Dylan Johnson I cramp a fair bit and have never found pre-workout stretches or hydration to affect it. I do find stretching when cramping happens does help. If I’m really pushing myself I can almost predict I’ll cramp. So ya, everything you said makes 100% sense. I have never tried pickle juice though. Didn’t even really know that was a thing 🤮
Salt tablets! The long time go to remedy that triathletes carry in their fannypack pouch thingy even during the swim! I blame the whole cramping industry on them!!
Very much a cramper. Saltstick caps mostly fixed it. I know, the science you described doesn't support that, and for most of my 30 years riding I was skeptical of all the received wisdom surrounding riding. But after many years of frequent night time foot cramps, hand cramps while brushing my teeth, quads seizing up on hot rides, I finally tried the caps, and while I still get the rare excruciating quad seizure after long, hot rides, the smaller, frequent cramping is gone.
“Heat amplifies fatigue”. Nailed it. From personal experience this video has confirmed everything I have learned and believed from years of experience. Well done. Thank you for another great video.
JBratt he didn't nail anything!!! Everybody knows that when you're tired you're going to cramp. And the Heat dehydrates you that's why you cramp. It's all about dehydration nothing else when it comes to not knowing why you're cramping when you're not fatigued.
Harry Tzianskis The God of Speed I have cramped when I was not dehydrated. I do believe hydration can be a factor and a major one at that. The problem with determining the causes of cramps is that there are multiple causes but they all manifest themselves the same way which can be very confusing.
JBratt my point is that we cannot take an unhealthy person and compare them to a healthy person cramping. Most of the time people will think that they're hydrated correctly and will not take humidity into consideration. We all know that when you're fatigued the muscle is going to fail and cramp to stop you from pushing it any harder to prevent damage. We need to answer the question why when someone is not fatigued and in the middle of the race they are cramping. I can assure you that most of the times it's going to be dehydration. All of the other reasons we are going to cramp are not relevant to this discussion.
JBratt salt is a big part as well. our nervous system works with salt if you dont have a good electrical current you will have interruptions and that interruption is the lack of salt and water that creates cramps.
I used to always get cramping. I found that consuming 1 saltstick capsule per hour with water works like a charm. On very long rides, with consumption of saltsticks, I could feel some muscles twitching (a precursor to cramping in my experience), but never really goes all the way. Give it a try bros! P.s. I live in a very hot and humid place
The most honest video I have seen on the subject. I am not a cramper but I have had cramps before and I always put them on the count of muscle fatigue and the lack of training. Addresses the latter and the occurrences of cramping disappears for me.
You looked at some related material but there is more to investigate. Post-exercise cramping (typically when sleeping, or doing casual swimming in cold water), not in-exercise, is another sort that is a big problem (big literal pain). Potassium (from food) in particular is another remedy administered in a chronic (not acute) pattern, this stemming from the known biological mechanism whereby this element is used as a primary muscle relaxer signalling agent in the cycle of neuromuscular contraction-relaxation, and it can be depleted. Finaly, more training, not less trainng, is associated with more such cramps. To characterize post-exercise cramping, it's a like a giant full force contraction with no off-button -- it just won't stop, and it's able to tear the muscle; it's not a little discomfort. Anyway, I've talked way above my head like some kind of exercise physiologist which I'm not but the struggle is real.
That was helpful. I cramped up twice last month, and it was because I pushed myself beyond the level of my conditioning. And yes, it is true; more conditioning has eliminated my cramping. Being new to the sport and only a few months shy of 60, my plan is to increase my distance by 10 miles each month.
The explanation of heat and fatigue matches my anecdotal evidence. In my 15 years of road cycling I've experienced cramps only twice. Both were days with extreme temperatures and a massive amount of climbing, beyond my normal training. In both cases I recovered by drinking cold water and dumping cold water over my body to cool down.
Seeing patients in critical care for several years with electrolyte disturbances, I can agree its likely not whats causing the cramps. Youd have seizures or dysrythmias (ECG changes) far before you have skeletal muscle cramping - those tissues are far more sensitive to disturbances (potassium for the heart and sodium for the brain mostly). Even hypoglycemia and elevated lactate levels I dont buy as the cause. It has to be something local to the muscle or peripheral nervous system imo. I wrote a paper on it back in uni... Im thinking its related to the ability of the motor units to return calcium to the SR, ending muscle contraction. Likely ion pump dysfunction. Thats one thing you can say for sure, but not pin down the exact cause or remedy. Love your vids by the way! Understand training science a lot more because of it. Thx! Just thought Id share my experiences that apply to this vid.
In line with that, the TRPV hypothesis is sort of interesting, but I don't know enough about distribution to know how fast capsaicin would reach skeletal muscle.
