Cramps! Help.
 

Alright. The entire time I've been cycling, all two years of it, cramps have been the way I end any ride that is overly long or stressful. I've never bonked or ran out of energy, but I do start to cramp bad. Usually in my quads, for obvious reasons. I have started stretching before rides, I usually drink water and on my last 60 mile ride I went a little bit fast, but I took 3 10 minute breaks and ate a powerbar after 30 miles. I drank 4 bottles of water over 3 to 4 hours or so and averaged 16 mph in the wind - and my last 10 miles were mostly a painful crawl due to cramping

Why do I always cramp up? Are my quads just weak? Am I pushing myself too hard? Or is it a diet/nutrition thing? I'd always feel like I have plenty of energy and could ride further, but once I have a cramp it's like I can feel it coming on for the rest of the ride, and I have to be conscious of it and stand up in my pedals or take it easy the whole way. Sometimes I get stuck down at 12-13 mph because I can't pedal hard without starting a thigh cramp (this is when I seem to have gone too far, at 50-70 mile range)

Add some sodium before riding maybe... back when I would skate vert for the day, I'd cramp up .... my doc suggested sodium tablets as I was basically sweating out all my salts. Worked like a charm.


found this....

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/topicoftheweek119.htm

Prevent Mineral & Nutrient Deficiencies:

Sodium:

Sodium, or salt, is one of the key electrolytes. Electrolytes play a key role in water retention, as well as muscle function. During exercise, electrolytes are depleted via sweat. Low sodium levels are often a factor in causing muscle cramps. A pre workout drink that contains protein, carbohydrate, and electrolytes is usually a good idea, whether it be for a sports game or a weight training workout.

Some Good Sources Of Sodium:

The RDA for sodium varies, but is between 1.6 and 2.4 grams per day. However, people that are highly active will need much more. For each hour of moderate/high intensity exercise, 1.5+ grams of sodium is lost via sweat.

o Unrefined sea salt is the best, because is still has a host of other trace minerals that are beneficial to the body. Unrefined sea salt is often slightly grayish in color.

o Sports drinks.

Potassium:

Potassium is another one of the electrolytes that is lost while sweating. Potassium deficiency is believed to be a major factor in causing susceptibility to muscle cramps. A deficiency can also affect strength performance. If one uses diuretics, this can flush a large amount of potassium and other electrolytes out of the body.

Some Good Sources Of Potassium:

The RDA is approximately 4700 mg per day. However, active people usually need significantly more electrolytes/nutrients than less active/sedentary people.

# Sweet Potatoes (much of the mineral content is in the skin)
# Potatoes (much of the mineral content is in the skin)
# Bananas
# Carrots
# Many kinds of fish
# Beets & Beet Greens
# Squashes
# Many sports drinks have potassium

+1

Though to be more precise, electrolytes. Try drinking gatorade or the like in addition to the water before you start popping salt tablets.

truthiness^^^^

try a pre-ride banana. cheaper than all the sports nutrition if it works :thumb:

I think that's it right there. Add a little Gatorade or something else with electrolytes to the mix.

I had huge problems with cramps. At the suggestion of a couple friends I tried some tums. (I wasn't expecting it to work) 2 before the race, 2 during.

Lo and behold. No cramps.

Heed or Electrolyte pills work for me.

Tums.. that is pretty brilliant. I bet they even have a travel pack I could put in my saddle bag just in case I start to feel cramps coming on.

I just checked my kitchen and it's between Emergen-C and Gatorade. I prefer Emergen-C, it has 30 mg less sodium but 8x more potassium. I did drink one 20 ounce bottle of Emergen-C but that was early in the ride. Also I think I may have accidentally taken a diuretic that I thought was just a vitamin (but was instead some ****ty "energy vitamin" that had weight loss enhancers.. ie.. make you piss constantly) so I pissed about 5 times on the trip. Ridiculous.

I guess I just answered my own question. More Emergen-C. I usually refill with hose water from a church on my ride, I will bring two extra packets to mix in for the return trip.

Plenty of water throughout normal day to day life and heed or perpetuem during rides and a tums.

The same question was posted on the mailing list for my cycling club the other day, and here was my response:

--- snip ---

Three words come to mind: nutrition, nutrition, nutrition.

I find that I don't get post-ride cramp if I stick to a basic plan:

1. Keep properly hydrated. This all depends on various factors, but dehydration is a contributing factor to cramp. And remember that proper hydration starts before the ride - sometimes for days before longer rides (e.g. centuries, charity rides or multi-day tours).

2. Make sure you take in enough sodium, potassium and calcium before, during and after your rides. The last one is often overlooked in the grand scheme of things, but it's a contributing factor in preventing the onset of cramp. I'll even put in a couple shakes of sea salt into my water bottle to ensure that sodium is going into my system throughout my rides (it's *barely* enough to taste).

