I tend to cramp up a bit after long rides and find (it may be completely palcebo 🙂 ) that if I fill my bottle up with some Isotonic powder (I’ve got a big pot of the stuff indoor) things seem to be quite a bit better.

Anyways, out on a ride the other day and noticed someone had these big tablets you could just drop into a water bottle once you filled up again…Good idea thought I.

Would be interested to hear views/recommendations on what’s available.

Isotonic, what else is there to consider?

Cheers.

I use the high 5 tablets and sis go fuel depending on what I’m riding. The fuel has carbs in it as well. I too had cramps riding and only twice in 2 years have I cramped up since using the supplements.

If I’m going to drink something that isn’t water, it might as well have carbs in too. So torq or similar. If not then plain water does me with solid food. I cramp when I’m undertrained/ not fit enough for what I’m trying to do usually.

I have used high5 tabs/ nuun etc in the past, but don’t think they helped really. The high 5 ones in particular made me feel sick too after lots of bottles of the stuff. Maybe a sweetener that doesn’t agree with me.

I use High 5, Nuun or SIS depending in which has the best offers on when I need some more.

I agree they seem to prevent me cramping up more than water alone, particularly when its a hot day (this may just be in my imagination though).

I’ve recently turned to science to help me shave those illusive few seconds from Strava.

I bought some High 5 Zero Tablets and some Sci-MX Pro2Go flapjacks for post ride ‘recovery’.

I call bullshit on both.

Flapjack should have the words ‘butter’ or ‘chocolate covered’ preceding it. Not ‘Sci-MX Pro2Go’

Tablets are zero calories AFAIK.

There is evidence that they do nothing but many think otherwise and they do add taste to your water.

Yak – Member

If I’m going to drink something that isn’t water, it might as well have carbs in too. So torq or similar. If not then plain water does me with solid food. I cramp when I’m undertrained/ not fit enough for what I’m trying to do usually.

That there. Also, afaik every company’s carb/energy drink formula contains electrolytes, the only thing in the tablets (except the caffeinated ones).

I was in the same situation as the OP, I sweat, a lot, when riding and have always had trouble with cramp in calves etc.

I’ve tried different isotonic tablets and the like but I’ve ended up making my own for riding by adding a bit of squash, 2 potassium tablets (I think they’re 200mg), and a bit of sea salt to a 750ml bottle of water. I also carry another 750ml bottle of plain water and alternate between the two during a ride.

Has cured my crap issues.

If you need energy also go for banana.

I use baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), it is the main ingredient in some of the tablets.

I sweat like a fat lad in a chocolate factory and out here it got to 36C and 90% humidity on Tuesday. In my 1st year here I cramped badly on a regular basis. I now always use some electrolyte drink and, touch wood, not cramped this year despite riding further and faster. Most rides need 2 x pairs of gloves through sweaty hands.
If it’s a long ride I’ll fill my Camelbak with water, take a waterbottle and use the tablets (Nuun, Camelbak etc – whatever’s on offer)to make up extra bottles as I go. It keeps the bladder clean.
For road rides it’s 2 bottles and one has a carb / electrolyte and the other just electrolyte.
Experiment and see what works for you.

Has cured my crap issues.

what about the cramps though ???

Oh, a sort of PSA – it seems the sugar free, zero calorie tablets I’ve bought are “about as useful as tits on a bull” as those all so illusive ‘electrolytes’ sort of need sugar to work and/or are made of sugar, or at least are something to do with them – no one seems really sure, but sugar-free electrolyte is an oxymoron.

I like Nuun mostly because they taste great, but given they seem to help hangovers so well I’m fairly convinced of their extra hydrating powers too.

Except grape flavour, which is an amazing speed booster ensuring you get round quicker in order to drink absolutely anything else.

Touch wood I don’t tend to suffer from cramps, but I’ve been using/been suckered into buying electrolyte tabs for awhile, along with various energy wonder powders. Quite often I would find I got an upset tum when using then (and I never went crazy-8 bonkers, I know an overindulgance is a recipe for gastric distress), figured I might be over-carbing so knocked the energy drinks on the head, but on Sunday I did London Brighton with the work mob with electrolyte tabs in me bottles and had exactly the same thing. Unless it’s cycling that makes my tummy want to poop, I can’t help but think it’s got to be the tabs. Screw the lot of it, for me from now on.