Dehydration is a big reason we cramp.. In the summer working my hands would lock up from dehydration. When the body has no liquid it cant distribute as fast as it would hydrated.. Its like having a headache from drinking alcohol , when you drink water your headache feels way better. Now to reach the deep skeletal muscles you need more flow of blood... I dint need to go to school to learn this its common sense. stop thinking to hard you will hurt yourself
we are not talking about sick people.. we are talking about healthy athletes cramping.. if somone is not healthy and is cramping its not relevant to this discussion
What do you think about Lactate and clearance capacity from the muscles... if it builds up beyond a certain threshold, it would affect the other chemical process and signalling in the muscle fibres from an inability to get the fresh fuel needed - kind of like a cellular metabolic spasm... unable to respond to the nerve signals to contract muscle fibres... Look at the post exercise cramps that happen that night after the race... stretching may help, electrolytes may help, but a cool down period to flush the lactic acid is probably the best strategy post race... and in regard to decreasing propensity to cramping after more training, that is also correlated with increasing the lactate threshold that comes from increased training anyway... Cramps during exercise may be helped by stopping for a moment and letting the chemicals rebalance - the stretching or stopping to drink pickle juice may just be coincidental (stopping use of the muscle for a minute or so) to just letting the muscles clear a bit of lactate...
I'm 68 yrs old and have cramped in some endurance events but not in others over the past 35 yrs. My take, based on experience in the same 109km event over the past 25yrs is that the better I train the less likely I am to cramp. In particular, getting sufficient long distance runs and cycles before getting down to specific hill and interval work seems to be critical for me. This fits in with your conclusion, Dylan. I would just add that one supplement I didn't pick-up from your presentation was magnesium. This is something that I am not sure about and would welcome your comments as it has strong credence with many athletes I know. Further, last year I used it extensively and got no cramps but this year I did not use it and in the same event, I did cramp towards the end of the race. However, I also trained more last year, hence my uncertainty! Loved the advert for the magic juice!
I’m a cramper, it would drive me nuts, so painful especially during the night, I have increased my exercise load as I’m training for Ironman and was really concerned about the cramps I was getting, I used to cramp just about a every time I rode, I’m relieved to say I’ve cramped once in the last 6 weeks, I put this down to the extra loads my legs have been taking on and have conditioned to what was being asked of them, happy days 🙂 long may it continue
What did you do? I cramp so bad it’s insane. I can’t figure out if it’s electrolyte imbalance, kidney issue that I had when younger, or if it’s just dehydration. But they are insane. Caused me to puke my guts up due to the fatigue it causes of hours of cramps
My broscience take: every since I started using Scratch mix or some type of electrolyte powder i have never experienced cramps -- and I used to before.
Love your channel, bro. When you spit up the 'magic potion' creation, dude, I about pissed myself LMAO! Great science with great humor thrown in! Hard to beat.
Great video promoting a lot of interesting comments. I don’t suffer cramp generally but when I have done it fully aligns with the closing comments about being fatigued through not being well trained.
I have suffered muscle cramps for many years towards the end of long (100 mile) sportives and usually several hours after a hard training ride throughout the year. I tried all sorts of remedies including hydration and electrolytes (specifically sodium and potassium) but nothing really made much difference including stretching. Fast forward to this year and I have been changing my diet and doing lots of research into nutrition, (not specifically for cramping). One of the things I did find surprising was there were a lot of doctors saying that the majority of people are deficient in magnesium because there is not a lot in our modern, intensively farmed food. Magnesium is very important for muscular signalling including especially the heart so I started taking a daily supplement and noticed almost straight away no more cramping after a training ride, even quite arduous ones. One of the things about magnesium apparently is that it is very difficult to diagnose a deficiency because most of the magnesium is stored in the cells not the blood stream so it's very difficult to ascertain your magnesium level. All of the research that I have seen into cramping revolves around the common electrolytes like sodium or potassium which are easy to measure the blood serum level. It may just be more hooey but I'm continuing to monitor the effect and would be interested to hear if anyone has had similar experiences.
Nicely articulated, thank you. This helped me understand why I cramp in marathons and half-marathons but not in Ironman or half-Ironman races: probably due to racing the endurance triathlons at a slightly slower pace than the pure running events. Oh, and your comment about humidity inducing fatigue - bingo! I cramped heaps more when living in hot and humid Brisbane, Australia, than anywhere else. I've tried to prevent cramps with magnesium, potassium, salt, electrolytes, etc. None worked. But ACV and an unknown disgusting cramp remedy in a race once both worked - thanks for recognising that the 'disgusting' factor may have been the magic ingredient! Keep up the great content (as long as you're still enjoying it!)
