Cramping

[Tony]

I did 72 miles today. This is the second time in the last two weeks after doing a long ride that I have experienced cramping in my legs, painful. I felt like I drank enough water throughout the ride and after. What do most folks use to combat cramping?
Thanks for any advice.

[rain dogs]

I think a good place to start looking is your sodium and potassium levels (keep in mind, I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the internerds.)

[gngroup]

I recently did the Levi Gran Fondo and one of the guys I was riding with said that he took ibuprofren during long rides to prevent cramping.

Personally, I'd say drink plenty of liquid the night before the ride, add an electrolyte tablet/powder to one of your water bottles, and maybe do some stretching the morning of the ride. A banana on your way out the door can't hurt either!

[shovelhd]

Pre hydration is important, as is electrolyte replacement on the bike. Plain water may not be adequate. I use Gatorade G2, others like Nuun tablets or other additives. Analgesics aren't a good idea.

[ultraman6970]

I don't ride too much and the intensity of the rides is not too hard either, but what I noticed is that when the seatpost height is in the wrong place you increase the tendency of having cramps, apparently because a set of muscles is working more than the other ones, or working in the wrong position. For example if quads cramps then you might have the saddle a few mm too high, you get old and the body gets picky.

[1centaur]

Cramping threads lead in these directions: electrolytes (everyone is different vis potassium, sodium, magnesium) and the many, many ways to get them. This is the most commonly effective path, the quickest and the easiest.

Fitness: This is a popular recent twist - fit/trained people don't get cramps very much. My advice - take electrolytes while you train :)

Fluids.

In my experience, you if have symptoms that last several days, your tested electrolytes may fall within normal bounds medically, but those tests somehow don't capture the real needs of the body. Being prehydrated, topped up on the electrolytes your chemistry tends to shed (experiment), and relatively fit should solve 99% of cramping problems. The 1% could be medical or equipment/position related.

Blackstrap molasses packs a powerful potassium punch and is my electrolyte boost of choice pre or post ride. I may never cramp when I have taken it, even if my fitness is not what it was.

[dekindy]

Don't ride beyond your fitness level.

Get fitter.

Are you by any chance taking cholesterol meds; side effects are muscle pain that may be mistaken for cramps? Classic problem and discussed in a very long thread on another forum. My riding buddy quit taking his meds because he was on the borderline cholesterol wise and he wanted to ride his bicycle.

[laupsi]

...don't give up on it, keep riding and eventually the cramping will subside or at least be minimized. (caveat, you will have to properly hydrate and stretch those larger muscle groups, but riding more often will enhance your fitness base and eventually your body will adapt to the heightened demands)

[thwart]

I recently did the Levi Gran Fondo and one of the guys I was riding with said that he took ibuprofen during long rides to prevent cramping.


Bad idea. There is some evidence that NSAID's like ibuprofen can adversely effect your kidneys when taken before or during prolonged strenuous exercise.

[false_Aest]

Lots of things to try.
To add to the list: magnesium.

Potassium and all the other things weren't helping with cramps and muscle twitching. I started taking Mg and it seemed to help. But I'm too pretty to be a statistic.

[etu]

Fitness plus
Endurolytes by Hammer Nutrition

Ibuprofen (NSAID) combined with severe dehydration is a recipe for damaging your kidneys! Seen this happen a lot.

[Tony]

I think there are several issues playing a role in my cramps. I haven't been hydrating properly before my rides. Not fit yet, and trying to keep up with the stronger riders. I did start taking 15mg of Lipitor and 10mg of Atenolol, hypertension (high blood pressure) several month ago? I've also been trying to keep my heel down and pull through my pedal stroke and not just hammer.

I'm going to hydrate more, get some calcium supplements with magnesium, drink electrolytes during my ride, maybe lower my saddle and see what happens.
Thanks for all the advice!

[josephr]

I think there are several issues playing a role in my cramps. I haven't been hydrating properly before my rides. Not fit yet, and trying to keep up with the stronger riders. I did start taking 15mg of Lipitor and 10mg of Atenolol, hypertension (high blood pressure) several month ago? I've also been trying to keep my heel down and pull through my pedal stroke and not just hammer.

I'm going to hydrate more, get some calcium supplements with magnesium, drink electrolytes during my ride, maybe lower my saddle and see what happens.
Thanks for all the advice!

