rumrunn6

a cpl ideas that work for me

prevention - small doses of:
- sodium (sprinkle some table salt in my water bottles, not enough to taste)
- calcium pill
- magnesium pill
- potassium pill

I've taken these supplements the night before, the morning of & at the 1/2 way mark. but I only do all that if I'm expecting an all day epic ride especially during hot summer months

to relieve a cramp while cycling, I have stopped to stretch & massage
if you can get some magnesium in you, right then & there do it
I agree that keeping moving helps & I've massaged leg muscles while pedaling. whatever it takes, right?

but Gatorade? I never touch the stuff; it gives me a sour stomach

big john

The OP mentions his longer rides are "often impromptu". This could be the crux of the issue. I've had my worst cramps when increasing distance and intensity too quickly. If I do a big climbing ride when I haven't been doing a lot of climbing I can get cramps. If I have been doing a lot of climbing I almost never get cramps. I might get nausea, get even slower, or even bonk, but no cramps. Like other bad things cramps are made worse by dehydration.

I have found if I feel a cramp coming on I gear down and spin and that usually helps. A lady I know said to apply pressure to the tendon connecting the cramping muscle.

rsbob 

I concur with many of the suggestions and diagnosis above based on my own experience. My worst cramps used to be in the evening or when in bed after a long hot ride. I learned to drink every 15 fifteen minutes (have a count down timer on my computer which alerts me) and have my water bottle fortified with electrolytes. One large bottle per hour provides me with adequate hydration. If you don’t pee on rides over two hours you are more than likely dehydrated.

Also drinking to good sized gulps of pickle juice (not evil sweet pickles but dill) right out of the jar after the ride is good insurance and helps replace lost salts. Take a magnesium pill before bed or in the evening and you should not have to worry about cramps again. What Terry said about strengthening weak muscles is also sound advice but won’t help you when dehydrated.

My worst on-ride cramps, many years ago, were during a 150 mile RAMROD ride on a hot day with 30 miles to go. I used Gatorade and Gatorade powder then rather than a well formulated sport mix. Had to get off the bike 6 times to stretch my legs. It was the longest 30 miles of my life.

Barry2 

If hydration/electrolytes are key, does anyone tried BOA Endure for cramps?

Barry

veganbikes

There is probably great medical advice out there and maybe some in this thread. Obviously take care of your body beforehand and all of that.

My one thing is pickle juice. I personally love it and could chug it easily if it is good stuff. I know there is a commercial product out there that is designed specifically for sports and comes in a little bottle. Me personally I would just make some homemade stuff maybe with some daikon, carrots, cucumbers, garlic, peppers (not bells something with heat or if you are a milder person some Anaheim or Cubanelles) and whatever sort of brine you want and then drain the brine into a small bottle and drink while riding. I would make it a little sweet, salty and spicy and just give your body something super exciting to look forward to.

I remember after a really long ride a couple years ago we bought some really nice local pickled cucumbers along the ride and once we got to camp we got into that jar and finished it quite quickly and no cramps that night and it was just so good and now I swear by it. I also got hooked at some bar somewhere that had whisky with a pickle back but the pickle back was the real prize as it was homemade (or made in the restaurant) Vietnamese pickle brine and it was just so good I had the one shot and kept asking for more of that pickle brine. Full of flavor and not super salty or anything it was just very nicely balanced.

datlas 

Agree.

rsbob 

Anyone ever tried Midol? Weird, but weird is as weird does…

Koyote

I'd pay good money for it. The two times I can recall severe cramping were both in races. The first time, it likely cost me the win, as I was cramping too badly to sprint -- so I got second in my cat. The next bad case was in a long, hot gravel race, and I DNF'd. Could barely walk up the hills, and sure as hell couldn't ride them.

Lombard

Gatorade as well as other "sports drinks" tout electrolyte replacement, but really have very little in the way of electrolytes. They are mostly sugar water. Interesting you say Gatorade makes you nauseous. For me, it gives me the runs!

A cramp can be caused by a potassium deficiency. Try eating a banana or an orange before your ride. Both have more potassium than sports drinks. If you already eat these foods, you probably get enough potassium and it's not this.

Or........a leg cramp a.k.a. a Charlie horse, could just be your muscles becoming out of balance from one sport and nothing else. Cramic , you say you're a doc, but do you have experience in sports medicine? You may want to visit a sports med doc. One thing that helped me was doing some stretches. My chiropractor gave me Psoas stretches which has helped that.

jaxgtr

I add Hammer's Endurolytes to my bottles. I live in the Southeast and it can be brutally humid here, so I never leave home with out it in my bottles.

Lombard

^^^This.^^^ And many people think eating lots of salty food will fix an electrolyte imbalance. Salt is sodium chloride. That's it. Unless you are on a very strict no-salt diet or are taking a diuretic med, you get plenty of sodium in a normal diet. If you eat animal products, you get plenty of sodium naturally.

If you eat a banana a day or eat oranges, you get plenty of potassium. If you eat green leafy vegetables and nuts, you likely get plenty of magnesium. And magnesium supplements are tricky. The better ones are in the form of magnesium citrate. The cheap supplements are in the form of magnesium oxide which are not absorbed very well - hence the laxative effect! Still, if you eat a good diet, you don't need supplements.

