General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Calf cramps/charlie horses Rss Feed  
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2014-10-16 10:02 AM

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Greenville, South Carolina
Subject: Calf cramps/charlie horses
Training for IMFL on Nov1. Yesterday trained fairly light brick in the PM and run in the morning. I have had a couple of bouts of bed time leg cramping in the last few weeks. Last night a bad one hit while resting my leg on the coffee table I moved and could feel the muscle get pinched, then got hit with a scream-producing painful cramping in the muscle that relaxed out but then came back and hit again. I finally relaxed it out, but my calf is still sore from it when I woke up this AM, I did my swim workout and after a 1,500 or so set, it came back and hit me again, I walked it out in the pool and resumed the swim but it reoccurred. Also got a small one in my other calf. Is this a nutrition thing? Eating bananas for potassium and I took a salt stick tab this morning, even though I really hadn't worked out hard yesterday. I am concerned about running on it right now due to the soreness. Any helpful thoughts?


2014-10-16 3:12 PM
in reply to: DavidKSC

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Scottsdale, AZ
Subject: RE: Calf cramps/charlie horses
If it is nutritional...

How is your magnesium intake? Most people associate cramps with low potassium, but it could be low magnesium as well.

I used to have horrible leg cramps and restless legs at night. Started taking a Magnesium supplement at night (Natural Calm drink) and use a spray on magnesium oil on hard training days. This does the trick and I haven't had those cramps since starting this. Plus it helps you sleep too :-)! Just be careful to start slowly with a small dose and work up until you have any GI upset, then back off and you have your dose.

Potatoes are also very high in Potassium, just FYI.

Also things to look at are hydration, change in intensity etc...but above is what worked for me. Hope it helps!
2014-10-17 10:12 AM
in reply to: #5060462

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29
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Greenville, South Carolina
Subject: RE: Calf cramps/charlie horses
Thanks for the tip on Magnesium. Will look for that drink - where did you get it?
2014-10-19 3:02 PM
in reply to: DavidKSC

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Scottsdale, AZ
Subject: RE: Calf cramps/charlie horses
I buy it at Sprouts, but am sure Whole Foods has it as well. Otherwise, you can always order it off of Amazon :-)! That's where I get the spray Magnesium oil too. Hope it helps!
2014-10-19 11:39 PM
in reply to: runspingirl

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Subject: RE: Calf cramps/charlie horses
I had this very issue this season. I started taking the Zinc, Calcium, Magnesium pills (the 3 in one kind). It helped a little but what really did the trick was to get on the calf machine at the gym and do strength exercises. Not light ones but ones that really pushed me to my limits. If I skipped this for 2 weeks, I'd get the night leg cramps and also cramps during hard bike intervals. This makes sense since most of the time cramps are from dehydration or just weak/tried muscles. Harder the workout, the more your muscles get destroyed (but they heal afterwards of course). Build them up with strength exercises and you'll have more tissue left in tact to finish your workout.
2014-10-20 10:25 AM
in reply to: DavidKSC

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Subject: RE: Calf cramps/charlie horses

Rehydrating well can help (and bananas can be good for you anyway).  But, otherwise, probably not nutritional--so salt tabs, magnesium supps, etc are probably not your best bet.  Try to go easy on the offending muscles when training for a few days, refuel well and get good rest and recovery.  I'm often able to 'train through' those kind of cramps when I get them, but it depends how bad the cramping has been.  Swimming can be problematic beacuse 'pointing the toes' can help set-off the cramps (sleeping with a sheet tucked in too tight at the bottom of the bed can do something similar at night) and can often require me to put extra focus into trying to keep my leg muscles relaxed.



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