Cramps. Why do they happen and how to prevent them?
3 watchers
Jul 2012
11:30pm, 18 Jul 2012
753 posts
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Fat Lazy Elephant
Apologies if this has been covered, I had a quick look and couldn't find anything relevant. Today when I was swimming I got a horrible cramp in my calf, it was quite paralysing pain. I floated till the end of the length, stopped and pressed it against the wall for a few minutes and it went away. Lifeguard came up to me and asked if I was ok because they know I never stop at the deep end, I said I had got a cramp, he asked where, I said in the calf, he said "oh no, it's the worst pain in the world!", "you never experienced menstrual cramps then" (no I didn't say that, I just smiled  ) Anyway, why did it happen and how do I prevent it in the future? I dread to think what would happen if I was in open water and I saw a fish at the same time Probably nothing happens for no reason so I wonder what causes it, I don't want to experience it ever again! I was 6.5km /2+ hrs into the swim and I stop every 2km to drink some water if this is any relevant. It happened a few times in the past, always in the 3rd hour, but it was nowhere as bad as this and I never needed to stop before. But I never get any cramps when running. Thank you in advance
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Jul 2012
11:39pm, 18 Jul 2012
18,729 posts
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swittle
I suffer calf cramp in the last 4-5 miles of Marathons - which is why I'm packing them in I suspect it's to do with hydration in my case, probably not drinking enough in the 24 hours before the event. Much has been said about taking a little more salt with food but there are issues here. How about gels before & during? Stretching is rarely bad before any exercise: one to do at work/home: sit on a solid chair, cross legs and rotate the 'suspended' foot 10 times clock/anti-clockwise. Repeat on other leg. I'm sure other solutions will turn up here soon. Hope this helps.
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Jul 2012
11:50pm, 18 Jul 2012
1,116 posts
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auburnette
Electrolytes? You may need to drink something other than plain water. Something with sodium and potassium in it.
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Jul 2012
11:51pm, 18 Jul 2012
1,117 posts
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auburnette
I used to get a lot of calf cramps when swimming freestyle (used to swim competitively). Perhaps to do with the movement, tight calves (stretching it out always helped). They always used to say 'eat more bananas' (for the potassium)
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Jul 2012
12:09am, 19 Jul 2012
754 posts
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Fat Lazy Elephant
That's interesting Auburnette, my calves do often feel funny just after pushing off the wall, when they are most tightened. And for some reason they always used to associate swimming with cramps, when we were kids there were 2 rules "never dive in a lake, you may break your neck and end up in a wheelchair" and "never swim alone (in a lake) no matter how good swimmer you are you may get a cramp and drown". But if people get cramps when running probably it's to do with the electrolytes too. I hope it can be resolved with diet alone, I'd rather not have to put salt in my water bottle!
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Jul 2012
1:59am, 19 Jul 2012
5,428 posts
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Dvorak
Or, in most cases it has nothing do do with electrolytes and is instead to do with muscle tiredness. There have been a few threads on cramp before and I dug that up researching (of course I don't know which thread it was now, though I think Sweaty Frank may have started it?). A couple of links below on what I have found (though I don't think they were what I found before, which explained it better.) At root, the muscle/tendon relation goes out of balance. So in practical terms, the key point to deal with it is to put it back in balance - so instead of pointing out the toes, pull them back. This is easier done if the heel can be braced eg against a wall (maybe this is in fact what you did). As for preventing it, salty drinks wouldn't help, easing off the training and not running out of glycogen (which unfortunately as far as I understand are two things antithetical to you) would make a difference. sportsscientists.com ultrafitness.net |
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Jul 2012
8:10am, 19 Jul 2012
803 posts
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wiener dog
This is exactly what I was told on Monday ^ - I have just been through the WORST ever episode of cramp ever. On Friday I did my last easy run before tapering off for TR24 and a treadmill marathon in the following fortnight, as I ran my leeft calf tightened and felt weird then cramped I stopped stretched and it seemed ok so I carried on. After my run subsequent cramps continued and later that night my calf felt tight and even bruised to the touch. Despite numerous attemps to stretch out the cramp and ice it did not improve. I did the usual (for me) I panicked thought 'oh woe is me, I reckon I've torn something in my calf :-(' anyway it still wasn't right on the Mon, still bruised feeling still sore and crampy and still couldn't stretch it out (hurt more and started more cramp to stretch) so I went to see my physio. The physio worked on my calf for ages and was very thorough when she checked it out - she said she could find no evidence of any tear and was sure that the muscle had been overworked and spasmed badly (day before it happened I did a longish hard run, and was a bit dehydrated) she also said that my diet was probably insufficent for the volume of training and I was prob low on certain vits/minerals maybe potassium? Another thing that really easd mine off apart from the 'brutal' sports massage was gentle heat. I have now upped the water intake started eating the bananas again and so far so good Ran yesterday and had no issues.
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Jul 2012
8:25am, 19 Jul 2012
7,639 posts
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Keefy Beefy
For me it's always about tiredness/pushing my body too hard. I only ever get cramp in a marathon and only in the last 5 miles. No amounts of bananas is going to stop it.
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Jul 2012
8:27am, 19 Jul 2012
804 posts
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wiener dog
Fair point KB, good job I'm on taper now then
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Jul 2012
8:29am, 19 Jul 2012
3,351 posts
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icemaiden
I get cramp in my legs in bed while I'm asleep. Agony!
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