Cramping – help please!

I cramped alot at the Dyfi both this year and last year.
In fact I have always gotten cramp either during or after sweaty sport.

I have tried:
1) various electrolyte drinks: SIS Go, Nuun, High5 Electrolyte and now High5 Zero. Some have carbs in them some don't it doesn't appear to make much difference.
2) eating omitting bananas and salty foods.

Has anyone tried anything that really works?

Do you stretch?

Try ZYM? Never had a drama, and they taste nice too..

Nuun works well for me.

Go to the docs and describe your experiences with cramp whilst riding and that you have read that taking quinine tablets will prevent cramp whilst exercising.

I did this and went from having cramp constantly above 25km to not having cramp again whilst riding.

I take a couple the night before a reasonable ride and then one or two the morning of the ride itself.

I've advised friends who were unable to get the tablets from there doctors who I now deal too!!!

Alternatively you could go to the docs and say that you are experiencing night time cramps (which mine are labelled up for during dispensing) and acquire them that way.

My mate is an ironman tri-athlete who suffered badly, i gave him some to try and bish bash bosh, he was cured. This is to prove they help fit blokes not just fat knackers like moi.

You say you've tried the drinks – but have you been good about using them before, during and after? I sweat like a fat lass in a chocolate factory and have found proper prehydrating and well as rehydrating to be a big help – that and Hi5 electrolyte and / or Nuun.

Elete Water added to whatever you want to drink (I use High 5) has cured me. Zym worked too, but the lack of carbs meant I tended to run out of energy instead!

I also take calcium/magnesium/zinc tablets in the run up to a race, if I remember!

Crampex tablets from the chemist sorted my cramp problems out.

+1 for both nuun and elete electrolytes – they've both worked for me!

I have tried:
1) various electrolyte drinks: SIS Go, Nuun, High5 Electrolyte and now High5 Zero. Some have carbs in them some don't it doesn't appear to make much difference.
2) eating omitting bananas and salty foods.

I'm the same! Have tried nuun tablets, I drink before an event, make sure i have salty crisps, Electrolyte drink and i've even tried the elete water njee is talking about. I only get it when doing events (like mayhem, sits, honc etc). For the HONC i actually forced my quad muscles at 75k through the cramp and they 'switched off' and i was fine. I cannot do this for the calf muscle though.

Think i need to go out on some hard training rides of over 5/6 hours and see what happens. I do wonder if it's got something to do with feeling nervous/anxious and maybe the adrenaline is having a negative effect (clutching at straws)

I was suprised how many people were cramping at the Dyfi.
Drink more(not booze) before and get into stretching.
Where do you get the cramp?
Is it in the same place?concentrate stretching there.
I know this doesn't help before a ride, but after a particularly grueling
and/or hot ride you cannot beat dioralite (spelling?),the stuff you give
kids for diarrhea.Works for me ,and every other person I know who has tried it.
It is also much,much cheaper than all the expensive potions available.

J.

Keep yourself well hydrated as a matter of course and drink indian tonic water about 12-16 before exercise

you may have seen me with both legs cramping at the dyfi…so annoying!

i put it down to being unfit (have never cycled so far before) but will be trying some of the above suggestions.

Ive heard licking your riding buddies arms for the salt in their sweat helps …

Gin and tonic for the win.

Try elete http://www.eletewater.co.uk/

Know how you feel – have cramped quite a lot – including at Muc off 8 last month (there was a similar thread then??)

At the Gorrick Enduro last weekend I tried to cut down on the amount of water I was taking (something about diluting salts in body??), included salty peanuts in my ride rations and forced myself to stretch out (in the saddle) as many muscles as possible on each lap – whenever there was a convenient easy descent! Seemed to work for me…

From the above I might just have to include G&T in the pre-ride routine for Mayhem!!

Good luck…

A pinch of quality sea salt in your water.

+1 for tonic water before and during…anyone for Pimms?? Beer for after :o)

also don't forget to eat as well as drink on endurance events, I keep a couple of snack sized pepperoni style sausages in the bag as they're salty and easy to eat and I get sick of too much sugary sweet 'energy' bar fodder.

I got cramp in my calf during sex the other night. That put a right damper on the evening I can tell you.

Do you think I should start stretching before having sex?

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/salt-intake-when-riding

indian tonic water for the win

I've in the past suffered from cramps and am succeptable to it on long rides and when tired.

My personal experience is that that extra salt the night before and tonic water didn't work.

As I've started to push the boundaries of my training to the point where "normally" i'd expect cramp it's holding off, I am using Elete and it does seem to work as I had no cramp or felt like I was getting cramp, was just knackered 🙂

I've had cramp in both quads and calfs as the same time once and just uncliped and fell over 🙂 Funny in hindsight painful at the time.

