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Cramping in legs

1,346 Views | 7 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by Frisco86
oldarmy76
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I'm in decent shape and ride a bike or run a combined 5-6 times a week. Have done long runs on the trail of over 13-miles the previous 4 weeks. I have gotten bad cramps in my legs a couple time a year when I have gone a really long time in the heat and gotten dehydrated. The last time that happened was about 6 weeks ago. It was real, real bad. But I drank alot of fluids, cooled down, and was playing tennis by later that afternoon.

I was on vacation last week and had a 15 hour road trip (broken up over 2 days) to get to my destination. Once there I started getting cramps in my hip flexors and quads after walking a couple hundred yards. Pain so bad I had to lay in the sidewalk till I could stretch out. This continued off and on the entire 9 days of vacation. Sometimes I could walk a little and be ok, but sometimes the cramping would set on very quickly (One day I had to crawl most of 100-yards back to where we were staying).

I got back yesterday and after feeling better, tried to hop on the bike. That lasted about 3 min before cramping in my quads set in. Stretched alot last night. I went for a very light 2.5 mile run this morning on fairly level ground. Although my legs felt rough, they didnt cramp up.

Got home this evening, stretched and rolled for a few minutes and hopped on the bike. Lasted about 5 min before cramping in my glutes set in and got pretty painful.

I've been drinking plenty of water (in my opinion). I think about 80 oz today.

This is not fun and I've never had anything like this happen before. I have several races planned for this fall and really want to get back to training soon.

Thoughts?
Sea Speed
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AG
When I get bad cramps I eat a bunch of bananas and drink a ton of water. I know correlation doesn't equal causation, but it has done the trick for me.
JeremiahJohnson
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AG
Supplement with electrolyte salt. I like Base Salt and Saltstik chewables
dtkprowler
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AG
Try pickle juice? Like said above, you need to supplement something. Salt, Potassium, electrolytes, something.
reproag
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AG
I get cramps in my calves and found that potassium supplement helps. And I just use what HEB has.
Sweep4-2
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Pickle juice and stretching works for me.
oldarmy76
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I've drunken lots of fluids and salt supliments and done lots of stretching. I've gotten better through the week and think I may be back to normal. Looking forward to getting back at it.

Thanks everyone
htxag09
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AG
Just don't think that because you're getting better, you can cut back on the water/electrolytes. Sure, you were at a deficit, but what you drank to get better is probably pretty close to what you should be consuming normally.
Frisco86
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AG
Pickle juice shots. I used to cramp when cycling 3+ hours. No more
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