Since uploading a few vids I now realise how hard you RUclipsr’s work to give us content. It might not seem it but your vids help a lot with my KOM hunting and local cyclists training.... just wanted to say thanks, Dylan 👍👍 it’s not said enough 👍
I’ve found that the primary things that cause me to cramp are: Heat, pushing your limits, strength conditioning. All said the more Fit I am, the less I cramp.
Obviously cramping is multifactorial. But why do electrolyte drinks and pickle juice help so many people? Well sweat composition and volume are individual factors that vary from person to person. Low volume and / or low sodium sweaters often have non-electrolyte causes of cramping related to fatigue, overuse, injury, etc. However the impact of localized factors is unknown. They often respond to non-electrolyte based interventions such as stretching and the mystery component (peptide fragments?) of pickle juice that alters receptor activation. High volume and / or high sodium sweaters, or average sodium / average volume sweaters, especially over long periods of time, can alter both their intra and extracellular electrolyte concentrations without getting dehydrated if intake doesn’t match output. This in turn alters both the neural and muscular action potentials predisposing muscles to cramping. Because sodium and potassium are the two major players in this process, alterations in their concentrations are the most likely to cause cramping. It’s important to remember that large amounts of electrolytes are stored inside cells and not detected by simple blood levels. It takes large shifts over sustained periods of time for these changes to be noted in the blood even when intercellular levels are severely altered because of the bodies response and drive to keep blood levels constant. Even athletes that are severely dehydrated can have normal sodium and potassium levels in their blood while experiencing a total body shutdown. We forget that action potentials are not universal even within our own bodies and vary from side to side, muscle to muscle and nerve to nerve changing throughout the course of a race. Previously injured muscles and those potentially doing more work (higher watts from one leg as an example ) over time makes that muscle susceptible to cramping. Localized pH almost certainly plays a role because of its universal effects on transporter and protein function. As an example maybe one of your muscles is more prone to cramping because there’s some sort of alteration in deoxygenated blood returning from that region. Finally most of these studies neglect the effects of, and effect of exercise on, osmolality which is regulated by your kidneys and pituitary gland, both of which can be affected by age, medications, pain and stress. These systems alone can change sodium and possum levels WITHOUT exercise but the effects are often amplified by exercise. Interestingly osmolality is most effected by sodium and potassium (as well as free water) levels. So in conclusion, sodium and potassium are the most important intracellular electrolytes related to muscle and nerve action potentials, two of the most common extracellular electrolytes and the most important electrolytes related to osmolality, disturbances in all of which lead to cramps. (Obviously I’m leaving out the negatively charged ions which don’t seem to be as important but remember they are there and you need one to have the other). Therefore replacing sodium and potassium with electrolyte drinks, tabs or the magic pickle juice will often allow your body to place these electrolytes closer to their desired levels and thus alleviate or improve cramps in many athletes no matter which of these processes is the cause.
Great stuff! Dylan ever thought about doing an episode on plasma and blood donating and what the effects are on cycling and athletic performance and training? We have a number of competitive cyclists who regularly donate plasma and it doesn't seem to effect their performance. Thanks
I don't know, but that is a good topic. If I was to guess I'd say their bodies probably just replace the blood to the volume that works with their body because they are amazing human beings, sound good?
I have gone into that literature deeply and my PhD is in pharmacology and physiology. My favorite theory is that damage to muscle fibers near endplates causes release of factors that cause the neurons release ACh in bursts, thereby causing cramping. I know of no exercise physiology evidence for this, but there are muscle factors that can affect neurotransmitter release (I was co-author on a paper that presented evidence for that in 1996 and we weren't the first). By the way, cramping increases with age. My cramps have never come during a ride, always an hour or so after.
@@olbucky9413 Yes, I think so too. By the way, I get slight relief from diet tonic water, maybe placebo, maybe real. The dose in that stuff is very liw. I get pretty severe cramps sometimes, today for example. Those compounds can block certain ionic channels ( several, actually), which is why some of their derivatives can cause arrythmias. They may inhibit the synaptic changes.
Well Stuart it was long ago and far away that I studied biology. However I have object lessons as both my parents suffered from nocturnal cramping as do I primarily after over exertion and to boot (pun intended) I have peripheral neuropathy which as you are probably aware responds somewhat to gabapentin which was originally prescribed for epilepsy as an anti convulsent. Strikes me that there is probably a link to myelin synapses...something to think about?
