life.... they happen at night. Not often any more but boy do they hurt, enough to empathize with you.

Nanners and fig newtons with lots of water.

Interesting articles and support information. I might have to take a look at the magnesium thing-just so long as I don't overdo it and set off any alarms at airport security........

While we are on the subject I recall one of many cramping episodes where I probably strained a muscle riding through cramps. Usually when I cramp up I've found it best for me to keep pedaling, grimace, scream, etc until a cramp goes away...... or in my case moves to another muscle. One day I think I literally pushed too hard in the middle of a pretty tough cramp in my calf and was limping for a few days. Ouch!! And riding is supposed to be fun?????

For my situation I'm thinking it has as much to do with the "supplements" as the hydration-and not necessarily exertion. For example, although it was really hot doing the Assault on Mt Mitchell earlier this year, I started cramping really early in the ride even with hydrating well and just fought through it for the next 5 hours. No amount of fluids seemed to help......but I did get a little relief after eating a banana. But even then it was almost like a tease as the relief was just for minutes.

So maybe drugs is not such a bad idea after all!!

What a joy it would be to do a long ride with hills and not have to constantly be fighting off cramps......

smoke some grass. And then you just eat healthy, I mean cramps come from unbalanced diet. Try eating more high vitamin fruits, blueberries, apples, bananas, any berries really; next eat more veggies, broccoli is the bomb, asparagus is a close 2nd, and really any light starch veggie will work (steam cook them or raw). don't skip salt. Many of you will write this off bc of the grass comment, but really it's a drug, relieves pain. OP should focus on a better diet instead of a pill to cure all, IMHO.

smoke some grass. And then you just eat healthy, I mean cramps come from unbalanced diet. Try eating more high vitamin fruits, blueberries, apples, bananas, any berries really; next eat more veggies, broccoli is the bomb, asparagus is a close 2nd, and really any light starch veggie will work (steam cook them or raw). don't skip salt. Many of you will write this off bc of the grass comment, but really it's a drug, relieves pain. OP should focus on a better diet instead of a pill to cure all, IMHO.


You might have something there. Especially the broccoli. So it would be okay to cover the broccoli with some cheese just to make it edible????

Interesting stuff. In general, I do not get cramps while riding but can get them later after a very tough ride. I am suspicious some riders are prone to cramping and there may not be a "silver bullet" to solve the problem. Our coaches train us to spin faster and they claim that it is lower cadence as the muscles tire when pushed harder that cause the cramping along with lack of preparation. YMMV.

This may not be a popular comment but it may be that you need more conditioning of a different type to solve the cramping problem. In essence, you are not ready for the centuries as you ride them. This is total speculation on my part but I think cramping may be tied to doing long distance without enough hill climbing and very hard efforts (over a long period of time) in support of your long distance training and it takes many months and years to get this. Otherwise, riding a fast century (as you define fast) on hilly terrain would be like shooting fish in a barrel and it is anything but that. I think centuries are tough, but mentally, good cyclists can push themselves to fantastic levels of achievement running on pure desire. However, they may be a price to pay if there is not enough preparation.:)

Interesting stuff. In general, I do not get cramps while riding but can get them later after a very tough ride. I am suspicious some riders are prone to cramping and there may not be a "silver bullet" to solve the problem. Our coaches train us to spin faster and they claim that it is lower cadence as the muscles tire when pushed harder that cause the cramping along with lack of preparation. YMMV.

This may not be a popular comment but it may be that you need more conditioning of a different type to solve the cramping problem. In essence, you are not ready for the centuries as you ride them. This is total speculation on my part but I think cramping may be tied to doing long distance without enough hill climbing and very hard efforts (over a long period of time) in support of your long distance training and it takes many months and years to get this. Otherwise, riding a fast century (as you define fast) on hilly terrain would be like shooting fish in a barrel and it is anything but that. I think centuries are tough, but mentally, good cyclists can push themselves to fantastic levels of achievement running on pure desire. However, they may be a price to pay if there is not enough preparation.:)

This is probably the best advice. The first century I did with a friend of mine a few years back he cramped up so bad he couldn't walk at the end, we had to carry him to the car and I drove him home (we car pooled in his car). The next year we had trained hard over the summer and he did just fine. Apparently this was not the first time this had happened to him - he had this same problem several years in a row before. The last century we did together was at the beginning of this month, again - we had been doing hard morning training rides through the summer, climbing and distance rides - he did great, said it was his best century ever - no cramping.

As I stated to start this thread, I have cramped all my life when involved with heavy exercising. As a basketball player I was most certainly well trained, both in high school, and certainly in college. I would still cramp at times. We had a good diet on campus and we trained under professional coaches. I still cramped.

As a cyclist I am not trained by a professional, but the cramping is similar to what I experienced several decades ago. I do some cross training in the gym and walking. I prepare hard for the centuries.

With all this in mind, I have decided to experiment with some drugs, which means minerals, etc. to solve this problem.

For those that do not have severe cramps on rides, the pain is awful. It is tough enough to make me think of giving up centuries if drugs do not work for me.

NEVER use table salt for making salt pills. Table salt contains iodine and too much iodine will cause damage to one's thyroid. When making your own salt pills only use sea salt which does not contain iodine.

You might have something there. Especially the broccoli. So it would be okay to cover the broccoli with some cheese just to make it edible????

Actually it could be, if you eat low amounts of dairy, then a lower fat cheese(real cheese, not fake sh*t) will not hurt you. cheese is healthy in moderation, so if that's what it takes; but I mean steam it, put on some sea salt and pepper(even hot sauce) and eat away.

You might have something there. Especially the broccoli. So it would be okay to cover the broccoli with some cheese just to make it edible????

This broccoli being a wonder vegetable sounds like the advice given over here from 39 to 45. "Carrots help you see in the dark". We had to do something with the only vegetable that grew with ease in those years. Eat them was the best option and got the farmers out of a hole.