The only time your electrolyte level may get low is on a super hot day where you sweat profusely. That is how you lose electrolytes. And if you eat a variety of foods, you likely replace your electrolytes sufficiently. If you only eat junk food, then yeah, you may have low electrolyte/mineral levels.

chaadster

Post #7
post #16
BikeForums 20 posts later:

seypat

I'm a fast twitcher that's been doing endurance sports now for around 15 years. My conclusion is that it's mostly due to muscle fatigue. I do a bike ride in May that has a 12-13 mile climb in the middle. I also do at least 1 marathon in the fall. I've tried different training methods for both events through the years and have went into each with as much as a 15lb weight variance. The climb has a SAG at the halfway point. I've never made it to the halfway SAG before cramping. Got within 100 yards one year. Then I cramp again before the top. My body can't climb for 45 minutes-1hr straight. Same with the marathon. I always start getting crampy in the 21st mile. Reducing the pace doesn't change much. Running Galloway(intervals) doesn't help much either. Training helps, but in the end it boils down to what you were born with.

pdlamb

Every time I read some variation of this argument, I think to myself, "That's someone who lives where it's cool." To make a blanket claim that you don't need additional sodium (salt) if you eat a normal diet is saying that your perspective is very narrow and your experience is limited.

I've needed a salt pill after a summer week of commuting, back when my commute was only 13 miles. I've needed extra salt after a nice ride in Arizona, when my clothes crunched when I undressed, because they had salt crystals all over them -- but were dry. Ditto for summer rides in Utah and Wyoming when the temps were only in the high 80s or low 90s. (FWIW, those temperatures are only warm, not hot!)

If I could, I'd sentence the author to a five minute lecture from my wife about how I put too much salt on my food. And that's when I didn't mention taking a salt pill before dinner!

livedarklions

I think everyone agrees that cramping can be associated with overworking a muscle, it's just that no one knows why that causes cramping. My experience agrees with yours in that I tend to get cramps in the early spring when I go back to riding after doing elliptical training for cardio during the winter. There's some differences in which leg muscles get used the most between the activities, and the ones that are used more heavily for biking get crampy from time to time until they're back to full conditioning.

livedarklions

I definitely put more salt on my food in the summer than I do in the winter, for what it's worth, I crave the stuff after sweating in the heat. I still don't think it has much if anything to do with localized cramping. If you have hyponatremia so bad that you were cramping, it'd likely be accompanied by a whole lot of other really bad symptoms, and it wouldn't be confined to one or two muscles.

wolfchild

I disagree that salt tablets and electrolyte supplements are a necessity when riding in hot weather...You can get all the salt and electrolytes that your body needs from eating snacks and food... Eating a small bag of salt and vinegar potato chips or a bag of doritos will supply your body with all the electrolytes and salt that your body needs. I've been doing that for years and years and never experienced a cramp in my life.

indyfabz

Read up on the “Pickle Juice Game.” Eagles creamed the Cowboys in 100+ degree heat after drinking pickle juice before the game. What is not mentioned in many of the articles is that several Dallas players succumbed to the conditions.

veganbikes

I am not a follower of American football but it is pretty cool story.

wolfchild

I tried Gatorade few times and it was horrible, hate everything about it. My drink of choice is Milk 2 GO, it keeps well for a few hours without refrigeration or just stop at a convenience store and buy as needed.

NJgreyhead

I've been a heavy cramper all my life. What works for me is SaltStick capsules, two taken every 20 miles or so (I have no BP issues). If I fall behind on my intake, they can even relieve my cramping after it starts.
They contain 4 electrolytes, the main one being sodium.
If they put enough sodium in sports drinks to work most effectively, people wouldn't want to drink the stuff. Capsules get the electrolytes into the system without concerns about the taste.
HTH.

Lombard

Maybe where you live. I consider those temps HOT, but then I'm a New Englander. I do most of my summer rides in the morning and am back before noon.

Lombard

Heat stress, heat exhaustion and heat stroke can happen regardless of electrolyte level.

Surprising the Dallas players succumbed to the heat. Isn't it usually hot in Dallas? You would think they would be used to it.

Polaris OBark

This is anecdotal but reproducible. I rode my wife's gravel e-bike about 10 miles, mostly uphill (about 2000 ft total climbing), today. I made a point of taking it easy. My average speed was under 10 mph. I was in "tour" mode for most of it, but on two steep hills, put it into "sport." I didn't really break a sweat. But what I did get was a leg cramp, which is still persisting, 4 hours later.

I've had this happen before on this bike. The fit is ok but not perfect. I can ride her other (non-e) bikes with no issue.

The only thing I can think of is that the e-bike encourages/demands the rider to constantly spin. If you stop pedaling, it quickly comes to a halt. Restarting is about as much fun as doing so on a touring bike. For those reasons, I tend to spin continuously, which reproducibly gives me a cramp. Oddly, I only get it in the left leg.

MoAlpha

This may be true in an absolute sense, but sodium repletion during long, hot events does improve performance and the combination of sodium and glucose aids water absorption by the gut. There are active transport systems for sodium and glucose and they also effectively pump water across the gut because it follows sodium and glucose into the circulation. I'm not fond of sports drinks either. They are hard on the stomach because of their high osmolarity, but they do work.