Great video dude. I had the worst bout of cramping during the first adventure race of the year. My training was severely hampered in the weeks leading up to the event because of continuous storm systems. My training reduced to treadmill runs and a bit of gym work, no cycling or brick training. On the day of the race in my mind I was going to treat it like a training day but as soon as the first wheel passed me I couldn't resist following! Hydration definitely wasnt a problem because i had been drinking plenty of electrolytes in the days leading up to the race. I could feel the first cramps halfway around the first bike leg before a 8km mountain run😩 my quads got so bad going up the mountain I could barely lift my feet! Fun times😭😭 In short.. Racing harder than training = cramps.
Excellent video mate. Good to see the use of peer reviewed information as you always do. On purely a subjective observation, I was once out riding an ultra, at about 210km I started to completely cramp up. I realised I had not taken my Mg+ supplement. Called into a pharmacy in a remote town and grabbed some. Chewed them up to speed up absorption. After about 45 minutes my cramps abated. Obviously one of many possible causes for cramping but it enabled me to finish the rest of the ride.
the beast mode drink spit up was perfect! that's basically what my son did with the first brotein shake i made him after a strength session last week. LOL!
I am and always have been a big time cramper. What you are saying in this video perfectly matches my experience, which is that most people cramp when fatigued while some cramp very frequently and easily, a few never do. Stretching cramping muscle helps but may trigger cramps in the contralateral extremity. I am very prone to adductor and hamstring cramps and stretch exercises of those often involve shortening of the contralateral, so I've learned that the hard way. Also, at Leadville 2016 I had an unlimited access to one of the commercial products claiming that they can control cramping by stimulating the mouth and esophagus receptors (HotShot might have been the brand name but not 100% sure). It did not have any obvious effect although it is hard to tell if I would have cramped even worse without it. Bottom line: the only thing that works is pacing yourself.
Thanks - I came here after a cramp today that struck me when I was crossing a street on a bike in traffic. Well presented with actual (non-bro) science. Guess I'll try to up my volume/intensity a bit more steadily.
I won a cycling event many years ago but gave my medal to a cycling friend who was about to retire due to illness . The podium outcome doesn't make me feel good but embarrassed instead as too many people ask you questions .
Excellent video on something I've dealt with a lot over the years - would have been nice if you had give us a singular explanation that always works though lol. Kidding aside, I can't argue with your findings although I'm a bit stuck on the electrolyte factor - it truly seems to me that no electrolyte = more likely to cramp, but if proper electrolyte intake = less fatigue and less fatigue = less cramping then yes, I see it. The gene factors seems viable too - my wife (former pro) has "never experienced a muscle cramp" in her life (racing or otherwise) whereas I used to get them so bad it's insane. I do find that A) training harder throughout the year (more evenly than a lazy winter and a spike in Spring and Summer) has helped, and B) Increasing intensity and duration more progressively helps for sure, no doubt about it C) Some of my most concerted efforts to avoid cramping involved carefully planned intake of various drink mixes and often in heavy quantities that I believe taxed my digestion to a degree that only made my cramps worse (by redirecting more blood from working muscles and putting it into digestion) D) My worst cramping has always come with feast or famine / weekend warrior rides where my body just isn't ready for the efforts after a week of sitting at a desk interrupted only by shorter rides. This does leave me with a question though - the worst cramps I used to get and still suffer from sometimes are not the ones that happen during the ride but rather later (hours after ride is over). If the effort is over, surely some form of depletion is causing this "collapse in a fit" cramps when getting up from a table 2 hrs after a ride??? The simple gesture of standing up is far from an intense effort, but man it can trigger a cramp so bad you want to cry. When this happens I find that barefoot on a cool floor really helps - like the neuro distraction of pickle juice I guess!?
Makes total sense to me. Suddenly I started getting locked up all over cramps, on long runs. Lasted months an months, I’ve decided, it’s just overuse/under fitness. I just need to improve.
I was out of aerobic shape 5 years ago. Knew nothing about downhill mountain biking when a friend introduced it to me at a lift serviced resort. Rented a high end full sus mountain bike and biked 4 days in a row. Was instantly hooked. Was always looking for something with similar excitement as alpine skiing during non-snow months and this fit the bill. Started mountain biking in earnest and loved earning the downhill thrill by pedaling to the top. No more resorts for me. But on hot summer mornings I’d often start cramping up. As I was still in poor physical conditioning. By chance while driving and station surfing on the radio I came across a public radio talk show called The People’s Pharmacy and they were discussing leg cramps. At first it sounded like old hippy nonsense to me because they were talking about cramps and drinking vinegar. But then the host started talking intelligently so I kept listening. Bottom line - when I felt a bad cramp coming on I’d jump off my bike and do a shot of apple cider - about 2oz - like a shot of tequila. Within 30 seconds to at most 1 minute my cramp would totally disappear. Was like a miracle. Slowly over the next year I got in much better shape and suffered no more cramps. But that Apple cider trick was amazingly effective. For me. The People’s Pharmacy peoplespharmacy.com/articles/busting-myths-and-offering-unique-leg-cramp-remedies
I've typically been afflicted by cramping when being unprepared for a much longer/harder ride than usual. High humidity and temperature were also present.
