Leg cramp question

[cwodiva]

Hey ladies,
I just posted in the getting to know you, so I guess I got the introductions out of the way. I have a leg cramp question for ya'll. Lately I've been getting leg cramps in the middle portion of my long rides (i.e. mile 40 of mile 55). I just moved to Florida and it is a lot hotter here than in Georgia. (I've been riding for about 4 years now) I drink a lot on my ride, a bottle an hour of sports drink. Sometimes the rides get pretty intense, more like road races, am I cramping because of just working harder than I'm used to or do I need to drink more? It happens mostly on the front part of my thighs upper to lower, almost to knee. I can usually ride through it, but I really lose power and have to slow down. What do ya'll do to avoid leg cramps?

Steph

[Tiffany]

First, welcome to the board. I'm new here myself but have found that I'm already hooked. :) Are you drinking plenty of water BEFORE you ride? Some people forget that we should pre-hydrate before a ride as well. If we wait until we're already riding sometimes it's too late. Also, depending on how hot it really is (it's 104 here today with high humidity), I can go through 2 water bottles per hour on my rides.

[Ninabike]

I had that happen to me and another rider pointed out that riding in too high a gear can cause cramping in the inner thigh. Spinning is better than mashing. BTW, welcome to the board!!

[NJBikeGal]

Bananas, bananas, bananas...or any other way to get potassium into your system. I have teammates that swear by chewing on Tums, also...supposedly it helps to avoid cramping.

[SouthernBelle]

You can definitely sweat out potassium. Find a sportsdrink with potassium in addition to the other things mentioned here.

[batsheva]

the so called sports drinks do not have proper quantities of electrolytes in them-- I just buy Pedialyte from the baby aisle at the supermarket and that has the physiological sugar and electrolyte balance appropriate for replacement - babies have same electrolyte quantities as we do. Plus is quite cheap and often on 2 for 1 special at the supermarket-- I have out i bottle water and i bottle Pedialyte on my bike here in Orlando and no probs with cramps or stuff since.

batsheva

[Zen]

Mile forty seems to be cramp time for me too and for that reason 40 has been my longest to date.
I drink 1:1 gatorade-water mix but I think I may need to eat more often.
Still experimenting with that.

[TsPoet]

Calcium and/or divalent cations. They are needed for muscle contraction. This question comes up a lot, many of us have trouble with cramping. I think we all have our own answer. For me, calcium. Not Tums or other meds, calcium (why take a medication you don't need?). I've noted that a lot of sports drinks and electrolyte replacements have calcium as a major ingredient.
What works for me:
1) take a calcium/Magnesium/Vit D tablet right before a ride, and then every 50 miles or so (I like Citrical, but not sure any other brand wouldn't be just as good)
2) hydrate
3) Stretch - lightly before a ride and do a good job after the ride to lessen the cramps next time. I also stretch on the bike - in a downhill section pedal backwards to a place where you feel a stretch on the muscle in question if you can (for me it's my calves, so I just push the heal down while using the other leg to push on the pedal to give resistance).

Another thing you might try is endurolytes - many of my long distance riding guy friends swear by the stuff. Interestingly, it contains a lot of calcium. But, it has a lot of other things in it, too.

[cwodiva]

Thanks ladies! I'm going to try all of the above suggestions and see what works.

[spokewench]

Do a search on leg cramps under the health section. I remember a really good article someone posted on cramps, what causes them, etc.

[withm]

Here's a very interesting story from the NY Times today on muscle
cramps - that come from running, swimming, cycling, or even sleeping
(the worst!). It says there are no definitive studies that can really pinpoint the cause of cramping, but mentions the usual suspects - exercise, fatigue, dehydration, electrolytes, potassium, and stretching.....

The article is called
A Long-Running Mystery, the Common Cramp

and can be found here

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/health/nutrition/14BEST.html?ex=1360731600&en=a114ec0458a1b7cb&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

[OakLeaf]

Do the old weighing-yourself trick to make sure you're drinking enough water. Weigh yourself before and after your ride - for every pound you're lighter, you're one pint of water short. One bottle per hour is not even close to nearly enough for me even in cooler weather, but everyone sweats out differently. That trick doesn't say whether or not you were well hydrated before you weighed yourself the first time, but it's a good yardstick.

But... I've never, ever in my life had a quadriceps cramp. Yowch, just thinking about it hurts. I wonder if it just has more to do with the kind of riding you're doing. When I come to Florida for the winter, those long, hard, windy spins in the saddle are totally different on my body than the constant short, steep hills I do in the summertimes. When did you move; are you from the hilly part of Georgia; and did you start getting the cramps right away?

[Zen]

"What causes cramps?

“I would say the answer to that question is still open to investigation,” he said. And, he added, he hopes someone takes it up."

That was rather anti-climactic.
I wonder why there have been no studies done on this?

It would seem to me that cramping can be life threatening. After all, the heart is a muscle too.

[OakLeaf]

It would seem to me that cramping can be life threatening. After all, the heart is a muscle too.

Well, to swimmers it is life-threatening, as the story pointed out, and also to anyone who suffers a particularly severe cramp while in traffic. But if there were any connection between heart rhythm disorders and skeletal muscle cramps, I can't imagine someone wouldn't have noticed it by now.

I'm still fixating on the idea of a quad cramp, though. I've had the usual calf, hamstring, foot and toe cramps of course, and the story only mentions the large posterior leg muscles. Quick survey: how many of y'all have ever had a cramp in a quad? Tibialis anterior? Dorsal foot muscles?

[Zen]

But if there were any connection between heart rhythm disorders and skeletal muscle cramps, I can't imagine someone wouldn't have noticed it by now.


Not rhythm disorders, full out cramping, i.e., unable to move, seized up. This is why there's a warning on diuretics about taking potassium supplements.

I've had full body cramps before but that was related to a medical condition, use of diuretics, potassium imbalance and dehydration.
I'm a mess.

[Melalvai]

Do the old weighing-yourself trick to make sure you're drinking enough water. Weigh yourself before and after your ride - for every pound you're lighter, you're one pint of water short.
LOL. I get these cramps frequently in my calves, in the dead of night. It can't possibly be that I'm not drinking enough water, because I just had a visit with a urologist who told me my frequent UTIs are in part because I drink too much! (water, that is).

He said, a one-liter bladder capacity is amazing, but I really shouldn't go for records here. (I wasn't, I was just trying to get home first...) He also said 2.4 L per day is twice as much as normal, and although I don't have to cut back on my water intake if I don't want to, it wouldn't hurt, and there's no shame in going frequently. (I just get busy and don't want to take the time. And I like water. It never occurred to me that drinking too MUCH could contribute to UTIs!)