Not sure if you're a weekend warrior or full-time commuter, but I work M-F so weekends are my main ride days, but the best thing I've done is add in one weeknight ride after work (20-25 miles) and that has helped me a lot with stress management/hypertension, as well as fitness/endurance.

of all these suggestions, hydration is by far #1 and then electrolytes. Everything else might be fine-tuning. Hopefully one day you can convince your doctor that those medications aren't neccessary. :)

[jr59]

It happens to me from time to time.

When it does, it normally happens more than one time.

I always try to eat a banana after every ride, other than just a glide around the block or so.

I never want to eat these bananas, I would rather eat other foods. But the bananas, after, do really help me from cramps.

[nooneline]

Interestingly, there's no science that connects cramping to electrolyte levels. In fact, there's a bit of emerging scientific consensus that they're unconnected.

Here's a decent summary of the peer-reviewed science:
http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/09/ways-to-stop-muscle-cramps/

Basically:
You cramp when you experience exertion that you're not used to, regardless of hydration or electrolyte levels.

The things that help are:
Adequate training prior; rest, stretching, and pickle juice during.

[dekindy]

Keeping up with stronger riders, check.

Lipitor, check. Talk to your doctor about this. My buddy is an RN and what he thought was cramping is probably muscle pain which is a classis side effect. Lots of cyclists taking these types of meds experience this side effect.

Absolutely do not take aspirin or nsaid for exercise related reasons.

[Mark McM]

Interestingly, there's no science that connects cramping to electrolyte levels. In fact, there's a bit of emerging scientific consensus that they're unconnected.

Here's a decent summary of the peer-reviewed science:
http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/09/ways-to-stop-muscle-cramps/

Basically:
You cramp when you experience exertion that you're not used to, regardless of hydration or electrolyte levels.

The things that help are:
Adequate training prior; rest, stretching, and pickle juice during.

This is just another example of things everybody knows are true, but turn out to not be true at all. As another example, it used to be believed that stomach ulcers were caused by stress and eating spicy foods - but it turned out that neither are the real cause. There are many other examples (including in the bicycle world).

Sometimes I wonder how many things that I accept to be true (because everybody else tells me they are true) will later turn out to not be. I'm sure there must be many.

[carpediemracing]

Sometimes I wonder how many things that I accept to be true (because everybody else tells me they are true) will later turn out to not be. I'm sure there must be many.

I believe things too readily, but my brother admitted something during one of those "hanging out with the family" times.

I have a younger (-2 year) brother who I call "my brother" and another younger brother (-7 year) who I call "my little brother".

My brother would tell my little brother all sorts of stuff. He said, for example, that "cold rises". He pointed out the following proofs:
1. What part of a mountain is frozen? The base? No, the top.
2. When a pond freezes, what part freezes first? The bottom? No, the top.
3. (In the old days) Where is the freezer on a fridge? On the bottom? No, the top.
My little brother went many, many years thinking that was fact. At some point he said something to that effect and my mom said, wait, no, that's not right. I think my little brother was 12 or something.

It took until college for my little brother to get rid of another fallacy my brother told him. I don't remember the details but it's basically the "pressure" of printed paper pushing on your eyes, preventing nausea. Therefore it was critical to face forward when reading in a moving vehicle so the "pressure" wouldn't get affected (sitting facing backward would neutralize the pressure). My brother made a comment to my mom when he was 20 or 21 when they got on a train. "How can you face backward and read and not get sick?" "What?"

As far as cramps go I used to cramp like mad when I was 15 to about 25 years old. I trained a lot for some of those years (10k miles when I was 19, closer to 5k miles annually otherwise) so it wasn't like I wasn't riding. I tried everything to prevent cramps but I could never figure out what worked and what didn't work.

Recently (4 years ago?) I have found that if I drink an electrolyte drink shortly before or during a hard effort (i.e. crit) I cramp within minutes. This has been while I was hydrated, dehydrated, hungry, not hungry, etc. I now carry only water with me and drink sugary drinks (soda) if I feel the need for calories. The last time I drank an electrolyte drink, after deciding that I was just imagining things, I cramped really hard about 5-10 minutes into the race. I was bummed out and stopped drinking the stuff before races.