same! I guess the only thing to do is get good sleep, be well fed and ride more so your body is used to those "longer/harder" rides... I guess ill go for another ride and then anther one maybe 3 a week
For me, water/hydration intake the two days prior to my cramp issues is a marker. That is to say, if I exercise on a Thursday and don’t hydrate properly during or after, then I’m almost guaranteed to experience cramping on Saturday or Sunday. This might be the case of I worked harder on that Thursday and am still fatigued that Saturday or Sunday, so when I think I can go deep in that Saturday or Sunday session I pay for it. Veggie juice and beet juice added to my regular diet do wonders for me probably due to a good concentration of vitamins/minerals. Great video, Dylan.
Maybe unrelated but I often feel legs cramping in my sleep the night before a race, like from adrenaline building in anticipation. (They're easy enough to stretch out.) I remember my first NUE, Wildernes 101, where I passed you after you'd completely bonked or cramped . Then later you recovered and flew past encouraging me to keep up down the Croyle Run (yeah right!) You went on to get 14th and I got 21st :) (but I may be mixing races up!). You taught me a very valuable lesson that day and in the years since some of my best races were when I had the worst cramps. I knew I could stretch it out a bit, down a gel, and move on. Almost like a Sneeze I've sometimes wished the cramps on so I could get through them, because after an attack you generally go back to relative normal.
Interesting I get a similar thing before a big event I will start cramping. There seems to be a Psychosomatic aspect to my cramps as well as fatigue induced.
Excellent video. I have a strange situation, that no specialist in almost a decade has been able to figure out. Have you come across any athletes, that after they're done Is there a respective sport, regardless of Cool down stretches, post hydrating et cetera,. They go into what I call a full body cramp attack. It starts with one muscle, and then multiple muscles will be pulling and cramping for almost an hour in an allowed attack. So forget about trying to stretch out that muscle, because immediately another one, and another 1 and another 1 start pulling and before you know it,. You're on the ground flailing like a fish out of the water and there's nothing you can do to stop. It is the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life. , and no routines or hydration, or any methods i've ever learned about can stop it. I play competitive tennis, and used to play in tournaments that require multiple matches in a weekend. And now it's gotten to the point,. I'm too afraid to play a best of 3 set match because anything over an hour and a 1/2, especially if it's hot and humid I will. Go into the full body muscle cramping.
I'm a notorious cramper on mountain races. The worst part is when quads and hamstrings are cramping at the same time and I have to just stand there and wait until it goes away, because whatever muscle I stretch, the antagonistic muscle will cramp twice as painful
I've had left hamstring cramping issues for years. Always and only my left hamstring. After some research, and experimentation, I finally realized the reason for cramping....it was my sciatic nerve. By using an inversion table, back exercises, and adjusting my posture, I was able to rid the issue.
I am a cramper. Had L5/S1 surgery and now my right calf muscles and the peronneus cramp after hard efforts in particular and in the night in general. Licorice, Booze and Limptar N helps.
I have to agree with you. I tend to cramp if the race pace is higher than what I am used too. However, when this happens, I take one Rennie (calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate) and within a very short period, I am good to go. This has saved my life in many of my races and in some instances I have even gone on to win or podium.
The Rennies are fun to chew ! I found them helpful on longer brisk rides near the top of my "TRAINED - FOR" capacity to stave off leg cramps . I never get them in my arms strangely enough .
I stay for the discount coupon code to stock up on Beast Mode Supplements (love the cupcake flavour!) I hear the new formulation has more Bicarb to help with cramps
Before I was 30 I don't think I ever cramped. Not even sure if it happened before 35. But you seem to have concluded the same thing as I have: increasing fitness appears to be the most efficient way to reduce cramping. In 2017, I owned a bike for the first time since 2007. One day on a climb, I had cramps in so many leg muscles that I couldn't unclip, and I could barely pedal. I looked for some spot by the side of the road where the ground looked soft and then tried to crash there as softly as possible, before immediately starting to stretch my legs. A year later I passed the same spot, and barely even thought of the climb as a climb. Of course I didn't cramp. Oh, and I often do drink an electrolyte drink on longer rides, but that's mainly because I like the taste, and that makes me drink more. I don't notice any extra cramping when I just have water in the bottles.