When I’m being lazy I usually dunk two thirds of a generic-own brand still lucozade clone into the camelbak and top it up with water. not the orange ones though – they stain the bladder).

I have used tablets when I’ve been feeling a bit more fancy – if they have carbs in I usually dilute a lot more than they suggest – especially for an all day ride.

I use high five zeros. I like the berry taste and is masks the taste if my stinking (camelbak) bladder. Prefer to do that and eat gels than have energy and hydration in one

Someone in work mentioned magnesium the other day, I always thought they put that in bike frames in the 90’s to make them go faster.

Fair enough it’s not a bad thing to make sure you get enough of in your regular diet, but how could it help during exercise. Salts I understand, carbs I can understand, but magnesium, is that something else that you loose a lot of whilst you sweat?

“Salts” can include magnesium salts. How important they are is a different matter… I’m doing an ultra tonight/tomorrow, and will be taking electrolytes, but I wouldn’t bother for a 3 hour bike ride…

I like the high5 tablets. I find that if I fill my camelback with water I drink the whole lot far too quickly and end up pissing like a racehorse. With the electrolytes I drink much much less (almost halved). So I think there’s something in it with regards to keeping you hydrated, guess it stops you running low on electrolytes which would cause you to piss more, which would cause you to drink more which would flush more electrolytes out, etc.

OK it’s not a double blind study on a large group. But it is a camelback so I’ve no idea how much I’m drinking as I ride, I just used about 1.5-2.0l consistently with electrolytes and 3.0l+ (i.e. emptied it before getting home) with just water in it.

I’m only using 1 tablet per 1.0l to 1.5l, the recommended dose is 1 or 2 per 750ml, so I think some is better than none, but lots probably aren’t necessary.

Oh, a sort of PSA – it seems the sugar free, zero calorie tablets I’ve bought are “about as useful as tits on a bull” as those all so illusive ‘electrolytes’ sort of need sugar to work and/or are made of sugar, or at least are something to do with them – no one seems really sure, but sugar-free electrolyte is an oxymoron.

Sort of.

Sugar isn’t an electrolyte, there are no ionic bonds involved, it won’t dissociate and conduct electricity in solution. But it does alter the osmotic potential of the solution. A drink having the same osmotic potential as your blood is generally seen as a good thing, if it’s higher then your body struggles to absorb it (e.g. gells with no water) as it absorbs the water quickly leaving the sugar behind. If it’s lower than your body it’s absorbed quicker as the water passes through the gut in an attempt to equalise the potential on both sides (blood being quite high osmotic potential as it’s full of salt/sugar). But you need some electrolytes in the drink as your constantly pissing/sweating them out and as they deplete the body pisses out water to try and keep the concentration up, which leads to dehydration and eventually cramp when the body runs so low that it can no longer supply the nerve cells in the muscles with the electrolytes needed to send signals.

There are cheaper ways to do it, dioralyte etc, and there’s no consensus on what electrolytes you actually need, sis, high5, torq, wiggle own brands all have their own compositions. But the tablets are fairly cheap, add some flavour and take some of the guesswork out of dosage.

I suffer with cramp (mostly due to being too fat/unfit) however using High 5 Zero tabs pretty much stops it happening.

I also think I ache less the next day if I use High 5, rather than plain squash in my bottles.

For longer rides I take one bottle with high 5 zero, and another with an energy drink (high 5 2:1)

As others have said, the tablets are fairly cheap (think I paid less than £4 for 20 high 5 tabs) so can’t see any reason to either not do it, or to muck about making your own potions.

Zero tabs on CRC were £3.15 earlier this week.
Worth a punt at that.

I’ve read somewhere that sugar aids in the absorbtion of electrolytes, so it would appear that sugar is an active ingredient to a greater or lesser extent.

I rode the Cape Argus three times in the hot Cape Town summer when you sweat like a lunatic. The first two years I cramped dreadfully during the feed stops but the third year I used some isotonic tabs in my drink bottles and – no cramp!

