Interesting Article on Cramping

mattsull

Seems fatigue may play a large role in cramps as I found out last night at the pool. I was fully hydrated and full of elecrolytes and still had horrible cramps. My legs are extremely fatigued from heavy biking though.

biestmilch-seven.com/archives/2010/...#more-2743

kurshing

You know, I am NOT a scientist, but, I think I understand what this article is saying and I think I follow the logic. The problem is, those scaps sure seem to do the trick for me!

mattsull

They usually work for me too. I had taken one last night before swimming and I had a full-body cramp!

It does say: "For every athlete who finds that electrolyte supplements work, there are probably five who take them and cramp anyway."

kurshing

The tablets may simply be a 'head thing'...dont know?

Hayes just posted an article about the Central Govenor Theory regarding the seperation of muscle performance and the brain...there may be some kind of tie into this discussion too...

Whatever it is...when I start cramping, a few of those tablets and I am feeling much better usually!

Coach Patrick

totally makes sense; I find that after excessive biking, for example, I am more likely to cramp in my feet (when swimming) or adductors (when riding). As fatigue deepens, one effect is to reach out to peripheral muscles to do more work...and they tire much more quickly (and need a lot more time to recover). Just a thought...

Coach Rich

I have read, and always thought, that cramping was much more related to fatigue than to sodium loss. I also consider that Gatorade, probably the original sports drink, was created by the Florida (?) football coaches, became a huge company, and now there are huge dollars being spent to tell us we need to drink/eat x, y, and z during exercise or we will explode. I think back to the summer of 1995 when I spent 3mo fun months at lovely Parris Island, SC. Hottest summer in forever, always hot, always sweating buckets, always outside and they made us drink gallons -- literally gallons -- of water every day. Over the years I did many 15-20 mile road marches (4-6hrs) with 60lb of heavy, hot gear, cotton cami's, and drinking about 64oz of water per hour. No sodium (or food, for that matter) and did just fine.

You could say that the Marine Corps (and Army, etc) has millions of doodes out there sweating like you would not believe and drinking only water, not fancy sports drinks (unless they have changed things. Maybe Gatorade got a DoD contract? Dunno)

trirebel

Funny thing to me is that I did my race rehearsals and had no issues with cramping.  It was hotter for my second rehearsal than it was yesterday and I had no issues.  I biked harder and ran faster and had not a single cramp.  At the race, I try my hardest to take it easy on the bike (which i did), so that I could run the entire run portion and yet the moment I get off the bike I start to cramp.  It makes no sense.  It was in the same spot as the last time...my inner quads.  Whatever the reason, I sure would like to get it fixed.  

Oh btw, I emailed infinit and asked them a few questions about my mix.  They responded and said that the cramping is not a symptom of electrolyte loss, but rather dehydration.  She said I should do a sweat loss test and then let them know the results.  I guess I'll do that Saturday.

Paul Hough

I think the article is dangerous. Although I agree that excessive fatigue is one cause of cramping, I reduced my own incidence of cramps by a) training harder, b) drinking more, and 3) increasing sodium...a lot. The article implies that you don't need as much sodium in your drinks. I tested that theory in when I did Ironman 70.3 Florida after a 26 year break from triathlons (i.e., I was a total newbie). Our registration packet included a bag of Hammer salt tabs. I had no idea what they were for and pitched them. Because I had always read that Americans had too much sodium in their diet, I diluted all the Gatorade in my bottles with 50% water. So I ended up in a major crampfest during the run but willed myself to the finish despite mulitple agonizing cramps....and being asked if I needed medical treatment during the run. After I finished, my wife drug me off to the medical tent because she said I looked gray and was no longer sweating. My blood pressure fell dangerously low and I ended up receiving 2 IV bags before I recovered. It was not pretty and scared the wife bad. I've since completed sweat tests that told me I lose about 2 liters per hour in hot/humid weather...on the bike and on the run.

There are a lot of articles on cramping and the common cause is that there is no common cause. What works for some will not work for others. But to dismiss sodium tabs for all is an errant conclusion. For hot weather training and racing I now target 1500 mg MINIMUM sodium per hour (combo of SaltStick Tabs, Nuun tabs, and sodium in Gu and Endurance Formula Gatorade). So maybe I'm in the 20% that this stuff works on...you just need to know whether you are or aren't before pitching them in a major race.

Wiseman

Agree 100% Paul. I'm figuring out that I'm one of those 2 bottles/hr and 1.5-2 g Na per hour to keep from cramping in a hot race. I think Hammer especially misses the mark on this...just me.