3. During your ride, keep taking in nutrition. It's a different mix for different people. Some folks like granola bars, others the more sport-oriented bars and gels, others a liquid nutrition solution, others sandwiches. Use something that is easily metabolized when you're on the ride; otherwise, you're possibly going to bring on cramp without knowing it.

4. Within an hour of your ride, refuel and rehydrate. Chocolate milk is a good "does it all" drink in terms of getting protein, carbs and calcium back into your system (and the sugars are good, too). And eat something balanced: a turkey and swiss sandwich with fresh greens on whole grain bread is a great option for a post-ride snack or meal.

If I stick to this four-point plan, I tend to avoid cramp on almost all rides, and tend to feel fresh afterward.

Another good step to avoiding 'em: a proper post-ride massage, which will help purge lactic acid from the leg muscles. Stretching is good, too, but massage is much, much better.

Hope this helps!

Great advice all around, I can't wait to try this tomorrow. If I didn't start cramping I could go waaaay further and faster - the cramps are always my downfall!

^^This and...

^^this during and after a long ride works for me.

Cramps come from eloctrolytes/nutrition imblanace, but also overuse, and to a limited extent fit problems. You've got some good ideas for the nutritional stuff here. I like using HEED and two endurolytes per hour.

Try this link for info on the overuse part: http://www.ultracycling.com/training/cramping.html

Lastly, a saddle position that's slightly off can stress certain muscles sometimes.

Oh...Good point. :thumb: I don't think much about saddle position now that I have mine adjusted correctly, but I do remember it causing pain and muscle cramps before.

I've been having the same problem the last couple of weeks. What I tried was

1. Better balance to my hydration (not over or under hydrating)
2. Increased Magnesium and Calcium intake
3. Adjusted (ever so slightly) my cleat position for more toe-in.

Rode 100+ miles this weekend and didn't have any leg cramps. Hopefully the problem is solved.

I've never cramped in the quads; i've only cramped in the calves. I'd imagine the ones in the quads suck more...

Taking a Magnesium supplement can be the single most important thing you can do to avoid cramps. Muscles use calcium to contract and magnesium to relax. A cramp is a muscle which has contracted but won't relax.

Anthony

I use Hammer Nutrition Endurolytes around here when it gets really hot and they work great....I also don't think I'd get through the HHH without them....I have a friend who like you had a terrible time with cramps, he now uses endurolytes and no longer has any problems.

http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HN...0047&AMI=10104

I use to have some tightening/cramping problems at certain points of exertion...no longer a problem now that I take electrolytes/sodium along the way....

:thumbup: Endurolytes and proper hydration.

Posted just about a year ago in this forum:

I never had cramps until earlier last year (2008) when I had a 5 day bout with lower G.I. "distress".

After being sick, I was getting calf and thigh cramps just laying in bed at night, not really on the bike, but I could feel them real close.

I got a tip for this stuff--NuSalt--from another forum area.

It is potassium chloride. 1/6 teaspoon has 530 m/g of potassium, 15% of the daily requirment. The only potassium supplement tablets you can buy in the store have 3% per tablet...total waste of $$. You can get this in any grocery store.

I put 1/4 teaspoon in a water bottle with a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 fruit punch for longer rides now that it's warming up some.

After about a month of using this when riding, using the NuSalt as salt on regular food, and about 5 bananas a week, I'm not having any more cramping problems. I also take a 400 m/g (100% RDA) magnesium tablet every day.

Very economical way to get potassium, and good if you don't like bananas.

Bump...I just saw this thread (search works!) after having yet another horrible bout of cramps (mostly quads but some in the calves) during the last 15 miles of a 63 mile club ride today.

It seems I have a tendency to get these nasty cramps after about 3 hours of HARD riding (moderate riding I can do all day without them). And I do drink a sports drink (currently cytomax), approx 1 bottle/hour....along with an energy bar and/or gel at the 2 hour mark (our club rides are typically 4 hours long with a 5 minute break halfway).

It is very annoying to get these cramps, and they seem to continue unless I drop back on my exertion to the "soft pedal" level. Today I got dropped by the main group because of these $%#@ cramps.

I am desperate so will try the tums as suggested above, but I really suspect it is muscle fatigue rather than electrolyte imbalance causing these cramps.

1) Fill half your bottles with an electrolyte energy drink.
2) Eat more on longer rides... gels help me a lot. PB&J sandwiches on even longer rides.
3) Pop endurolytes during the ride.


More potassium. Broccoli, dried apricots, bananas, and raw potatos (ranked in order of potassium per serving) have plenty of it and can be carried on rides.

Sure sounds like it to me. It may be possible to buffer the cramping potential by upping the electrolyte/hydration during intense effort, though that's hard to do when you're pounding it out with the big boys. Consider the Hammer products- Heed is good stuff- food and water and electrolytes, all rolled into one. Easy to use in hard effort. You can add Endurolyte powder if needed, too.

One of the quickest ways for me to cause quad cramp is to go down a flight of stairs without warming the muscles up. No nutrition issues there.