3 weeks ago, my right calve suddenly cramped up while I was eating dinner. This was a particularly bad episode so I wasn't surprised when it still hurt the next day.

This has gradually gotten worse with time. Basic sensation that I constantly experience is similar to what it feels like immediately after getting a cramp. The calve sometimes "recramps" which aggravates things. Exercise seems to make things better, but I'm definitely not up to scratch -- even simple stuff like walking is painful. Aside from what I've described, everything else looks/feels normal.

Yeah, I know -- see a doc. But I'm trying to wrap my mind around what might be going on. Also I really don't want to be sidelined if I can at all avoid it.

You might be low on electrolytes or dehydrated. Drink water and eat some salt.

I googled "cramps potassium deficiency" and read this: Vegetarian Sports Nutrition: Learn the connection between diet and muscle cramping

Pretty interesting although it doesn't give a definitive answer. Something that helps me a lot is stretching, hamstring and especially Achilles. I get calf cramps occasionally (like this morning). I just thought as I typed this that may be related to the fact that I do my stretches as I grind my coffee every morning. Those morning cramps are happening 23 hours later. Maybe I need to stretch before I go to bed.

Ben

Magnesium supplements are recommended for cramps.
I don't know how effective it is.
It would depend on the root cause I guess.

I've had good experience with a hard foam roller from Target. Also, after a hard ride do not tuck your feet behind the front legs of the chair while sitting at the table. Sounds weird but it's well known to facilitate cramps.

Repeated cramps over time are different than episodes while riding which you might chalk up to electrolyte issues.

So I doubt you'll get results by treating this the same way. Odds are that you somehow irritated a nerve or something similarly oddball. Ease up a bit on the daily riding, and try stretches and gentle massage after riding, and give whatever it is time to pass.

If it outlast your patience, you might see a doc, but don't be surprised if he tells you to quit riding a while.

Everyone is different, but I used to get cramps BAD. Usually when going to bed after riding hard. I tried taking supplements as I guessed I was deficient in potassium. I ended up with kidney stones. Not sure if this was the cause as I didnt have them analyzed. But I never got them again after limiting my recovery drinks, and stopping with the added pills for cramps.

Anyway, for me hydration helped a bunch. I weighed myself before and after my rides and was losing an average of 2 lbs per ride in water. So I decided to start hydrating all day. Things have gotten way better for me.

Some have success spraying magnesium "oil" (brine) on the cramping muscle and letting it soak in.

My wife's had this for years. She asked her doctor, who diagnosed them as idiopathic cramps. So far every doctor friend we've asked made the same diagnosis.

She gets best results from MORE EXERCISE! please. She also wears compression socks when off the bike. She likes 2XU, Vitalsox, and Blitzu best. Also taking a 500/250 cal/mag pill and 200 mg potassium after exercise helped. If it's cramps, 30 one-legged calf raises on a stair, full range of motion, every other day. Plus all the rest of it.

Cramps basically give you DOMS. Hit those calves as soon as possible.

I've had an idiopathic heart issue since my early twenties (first time it was spotted). After seeing some specialists, it was determined that it was idiopathic and apparently not serious. The doc and I agreed that a good description was "rough idle", but otherwise I was OK.

He also defined "idiopathic" as it's used by medical pros as, "We don't know what's going on, or the cause. Apparently it's something unique to you, and we're not willing to admit we don't know exactly what it is".

One has to laugh that they have a word for that, eh?

Sounds much better than scratching your head and saying "Gee, I don't know......".

As my doc explained decades back, it's not only a matter or ego and pride. People are don't feel OK and are nervous and so go to a doc for answers. "I don't know" doesn't alleviate their worries, so we use a $10 word, and assure them it's not serious and they go home happy.

I once asked my doctor the difference between "sontigrade" and "centigrade." He said, "$100,000 in med school tuition." That was back in the day of course . . .

pickle juice

All cramping issues in my leg have been linked to basic hydration. The last times I've felt them coming, I've started to drink water right away, and have avoided them that way.

