leg cramps

[chrisx]

leg cramps

Anyone know how to deal with leg cramps?  After pedaling all day, heat up a can of beans at dusk, then crawl into a nice warm sleeping bag, Zzz.  2 hours later, RRR sharp pain in inner thigh, or perhaps lower front of leg.  muscle throbbing cannot relax. Next to impossible not to scream out loud.  15 minutes gone buy leg relaxes, back to sleep. 1 hour later same again in other leg.  

help

[Rob]

Pickle Juice. 

No Joke.

[dave54]

Pickle juice is basically brine, so if you were slightly dehydrated salt water would help.

I found a slow walk for 15-20 minutes after a hard day of pedaling helps me recover faster and have fewer muscle issues.

[protoceratops]

Electrolytes.  More than just brine...sodium, potassium, magnesium, a bunch of trace bits.

Endurolytes is a commercial product I have had success with.  Electrolyte mix caps.

http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HNT?PAGE=PRODUCT&CAT=ELECT&PROD.ID=4037&OMI=10104,10082,10047&AMI=10104

[Rabid Hillbilly]

Banannas (potassium -i Cramped ,ate A Couple As A Friend Suggested,cramps Went Away

[offroute]

Mustard packs from the self serve deli counter, late-day Emergen-C and pre-emptive hydration.

[Dumpster Juice]

Pickle juice works because it is full of Electrolytes, but kind of hard to carry on long or multiday trip. Just use E-Caps (Hammer Nutrition) before, during and after the ride and the cramps should go away.

[Couloirman]

^^^ Actually they don't really know why pickle juice works. The initial cramping is probably related to local electrolyte balance (definitely NOT a total body electrolyte deficiency), but the way pickle juice fixes them is not, since after ingestion of pickle juice, cramps stop before the juice you ingested changes your plasma electrolyte concentrations a meaningful amount (see article below).

Pickle juice is the real deal, however. I actually carry one or two of these individually wrapped pickles with me anytime I am doing a really long ride when I know there is a solid chance I will cramp up. Open up the package, swig an ounce of pickle juice, eat half of it, and save the rest for if you cramp up again. Somehow the mechanism by which it works is not related to salt balance, it is probably some insane neuronal mechanism from the esophagus that tells the muscles to stop spasming in less than a minute. I have heard some think it is more due to the vinegar than anything, so they carry yellow mustard packets, or pickle relish packets since it is smaller than an individually wrapped pickle. I am going to try yellow mustard packets next time myself to save weight on carrying around an entire pickle packet.

My pickle story: I was totally dying with the worst hamstring and quad cramps I have ever had in my life at mile 90 of a 110 mile hill climb ride (D2R2 180km for those new england folks who have heard of it). There was another 2,000ft of climbing left (out of something silly like 15,000 ft total for the day) and I almost threw in the towel. Magically at an aide station up ahead there was a big bucket of pickles. I had never heard of the pickle juice and cramps phenomenon before, but something in my body told me I needed those pickles bad! I ate half a pickle, within a minute felt good as new and felt as fresh as when I started for the rest of the ride-- no more cramps! I even led my small group up the last few hills we had to climb (although, we were the last people still on the course that day).

My favorite to bring along. Big but delicious.
https://www.freestonepickles.com/xcart/product.php?productid=78&cat=20&page=1

The only other brand of individually bagged pickles I have found:
http://www.vanholtenpickles.com/products.html

Here is the pubmed article about pickle juice and cramping for the nerds among us.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19997012

[Idahogre]

SportLeg capsules have always worked for me.  Less bulk than most other options, but they can be a bit spendy.  After reading this post though I am going to try pickle juice.

[BillL135]

Succeed! Electrolyte caps.  Big in the the ultra running world.

http://www.succeedscaps.com

[Mick80234]

I was introduced to Sportlegs a few years ago and they are great. Not cheap. I carry them with me all the time. I take them if I feel the beginning twinges of a cramp coming on.

[bpeschka]

One of the things I like about eating dill pickles, in addition to the electrolyte/cramp value, is that they clean your mouth of the taste of all the other junk you've been eating. 

[cobbnat]

Couloirman is correct, it isn’t only electrolytes. Muscle fatigue and dehydration and electrolyte imbalance all contribute to starting a feedback loop between muscle and motor neuron in the spine, so the whole muscle group contracts. Pickle juice, vinegar, hot sauce, all cause a lot of activity in the vagus nerve, next to the esophagus, and essentially damp the signals that are circulating between spine and muscle. So for prevention get lots of fluids and e-lytes, but when the legs cramp up in the sleeping bag, go for something pungent. Check out hotshot.com.


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[cobbnat]

Adding a note of caution: while doing the border-to-border ski across Finland, we ate a LOT of pickles. About day 3 all of our group were very puffy in the face and hands - probably from sodium overload. Even though we were working hard, at 20 below we weren’t sweating like in summer. After backing off on the pickles, the edema went away.