Also went out for a quickie last night and the legs were feeling a bit sore and tired from a big ride on Tuesday. Out of interest I dropped a tab into my bottle and maybe it was just coincidence, or warming up, but after a couple of miles and a few swigs I was feeling pretty good and going well, so well that I went round again and tackled my local killer climb.

Have look CNP Professional Endurance range. They have the Electroltye tabes in a Pineapple or Ginger flavour, The ginger is a very nice flavour. Try their Recover powder for post ride.

I use High5 Zero’s, Nuun’s or the SiS equivalent, mainly based on what’s cheap. There may be some electrolyte benefit but for me at least, I just like the taste and tend to drink more with them in the bottle than not. I generally like to keep by bottles carb free and take in my every from gels and banana’s, for me this works best.

Re. cramp, I was adamant that I used to get it due to lack of something, tried drinking tonic water (quinine helps apparently), eletrolyte tablets, even Elete water, you name it, non worked in stopping it though. What did work was getting fitter, it’s not an easy option but I no longer cramp up unless I’m either very dehydrated (my fault for not drinking enough water) or I’m riding more than 6 hours (my fault again, need to get fitter). Sadly, I think this applies to most people.

freeagent

As others have said, the tablets are fairly cheap (think I paid less than £4 for 20 high 5 tabs) so can’t see any reason to either not do it, or to muck about making your own potions.

Last time I checked High5 Zeros contained aspartame which has had all sorts of negative press (although I don’t know if there’s been any hard evidence against it). So one reason not to do it might be that most of those tablets are nothing more than sweetener, salts and caffeine.

So one reason not to do it might be that most of those tablets are nothing more than sweetener, salts and caffeine.

The caffeinated ones do give me a little lift, but in the main I’ve accepted that sugary squash tastes nicer and is probably as effective for most of my rides.

If I’m pushing a bit harder I’ll go with electrolytes and/or energy drink for the psychological effect as much as anything.

Earlier this year I started a YouTube channel reviewing endurance related products. I’m a really salty sweater so I’ve review A LOT of electrolyte drinks over the past few months.

In my experience, and from what nutritionists and companies tell me, P-Jay isn’t entirely wrong. Having some calories coming from a 50/50 glucose/fructose source will speed up water and electrolyte absorption and cause less sloshing around in the stomach.

I do find that Nuuns quench my thirst more, but my theory is that it’s because they satisfy a taste urge rather than hydrate more. I’ve actually had more cramping issues when using Nuun even though I’m not as thirsty as when I use products like OSMO, Skratch, and SOS Rehydrate.

I hope you guys don’t take this as spammy, but I’m new to putting together these videos so I want to get them out there and hear what everything thinks. If you’ve got any critiques or suggestions on what products to review please fire them over!

OSMO Active Hydration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pygd1t3NLGk

OSMO Preload Hydration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy0lCsEVFBQ

Skratch Exercise Hydration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoPDdgAmO2Y

I thought all this stuff had been debunked? I used to get calf cramps around the 35 to 40 mile mark and have always used those hi5 big tabs as they came free from wiggle and added a bit of flavour to the water. Improving fitness sorted out my cramp problem I’m afraid to say.

done a few events in hot, very hot weather( marsh brook 32c) , lots of cramp with just water, slight cramp with hi 5 tabs, none with the SIS tabs, staying with SIS tabs ( i preload with one tab before ride, if its 25+)

getting fitter helps, but drinking water is easily overlooked by a lot of people

Aldo effervescent vit C tabs – do just the same job as the High 5 one so, for a tiny fraction of the price – that’s what I use..! 🙂

If I’m out for a sub 2hr ride, then I don’t need or want extra carbs in my drink. If it’s warm I’ll still sweat a lot and lose electrolytes so it makes sense to replenish IMHO. Drinking free water alone is fine but probably not as effective.

You can make your own with fruit squash, water, salt and sugar but the Hi-Five tablets are just dead easy to use and not really expensive. Meh.

This is an interesting read from Torq Also had a good chat with them at a show about this.

I’m pretty sure they work; I find that I get random cramp attacks in my legs after a long hot ride without using the tabs. With the tabs – no problems at all. Half a tab in a drink bottle with two fingers of maltodextrin powder from Myprotein makes the perfect drink for me and definitely staves off the fade for longer.