Leg cramp question

[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/he...syahoo&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?

[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!)