Training & Nutrition - Severe Cramps and what to do

i was riding today and doing some climbing when i moved my leg the wrong way and all of a sudden there was a sharp pain coming from my right calf. the type of pain that makes grown men cry. it was bad. my ankle was tweaked to the left and i couldnt move it. at first i thought i broke something but then i realized that it was just a cramp. i was wearing my 661 legs pads so i had to sit down and take them off. it was god awfully painful. i rest 15 mins while stretching and walking it off.

its been 12 hrs since and it still kinda hurts when i put pressure on it. i never had such a bad cramp before and was wondering what post recovery should i be doing to help the recovery process?

I am with ya on the pain..... recently participated in an organised Metric century after being sick for 3 days..... 10metres from the finish line I was sprinting in a 53x14 up an incline and both my legs decided to cramp completly....I am talking Rigor Mortis. It extended both my legs to full length and I was standing on the pedals and trying to slow down in a hurry from over 30mph and ended up grabbing a fistfull of a marshals shirt so I wouldnt hit the deck. This was on a saturday, I had a 10 minute massage (proper one) afterwards, then the apin stayed until Monday...it was still kinda there but nothing that worried me. Until I did a 4.5km cross country run and I NEVER run so that made them sore again. But plenty of rest and a couple of days should see it good again. Keep up your salts and liquids.

Brendon

killerasp,

This same thing (pain in right calf) happened to me while swimming the other day. It did not seem to be as severe as your.. however, 2 days later and I can still feel the slight pain in there.

What I've heard swimmers do for fast relief is poke the area with something sharp.. like a needle. I'm not sure why this works.. but this is the reason that "high end" swimsuits come with the needles.

I'm not sure how my tip would help you, and whether you would be willing to try it out.. but, I tried my best to help you.

I have just started to feel cramp pains for the first time in several years. Reason for this is that I have just started to increase the weights down at the gym, so perhaps I am Currently overworking the muscles. Last time this happened, I took plenty of salts in my diet, and Isotonic drinks whilst exercising. Don't know if either was the cure, but Cramps went away within a week.

Can't help ya with the recovery, but as severe as the cramps were, it's not unexpected.

I'd be concerned about what caused such a severe cramp. If you're actually riding in upstate NY, I wouldn't expect heat dehydration this time of year. Were the efforts particularly intense? In any case, you might check your mineral consumption. Salt isn't usually a problem, so consider potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Potassium is often a problem. If you use salt, consider switching to Morton Light Salt, which contains potassium chloride in addition to sodium chloride, and start drinking V-8 (480 mg potassium per 8oz serving).

Dehydration can happen at any temperature so make sure you are getting enough water for your rides, and do make sure that you have enough electrolytes in your drink, so for every 8 oz of water, you can add one teaspoon of salt. If you were going high intensity, you could also just have had a deficiency of oxygen too, so if you do get a cramp like that, it also may do you some good to do some slow spinning and easy breathing with long breaths while you drink more water (or gatorade or water with salt) to work through the cramp.

Koffee