Get the Doppler ultrasound to check for blood clots.

My left calf cramped toward the end of a long flight back in 2009. I figured I'd just walk it off. 6 weeks later I was still thinking I'd walk it off as I dragged my left leg around with me like it was a tree branch someone had tied to my body.

I ended up in hospital for 2 weeks with my entire left calf full of clots and several clots above the knee as well. And then I was on Warfarin for a year.

Thankfully I don't have too many lingering effects, but my left ankle still swells when I exercise a lot.

Get the Doppler ultrasound to check for blood clots.

Ever since I have been using magnesium supplements, my cramps have gone away. While I had them, at the time, I also focused on high cadence as well, for several weeks until my legs started feeling better and I felt I could put some watts down. I also drink plenty of water and never feel dehydrated.

I know there are many different causes of leg cramps, and those causes will have different treatments. Throughout my life I've had occasional episodes of massive cramps where I'd wake up in the middle of the night in total agony with massive charlie horses and had to jump out of bed and try to stretch out of it and make it stop. It doesn't happen all the time, or even very often, but it's happened at various points at least as early as 17 years old in Army basic training, all the way through till a few months ago (I'm 48 now) when it happened while sleeping in a tent with my unit after a long, hot day of land navigation training in some mountainous terrain. That night was agony btw; kept waking up with twinges, spasms, full-on charlie horses, etc. Barely slept that whole night.

What I finally learned, when I was 41 and at an army school where I had these cramps rear up again, is that for me personally it was related to insufficient potassium. I've since bought potassium supplements, and when I am doing a lot of exercise and sweating a lot I make sure to take a few each day. When I'm doing that the cramps never occur. When I taper off and forget, and then do some hard, sweaty exercise again and blow through those electrolytes, it sometimes happens. When this happened a few months ago I took a vehicle and drove into the nearest town and bought some potassium supplements, a multi-vitamin with magnesium and everything else (Centrum Silver of course for this old man), some calcium, etc. I was desperate not to repeat the cramping of the night before. We did even harder stuff the next day, sweating so much I probably drank a couple gallons of water, but didn't have a repeat of the cramps. I can't prove that taking the mineral supplements prevented it, but I believe they did.

Again, there are various causes for cramps, and some may be related to potassium, and some may be related to other things that require different prevention measures. For me, it's the potassium.

Another possibility is a blood disorder such as thrombocytosis, which is an excess of platelets. That clogs up the blood enough to cause cramps and other problems.

In short, go see a doctor to figure out the cause before you try a remedy.

cramps are not caused by electrolyte imbalances. This is a complete myth Fast Talk podcast, ep. 26: Cramping myths debunked | VeloNews.com

I'll listen to that, but I'm not ready to consider anything like that the final word. Read this, for instance, as just one of the first links I found when doing a cursory search.

I'm not ready to throw out a cheap line like "but far be it from me to trust the doctors at the Mayo Clinic over some podcaster working for Velo News..." because I don't know who the podcaster is, and he or she may be quite knowledgeable on the subject. I'll listen to it and hear them out, and keep reading.

It is not just a podcaster, they speak to Dr Schwellnus, a leading expert in the research of cramping.
Cause of Exercise Associated Muscle Cramps (EAMC) ? altered neuromuscular control, dehydration or electrolyte depletion? | British Journal of Sports Medicine
His review has been cited over 100 times.
If you don't have access to the journal I can email it to anyone interested.

I'll check it out. I'm literally standing up to go ride my bike over my lunch hour right now, but I'll listen to the podcast later on. I may take you up on getting the actual journal article.

A week or 2 of doing calf raises/stretches on a step for rid of calf cramps for me. If they ever start to return, it's when I've stopped doing my leg calisthenics.

It may not be what everybody wants to hear, but strength work has solved nearly every ache and pain I've had, from back, hip, knees, shoulders, and even cramps.

Lunges, squats, and single-leg deadlifts have all but gotten rid of hamstring cramps as well.

Downward-dog stretch, an example: