Originally Posted by
livedarklions
Nice trolling in your first line.
My apologies. My intent was to express frustration with the workings of these forums rather than to offend you.
Every time one of these threads pop up (and they do so with incredible regularity), someone immediately starts in with the electrolyte nonsense. There's absolutely no scientific evidence that electrolytes have anything to do with localized exercise-induced cramping and a fair amount of evidence to the contrary.
You're taking a break, the cramping goes away, and you have no idea whether the meal and drink has anything to do with it.
The regularity with which these threads pop up is why it would be nice to collate the answers into a FAQ.
And as far as I know, there are few peer-reviewed scientific results as to what causes cramping, and they disagree with each other. What we're left with is a menu of things that might help. (If you know exactly what causes cramps, remember you must admit you're wrong the first time someone says "I tried it and it didn't work.") It's up to the person with the cramps to work their way down the list and find out what works for them. Off the top of my head:
1. Inadequate training
2. Electrolyte (especially salt) depletion/replacement
3. Fluid depletion/replacement
4. Stretching and/or massage
5. Bananas
5a. Bananas with Nutella -- at least it tastes good!
6. Oranges
7. Pickle juice
8. Stretching
9. Massage
10. Yoga
11. Tonic water