Cramps in calfs. Desperate for help

1.  Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

2.  Calf raises during strength training.  (both seated & standing)

3.  And a good multi vitamin (with potasium) might not hurt.

JK has good recommendations.

I'd also throw out there that you may need to check both your cleat position on your pedals and your fit to the bike.  If the saddle is too high, or if the cleat is too far forward on your shoe then you will usually end up accenting the toe-down approach when you pedal which puts a lot of stress on the calf muscle.  I'd recommend trying to see how you are pedaling during your rides and try and notice if you seem to be riding with a lot of toe-down, heel-up motion.

Au contraire.

If I lay off the bananas for more than a few days my calves will do the same.  So, give the nanas a try.  I down no fewer than two a day...

CP2K

No disrepect intended, but are you saying that being dehydrated, under-conditioned, and short on essential minerals won't contribute to muscle cramping?

I wasn't saying these were the only possible causes, just that eliminating these variables as possibilities was a good start.

Also no disrepect meant towards you or your post.  But to answer the last one .... yes, yes, yes.

There are no significant studies that show hydration leads to cramping during excercise.  In fact it has been shown that the average elite endurance athlete loses 2 - 5% of their body weight from dehydration during races with no ill effects.

There are no significant studies that show weight lifting/conditioning results in better performance in endurance sports or injury prevention (some studies show in explosive efforts like track sprinting and short hill climbing that there may be a marginal benefit).

There are little to no studies at all that show electrolyte depletion causes cramping in muscles during excercise.

I do agree with that it is probably a conditioning issue that can be solved with more riding in that the OP is probably pushing the pace and effort too hard as JK mentioned (before I did), but not with "strengthening" excercises off the bike.  And I would also have them investigate their positioning to see if that is not causing the problem.

Before everyone gets opinion happy....     there are a number of studies out that will relate to this topic.  Just look on the web and you will find a lot of resources with legitiment references listed.  I looked in my wife's medical books to make sure I wasn't out to lunch here and found a number of casues:  It seems the most popular opinions of muscle cramping causes relate to dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, spinal nerve malfunction, age, lack of fitness, etc, etc.  (in other words, there can be various causes)  check out these links for some refrences:

http://www.ultrafitness.net/article_5.htm

http://www.medicinenet.com/muscle_cramps/page6.htm

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00200&return_link=0

And other studies and research show that deydration and electrolyte imbalance is total bunk ........

http://www.sportsscientists.com/search/label/dehydration

I do agree it has to do with fitness and improper pacing.

(Man, there have been a lot of threads on this topic this month ......)

Guys,

This is defintely a gray area. There are ways to figure this out that will give definite answers for each person. That does not mean the answer will be the same for each person. Example being; It is possible that dehydration causes or at least contributes to cramps. It is also possible that over hydrating causes the body to flush electrolytes and cause or contribute to cramps. The only way to know for sure is to experiment and collect the data. I would not suggest changing more than one variable at a time, but would suggest trying to validate all possibilities to get to a root cause. I think the first step is to document everything you are eating and drinking, exercise duration, effort / HR and temperature. This will provide a baseline. It may not tell you anything at first, but will help explain anomolies. I would then try adding electrolytes before and during the workout to see if this has an impact. Endurolytes work for me, but I plan to try others as well. If this has no impact then I would play with cleat position and bike fit. You can do them in any order it doesn't make a difference as long as you try to keep the "other" variables as close to the same as possible. I would undo the fix and try to make the cramps come back to ensure you have solved the problem. Good luck.

chevy57    

I'm not a nutritionist. I've not read studies that say anything about this issue at all.

I do know that when I first started bricks my calves would cramp up and it felt like a poker in my legs during the second 1/4 mi. After that, the cramps kind of went away but would come back after the run.

After my first tri, I asked the massage person what was going on with that and got told to hydrate with electrolites.

No other changes, no slowing down, and I seriously doubt I could have improved my conditioning within a week but all I did was to start using Alacer ElectroMIX in a one packet in a quart of water instead of plain water and made sure to drink half of one before a brick and finish it afterwords. I could just barely feel my calves after I started doing that and that only lasted a week or so. Now I don't even really get noodle leg.

You can get the electrolytes you need through your diet.  You don't need special tabs and mixtures.

Just something to consider. 

 Perhaps, but when you drink a gallon of water a day you tend to flush out a lot of them no matter what you're eating.  At 42 I'm finding out that I cannot eat/drink what a 25-30 year old can and I'm listening less and less to anyone under about 35 who tries to tell me about nutrition for me.

That's why I requested a nutritionist over 40 and have gotten excellent advice ever since. 

No, you don't ............

And I'm 37.

Good for you.  So, my thoughts on nutrition are completely invalid for anyone over the age of 40.  Considering they are based on conversations with my mother, who is an RD, and most definitely over 40, I'll be sure to remember that tidbit.

It's August.  Everyone's out in full force riding.

My 3 cents - bike fit and fitness/intensity level.  Did you go out harder on your new bike?  New bikes sometimes make me do that. 

Correct on the first point, and (I assume) the second.   What can apparently happen is that if you drink too much, you may dilute the electrolytes that you have.  At any rate, some of the studies that Daremo is referring to suggest this conclusion. (Of course, this doesn't imply that you should take more electrolytes...  You should be getting enough in your diet, as Scout said.  If you're not, then change your diet.)  More precisely, what these studies suggest is that what matters is not absolute weight of electrolytes in your system, but percentages.  And when you sweat, generally (so these studies suggest) you lose proportionally MORE water than electrolytes.  If that's right, then MORE electrolytes is the last thing you need.  Check out the link that Daremo posted if you want to read more about this issue and get the gory details.

Oh, and I'm older than both of you.  So I know what I'm talking about.  ;-)

That's my wife's usual argument killer.

My 2.5 cents: I think calf cramping and leg cramping in general has more to do with fitness.  In this case though, as it's been suggested, I think riding a new bike has altered what muscles you are using and how you are using them. 

I've rarely seen pro's cramp and I would gather to guess it's due to their level of fitness.  For me, my legs love to start cramping on race day during the swim.  I believe this is because I kick a lot more (unintentionally) in a race as opposed to training in the pool.  So now I'm doing more kicking drills.  We'll see if it helps.