Could it be something else rather than salt/hydration? I cramped really badly at Dyfi which is something I have never suffered with, instantaneous relief when I loosened the straps on my knee pads across the bottom of my quads so the cramp must've been due to reduced blood flow. were you wearing something extra to normal, pads, knee warmers, new undershorts? possible extra causal factor.

Will confess that I haven't read all of the above so what I'm about to say may already have been said.

There are a couple of likely reasons why you're cramping…a lack of sodium, a lack of potassium or a lack of condition. I'll take those in turn.

Lack of sodium: Salt. A bit (and I do mean a bit) of salt is good for you. Can't remember what it does but I do know that without it you get cramp. Check the packaging of your sports potions to see how much you're getting.

Lack of potassium. As above really. Bananas are a good source of potassium, and they're full of energy too…I actually quite like them as food for endurance sport.

Now…lack of condition. I've never met you, never been for a ride with you, never even seen you so take the general ideas that I'm about to suggest and then adapt and apply them to yourself. You cramped up at an event…at a guess you were probably hyped up on adrenaline (even if you didn't notice it) and trying to ride further and farther than you normally would. A cramp is your bodies way of saying to you "Hold on there fellah! My muscles have just created a whole LOAD of waste products and I can't get rid of them fast enough…you're going to have to stop until I can sort myself out." So if an event is coming up I'd suggest that you try and do something that mountain bikers seem to dislike doing: train. This might just be going for a ride…but when you get tired and want to stop and admire the view…don't. Push on. Get used to riding further…and if you're feeling really motivated maybe try doing some interval sessions to improve your cardio vascular system.

Finally…an idea for a fairly cheap and fairly effective sports drink:

500ml fruit juice (your choice) diluted with 500ml water. Add 1/5teaspoon of salt. Shake.

Hope something above was helpful and I didn't come accross as too much of an eejit.

"I got cramp in my calf during sex the other night. That put a right damper on the evening I can tell you.

Do you think I should start stretching before having sex? "

🙂

Tonoc water is good – but it has to be the sort with quinine in. Schweppes has it, not sure about others.

Tonoc water is good – but it has to be the sort with quinine gin

there you go 😀

Don't ask me to explain it as it makes absolutely no sense to me BUT a few of the guys in the club take sachets of malt vinegar out on long rides now. They swear by it. It works within a few mins. I've never cramped up but diorylite (sp?) and salty crisps would be my choice.

If it is your calf muscles that are cramping then it might be more to do with seat height on bike, or foot position on the pedals.
For example having your feet further forward on the pedals places less loading on the calf muscles, and is less fatiguing for the calf muscles.

Although this is about "hot foot" it is still relevant to cramp:
http://www.ultracycling.com/equipment/setup.html
"…most RAAM riders eliminated this by positioning their cleats as far back as possible (some even drilling new holes in their shoes) so that the foot is farther forward on the pedal, and "the ball of the foot is not directly over the axle". Such a position, one rider noted, "relieves a lot of the pressure on the nerve that causes hot foot"."

Also trying different shoes can help.
A flatter soled shoe such as Northwave does feel different from the odd shaped Specialized or Shimano shape soles.
Being on a bike for a number of hours is a strain on the feet to be constrained to work in a limited range of movement.

This guy has some thoughts on the subject of pedalling, probaly more thought provoking than an effective cure but worth watching:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNpvASJDpms&feature=related

and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2ZrbnR-0dI&feature=related

Or you can carry on doing the salt intake malarky.

as others above have stated – the most likely reason is that you havn't conditioned your body to work at the level of excertion you ride at during such events.

this is certainly what happens to me if I don't do a good few weeks of high intensity training before events.

my normal group rides are often hard and long, but they tend never to go into the red for as long as I do during an event… so I end up having to make sure I either go out and do some sneeky training interval sessions, or convince our group that for the next 4 weeks we are going to ride each other into the ground during every ride….

either that, or just back off and take the event at a more gentle pace… but if you are like me, that's just boring.

Could it be something else rather than salt/hydration? I cramped really badly at Dyfi which is something I have never suffered with, instantaneous relief when I loosened the straps on my knee pads across the bottom of my quads so the cramp must've been due to reduced blood flow. were you wearing something extra to normal, pads, knee warmers, new undershorts? possible extra causal factor.

Was wearing kneewarmers, but i genrally wear them between September and May.

Anyone else open this thread expecting to read stuff about camping? Or is it just me that can't read 😉