anybody have any tips on reducing leg cramp when riding other than hydration. Any foods they take etc.

I’ve always been advised to eat bananas because of their potassium content, and to take on salts with hydration (currently really like nuun – partly coz it makes water drinkable).

However – the BEST piece of advice came from a friends father who was in the army. He says that hours of square-bashing caused cramp, and the best ‘cure’ was actually to consciously push your toes to the top of the boot / avoid scrunching or gripping your toes. I’ve tried this on quite a few long rides now, and cramp is a thing of the past – huzzah!

Mine were largely sorted using the Nuun tablets

Mine were largely sorted using the Nuun tablets

…as were mine.

and mine.

Must have tried just about evrything and still get cramp although only really when racing or on really big rides like the Merida marathons. Will try and remember the toe tip.

Nuun works for me as well.

Try a drink of tonic water pre/post ride, the quenine content helps with cramp.

I’m a convert to the ‘muscle fatigue’ theory of cramp; I don’t think it is related to electrolytes at all.

Why do you only get cramp in the muscles you have fatigued if it is a global lack of electrolytes?

Why do studies show no difference in electrolyte concentration in those who cramp compared to those who don’t?

Look here, read and be converted; http://www.sportsscientists.com/2007/11/muscle-cramps-part-1-theories-and.html

Low electrolyte levels are not the exclusive cause of cramp but to say it never is would be equally wrong. Electrolytes are necessary for your muscles to “fire” without them they do not work properly. If you new this you would see how a lack of electrolytes plays a part as does fatigue.

be converted, as you say.

I’ve not really ever had it, perhaps due to my above average banana consumption since the age of three? Or maybe I give up and my legs stop working before it has a chance to strike!

If you new this you would see how a lack of electrolytes plays a part as does fatigue.

As someone far more familiar than you with electrolytes, both in terms of measurement and replacement, I’m happy to stick with the idea that cramp is related to fatigue and its effect on nerve firing rather than a lack of bananas…

+1 crikey

[As someone far more familiar than you with electrolytes, both in terms of measurement and replacement, I’m happy to stick with the idea that cramp is related to fatigue and its effect on nerve firing rather than a lack of bananas… ]

Bit confident fella – PhD in piss poor hypotheses? The science toted around these parts in relation to hydration (I’m specifically thinking of the Gatorade study) is pure guff. In fact the term ‘sports science’ is anachronistic. Sweating does lead to appreciable salt loss – so on a long ride, replacing H2O alone makes little or no sense. Whether there is a direct relationship between salt loss and cramp is open to conjecture but electrolyte replacement does seem to work for some singletrack folk including myself. Perhaps we are the sweaty minority?

Crampex tablets work for me!

Bit confident fella

No, I’m very confident that I measure and replace a lot more electrolytes than most.

Have you read the above article? It suggests that sports drinks and especially those puporting to replace lost electrolytes are based on poor science.

The problems with the serum electrolyte depletion theory

First of all, there is a key conceptual problem here, and that is that when you sweat, you don’t actually reduce electrolyte concentration. That is, there are certainly electrolytes in the sweat, but the concentration of these electrolytes is so low, that sweating is likely to make you HYPERTONIC, not hypotonic. We looked at this in our posts on fluid – when you sweat, you lose more water than electrolytes, because the sweat is HYPOTONIC. Therefore, sweating cannot lead to a fall in electrolyte concentration.

What transpired was that Gatorade (and the rest of the ‘industry’, it must be said) developed the theory of “salty sweaters”, which is the term they gave to people who they said have abnormally high salt levels in their sweat. Small problem – no one actually knows what a salty sweater is. How much salt does there need to be in the sweat before you are placed in this group? No one knows. Recently, Professor Martin Schwellnus, widely published in this area, posed this question to scientists at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute at a conference on cramping – he received no answer.

The truth is, even the saltiest sweaters around still have hypotonic sweat, and so the more they sweat, the more they will cause their electrolyte levels to rise, not to decrease. This is a very obvious problem that is overlooked by the electrolyte replacement advocates.

from here;http://www.sportsscientists.com/2007/11/muscle-cramps-part-1-theories-and.html

I suffer badly in races but am OK when not racing, the extra push of the race seems to go for my legs. A mate carries salt sachets and takes one with his water and has found it to be a miracle cure so I can’t wait to try this out.

I suffer badly in races but am OK when not racing, the extra push of the race seems to go for my legs.

…exactly…..

It’s about neuro-muscular fatigue, not electrolytes…

OK, OK, so here is what I know as an expert in getting really bad cramp. If I ride to my limits (which reduce in cold weather) I will cramp in muscles in my legs, usually thigh muscles, but as I get more fit, my range extends before it hits, but as I progress a defined muscle group in both legs will ‘sing’. So once they have had their 15mins of pain ( read: me rolling around in agony) they will be fine on the following ride, and an alternate muscle set ( in both legs will have their say.

So what effect does salt, isotonics or bananas have on this…they give me greater range, but I find hydrating before exercise also helps. Nuun helps with post ride head aches like no other. They are magic.

Believe me I’ve read it.

You say – [It suggests that sports drinks and especially those purporting to replace lost electrolytes are based on poor science.]

I say – TRUE.

I also say – The science they use to refute the guff is also guff.

Brings me back to my original point – its ALL guff.

So if you loose a shed load of salt on a ride and replacing it makes you feel much better what are you going to do? Wait till somebody produces unequivocal evidence in favour of salt supplements?

so is sea salt the answer? Mix it with squash and off you go?

Has anyone found a way to dissolve haribo tangfastic in a camelback?

I found compression shorts worked for me. Even with bananas and SIS I still used to get it on long rides but a pair of Skins shorts worked a treat.

[so is sea salt the answer?]

Doesn’t that just induce vomiting?