This is my experience. Double century rides and triathlon. The worst...both quads and hamstrings at the same time 200 feet before the finish at Chicago tri. Temp was around 65. As time goes on I found out 1500 milligrams of salt per hour and I was golden. Around 7 or 8 hours into a double I would get sleepy and heavy eyelids. Salt would wake me right up. Then I found out if I cut salt out of diet a month or two before event, cramping went away or almost no salt needed. I would keep track of my blood pressure, when it went down to a certain point, no cramping. For me 125 over 80 down to 105 over 70.
I would add to it one more factor - it's a temperature. I've noticed that it is a significantly higher chance to get cramps if I haven't warmed up enough or temperature around me dropping fast and muscles get cold faster than expected. Or if you underestimate the weather and wear unfitted clothes for such cold. Happened a couple of time as well.
Great video - especially the cameo from BHD. I actually beat him to the the involuntary spit (with coffee) when the ingrediant list got to the chamois extract....
Very good video. You could have added the impact of nutrition on cramps. Since i switched to low carbs, i need more salt and is processed better. When you are a sugar addict, salt is retained, so the system does need more. I also take pure salt rather than buying electrolytes with sugar. For the past 2 yrs, never had any cramps on bike rides of 3-4hrs.
Just did my first 50 mile ride in about 4-7 degrees Celsius, so pretty cold, felt great up to about 35miles then experienced the worst quad cramps imaginable, had to stop about 10 times during the last 15 miles taking my finish time from just under 3 hours to 4 hours and 10 mins. Never felt muscle pain like it, as someone who has been lifting and strength training for 10 years this was shocking to me. The teardrop part of my quad was split down the middle with spasming muscle fibres feeling like they were being electrocuted and forced to contract as hard as possible. Training for a 200 miles race in a few months and cannot have this happen again, if it happens in my race it will be game over
I can confirm that training helps the best: After training with increasing durations the cramps, that used to come after about 5 hrs into a race or century just didn't show up again. No cramps for more than 3 years, even when racing the longset distances (312 and 390km) ever.
Cramping is an excellent demonstrator of rumour and misinformation. The number of people that have bought into the electrolyte and/or hydration cause is incredible. However, watch a football or rugby match where they are constantly hydrated and when do the players all start cramping up? If and when the match goes into overtime. They're used to playing for 80/90 minutes but when they go past that, cramp hits a good proportion of the players. QED!
Thank you for your content. You are professional, funny and science based. Keep it up. I cramp on rides or races that are out of my usual distance/time zone BWR, Lost and Found Gravel. I'm a personal trainer and cycling coach and get asked this question that you are addressing frequently. Thanks for crunching the science and making it fun.
When I cramp near the end of a hard, long group ride, I have learned to bite down on my lower lip (and tip of the tongue). This is a motor neuron stimulation in and around the mouth that is similar to pickle juice and mustard. It is not immediate, but it does work.
The best thing I have learned is to continue pedaling and back off on the efforts. I can usually work thru it and keep moving. My initial reaction was to stop, but that often led to a painful, full-on cramp.
same! although I have found there are two types of cramps that I experience.... a cramp that comes on almost gradually and a cramp that just kicks into extreme pain... the 1st one I can reduce effort and continue through, the 2nd type I usually have to stop
I am an occasional cramper. The remedy I think I found to fix cramping is Vitamin D3 + Ca and Mg Glycinate/Bisglycinate + Zinc of each combo separated intake in an interval no less than 2 hours, keeping in mind that vitamin D3 is fat soluble (it can accumulate in liver and fat tissues, thus overdose may lead to intoxication) and remember that water-soluble minerals are washed out of the body with water consumed, as well the concentration of water-solubles to a large extent depends on the amount of water drank.
Great video as always. This topic really highlights a complex topic with two polarized theories to account for it that we try to reduce to a binary solution. It is clear from the lack of consensus in the literature that the ultimate cause of cramping will not be a black or white answer, rather a vast portion of the gray spectrum in between. That being said, if taking electrolytes every 12.4 miles, while chewing on jalapeno peppers, and drinking pickle juice helps, then kudos to the placebo effect and mental conviction. I myself I'm quite fond of Backwards Hat Dylan secret formula of 98% habanero pepper and maltodextrin on the pizza and beer flavour.
My "favourite" is trying to stretch out a cramped quad only to set off a wicked hamstring cramp. It's pretty fun to watch me roll around on the ground.
What was the electrolyte drink given? Cramping also isn’t instantaneous, I missed the mention of at what time frame cramping took place and what deficiencies were or were not noted. Ie - salt, potassium, or magnesium.
Hey, want to do a video on science behind ketones? We here about them all the time, gcn say they "felt" better, after consumption, but I'm curious about real scientific research. I now read that they have actually impaired time-trial performance.
