Cramp / Cramps / Cramping

this is why they invented Gatorade. it restores your electrolytes. drink it, it is good.

if you're really electrolyte deficient, you could try mixing some of the gastro powder (not sure of brandname, gastrolyte??) that you can get from pharmacies for when you suffer diarrhoea. you mix it with water and it's designed to quickly fix dehydration and electrolyte loss.

Dioralyte is the brand name I've seen.

The purple one tastes like shit. I'd rather just put up with the salty taste than disguise it with 400 tonnes of artificial blackcurrant flavour. Not sure what other options are available but I'd avoid that one.

The only place I seem to get cramp is once in a blue moon in my toes.... I've tried rubbing a bannana on my feet, but it just makes my socks smell.

Has he gone then?

Flounced

you mix it with water and it's designed to quickly fix dehydration and electrolyte loss.

I use these ('coz I haz kidz):

James appears happier these days. Maybe he needed a rest.

He's into meat right now. Piglets, chickens... You name it - he smokes it. He's good like that.
You should've come up on Saturday.

I use these ('coz I haz kidz):

EEEUUGHHH!!! EEEEUUGGHHH!!!! The evil purple obscenity!!!

pukes

then needs Dioralyte for the fluid depletion

Alfie, is that whilst wanking..?

Someone earlier said choc milk is good for salts, +1
at least as long as it's real choc, not choc flavoured milk... Milk is a very good recovery drink and adding coco to it increases the benifits.

Also cramps in the night are common because your heart slows in you sleep and extremities don't get as much blood (can be made worse by bad sleeping positions cutting off blood supply too)... So people who are borderline dehydrated/low in electrolytes will get them then... Like other cramps it's a sign you are either overdoing it or not drinking enough water/not taking in enough salts.

I only do 30 miles a day, but I drink about 4 litres of water at the moment (because of the heat)...

Not quite cramp, but I got bitten to crap all over my legs by some little flies a bit like sandflies - really horrible and painful, big red blotches where the blood thinners they inject have spread through my tissues. Anyway, since then my calfs have been significantly stiffer, not cramping but almost like they're cold. Hopefully it'll be gone soon - but I'm not going to dig up the allotment in the evening anymore as these little bastards are everywhere and awful. Where's the DEET when you need it?

Has anyone here even mentioned Calcium?

Calcium is needed to keep the wiring/electrics of your muscles working. There has been a lot of info about explaining how cyclists are usually chronically short of calcium.

Low calcium = poor muscle contraction and cramps.

Also Creatine is involved in the ATP energy/power processes in the muscles. Creatine comes from red meat, those without it may have trouble making repeateded forceful muscle contractions. Like getting up hills. Muscles will just run out of steam.

Has anyone here even mentioned Calcium?

Jul 2008
http://www.lfgss.com/thread7742.html#post218586

http://thehippy.net/Cycling/a_b_faq.htm#Sect2.7.1
Hydration, electrolyte balance (that's potassium, magnesium, calcium and not just sodium!), sleep, training, exercise load, positioning all play a part. Do you stretch post-ride? Do you eat bananas? Do you drink before, during, after the ride?

Aug 2008
http://www.lfgss.com/thread7742.html#post258213

Potassium, magnesium and calcium are all salts and need to be balanced within your body. When people say "eat salt" blah they should be mentioning the fact that this isn't just table salt (sodium).. you need other salts/electrolytes. Sports drink and enough of it during intense exercise or hot weather helps.
Bananas are high in potassium I believe (and probably other minerals) so these are a good thing to eat during or post ride.
Stretching post ride will also help.
Coffee has no effect if you are a regular drinker. Your body adjusts its fluid balance around your normal diuretic intake. If you don't normally drink coffee and slam down a few espressos you might have to drink more to make up for the subsequent fluid loss.

If you don't like bananas, there is even more potassium in raisins!

Nothing to add personally but this is a great thread, some really interesting information.

^ lolz

drink more water max

This thread only seems to get some attention in hot Julys.
I just had monster cramp after a long day on the bike, deep in my thigh, and no amount of stretching and massage would stop it coming back every time I sat down.
Anyone else getting cramps in this heat?

I did on Sunday. 20 miles to pub to watch Tour de F, 5 pints of cider, 19.5 miles homeward bound and then a calf cramp that brought me to tears. Still hurts two days later :(

lots of raisins , bananas and high5 tablets will sort it for most people , I can't recomend Trigger point rollers enough though

I banana everyday (excuse the Americanism), it was the booze what done it. I googled the rollers, is that used a preventative or as an after-the-paralysis assistant?

Not normally affected by cramp but stricken by *symmetrical *cramps last night. Riding out, it was in my calves (top, inside of centre) and back it was just above the knee and, again, towards the inside.

They seemed to come on when I tried to push it, but curiously I was unaffected during the TT.

Having read through the thread, it seems likely that a couple of weeks off the bike with a back strain (which I was treating with internal application of distilled sugar cane) is the root cause: ie dehydration and lack of salts.

However, getting cramp in both legs at the same time and in the same place suggests there is something else afoot. Position was briefly mentioned upthread: I moved my saddle forward and up before the ride, so perhaps that was it?

Anyone else had double-cramps and do you think I will become accustomed to the new position or is it "wrong"?

http://regressing.deadspin.com/everything-you-know-about-cramps-is-wrong-and-gatorade-1587102837

http://regressing.deadspin.com/everything-you-know-about-cramps-is-wrong-and-gatorade-1587102837

It would be nice if the arguments were backed up with references to the appropriate scientific articles... but an interesting read non the less.

Hardly scientific, but my own experience on a 200 with only three hours sleep, supports this.

The last fifty were particularly lumpy and when I got out of the saddle, the tops of my thighs were fluttering with "pre-cramp": I guess if I had stopped pedalling I would have seized-up there and then.

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I've been off the bike for a week and as has happened before when I stopped riding I get these weird sharp, stabbing pains like a kind of cramp just walking around. Along both thighs. Fucking painful and meant I was limping most of yesterday. #crampnotcramp

Did 50 odd today and took in a bit of Epping forest....whilst i took a few climbs on, there was nothing particularly hard, yet tonight, I have had two belts of the worst cramp ever.......it seems to be on my inner thigh, starting just above the knee, and going midway up my inner hamstring.. By fuck, it smarts! My family nearly saw a grown man crying....

U ok hun?