I use in 1 litter of water 2 grams of salt and 20 of sugar, in the night before the ride I consume 500 miligrams of magnesium and 65 miligrams of iron and I usually ride between 60 and 80 kilometers with my all mountain mtb. When the cramps show up I change the position of my foot on the pedal.
I've been a cramper for the 30 years I've been racing. After years of racing, I knew that I'd start cramping around 2:45-3:00 hours into any race, and planned accordingly with pickle juice, etc..I've tried everything, but still had marginal success...and then I went vegan about 6 months ago, and haven't had a cramp since, no matter how long or hard I ride. I have no scientific evidence to support the theory that meat made me cramp, but my personal anecdotal evidence has been enough for me to stay plant based.
I read an article in a non scientific newspaper that reported initial results of a scientific study stating that the reason for cramping is fatigued muscle cells not handling the demands placed on them. Have you heard anything of this?
I cramp within seconds after eating/drinking carb based foods on a hard ride. I found if I have an electrolyte drink or just salt in water, I have far less problems on the same type of ride.
I started cramping when I was about 40 years old. The thing that always helped - even in Gran Fondos in Southern Italy - was magnesium and potassium. It is no secret amongst endurance athletes. Why are these substances not reviewed in the video?
Lorne Lee the TL;DR summary is that when you exercise you sweat via your eccrine glands. your sweat contains not just water but “other stuff”. Some of this stuff like urea is true waste that your body is looking to dump on purpose. However other constituents of sweat are stuff that your body doesn’t “want” to dump but has to as part of the osmotic mechanism by which sweating occurs. What you’re looking to do is to basically drink something that is close to sweat in order to help replace the stuff that’s lost. You don’t need to replace the waste elements such as urea obviously (though drinking urine is unlikely to do you any harm if you’re in a pinch despite not sounding appealing). But you do want to replace the salts that your body was forced to give up.
I know for a fact that pickle juice will stop cramps once they happen. When I was racing off road motorcycle hare scrambles I would get severe legs cramps after the race on my way home. They were so bad that I had to pull over and walk around for a while. I started drinking 20oz of pickle juice immediately after the race and never had another leg cramp again. This is proof enough for me. I drink it after an MTB race now and I've had no cramps. As far as preventing cramps, as a pre race drink, I've never tried it so I don't know if it will prevent it. It would be interesting to find out.
I had a ton of cramps while cycling. Solution, my cleat position was too far to the tip of the shoe. Do not underestimate the problems that originate from a bad bike fit.
Red meat: I have been a chronic cramper for years: during exercise and after. sometimes not even long rides and almost no matter how much riding. I have just had my 4th ride in a row without cramping during the ride or after and all I can think of is that I've been pigging out on steaks most nights recently. This is the closest thing to a solution I have experienced and completely unexpected. Had tried all the electrolyte crap, gels, chews, bananas, concentrating on hydration (pre/during) and nothing has worked until stumbling across what may turn out to be my personal fix.
Again informative as usual as we come to expect. Did not FSU pilot a program to assist football players and cramping. it would be interesting to read there initial hypothesis on the question being posed here in relation to DELAY the onset of cramping vs a REMEDY for cramping. I think that would be an interesting read if it exist. Again kudos for your work!!!
I have cramped in the past. And really bad. The site for cramping was consistent. The same spot the muscles. I agree that conditioning is a big player as with my greater consistency in training cramping has become a super rare event.
One thing I find interesting is that if I drink alcohol the night before I will cramp up like clockwork the next day. If salt imbalance and hydration play no role, I'd really like to know the cause of this.
Very rarely get cramps while on the bike, but used to get terrible cramps afterward, in the car on the way home or on the couch. Mixing my own electrolyte drinks more or less stopped it.
Well , in the late 60's definately the perceived wisdom was cramp was caused by lack of body salts......so take a drink with you and add some table salt....say one or two teaspoons per pint. Having said that, at the lower levels of the sport (42 mile road races) nobody took a drink with them.....we didn't want the weight.. and hey it was no more than a training ride....and we didn't take drinks on those either. But whilst doing physio recently i was able to ask a pro physiotherapist the cramp question. The answer was exercising the muscles in extended range because in her ooinion it was about working a muscle in a range not trained for.....so stretching ....and weight training in an extended zone was key to avoidance. She said it wasn't about salt intake (doh! 50 years of faulty diagnosis by me!)
Great stuff here! I do cramp a lot on longer rides so this was right on time for me! Also, how do you adjust your training if you are preparing for a ride or race at a much higher altitude? Maybe a video idea
Are you a cramper? Are there any remedies you've found that help?
the only time I have cramped on a ride was when going up a very steep hill and my cadence was very low
Dylan Johnson I cramp a fair bit and have never found pre-workout stretches or hydration to affect it. I do find stretching when cramping happens does help. If I’m really pushing myself I can almost predict I’ll cramp.
So ya, everything you said makes 100% sense. I have never tried pickle juice though. Didn’t even really know that was a thing 🤮
Salt tablets! The long time go to remedy that triathletes carry in their fannypack pouch thingy even during the swim! I blame the whole cramping industry on them!!
I avoid all physical activity as much as possible. No work = no cramps.
I take Potassium supplements especially during the summer, I’m a heavy sweater. I get cramps in the small muscle on my back, calves and neck.
Very much a cramper. Saltstick caps mostly fixed it. I know, the science you described doesn't support that, and for most of my 30 years riding I was skeptical of all the received wisdom surrounding riding. But after many years of frequent night time foot cramps, hand cramps while brushing my teeth, quads seizing up on hot rides, I finally tried the caps, and while I still get the rare excruciating quad seizure after long, hot rides, the smaller, frequent cramping is gone.
Being just one goal ahead 10’ befor the end of the game causes severe cramping in soccer players
“Heat amplifies fatigue”. Nailed it. From personal experience this video has confirmed everything I have learned and believed from years of experience. Well done. Thank you for another great video.
JBratt he didn't nail anything!!! Everybody knows that when you're tired you're going to cramp. And the Heat dehydrates you that's why you cramp. It's all about dehydration nothing else when it comes to not knowing why you're cramping when you're not fatigued.
Harry Tzianskis The God of Speed I have cramped when I was not dehydrated. I do believe hydration can be a factor and a major one at that. The problem with determining the causes of cramps is that there are multiple causes but they all manifest themselves the same way which can be very confusing.
@@HarryTzianakisTheGodOfSpeed You clearly did not watch the video at all.
JBratt my point is that we cannot take an unhealthy person and compare them to a healthy person cramping.
Most of the time people will think that they're hydrated correctly and will not take humidity into consideration.
We all know that when you're fatigued the muscle is going to fail and cramp to stop you from pushing it any harder to prevent damage.
We need to answer the question why when someone is not fatigued and in the middle of the race they are cramping. I can assure you that most of the times it's going to be dehydration. All of the other reasons we are going to cramp are not relevant to this discussion.
JBratt salt is a big part as well. our nervous system works with salt if you dont have a good electrical current you will have interruptions and that interruption is the lack of salt and water that creates cramps.
I used to always get cramping. I found that consuming 1 saltstick capsule per hour with water works like a charm. On very long rides, with consumption of saltsticks, I could feel some muscles twitching (a precursor to cramping in my experience), but never really goes all the way. Give it a try bros! P.s. I live in a very hot and humid place
After starting to put a pinch of salt into my drinking water, I've noticed a similar effect.
Theres a reason why they give us salt pills in the military... u can loose 1500mg per hr sweating...
I appreciate the way the info was presented in fact based manor. I also really am glad your channel isn't one big cycling commercial
The most honest video I have seen on the subject. I am not a cramper but I have had cramps before and I always put them on the count of muscle fatigue and the lack of training. Addresses the latter and the occurrences of cramping disappears for me.
You looked at some related material but there is more to investigate. Post-exercise cramping (typically when sleeping, or doing casual swimming in cold water), not in-exercise, is another sort that is a big problem (big literal pain). Potassium (from food) in particular is another remedy administered in a chronic (not acute) pattern, this stemming from the known biological mechanism whereby this element is used as a primary muscle relaxer signalling agent in the cycle of neuromuscular contraction-relaxation, and it can be depleted. Finaly, more training, not less trainng, is associated with more such cramps. To characterize post-exercise cramping, it's a like a giant full force contraction with no off-button -- it just won't stop, and it's able to tear the muscle; it's not a little discomfort. Anyway, I've talked way above my head like some kind of exercise physiologist which I'm not but the struggle is real.
That was helpful. I cramped up twice last month, and it was because I pushed myself beyond the level of my conditioning. And yes, it is true; more conditioning has eliminated my cramping. Being new to the sport and only a few months shy of 60, my plan is to increase my distance by 10 miles each month.
The explanation of heat and fatigue matches my anecdotal evidence. In my 15 years of road cycling I've experienced cramps only twice. Both were days with extreme temperatures and a massive amount of climbing, beyond my normal training. In both cases I recovered by drinking cold water and dumping cold water over my body to cool down.
Seeing patients in critical care for several years with electrolyte disturbances, I can agree its likely not whats causing the cramps. Youd have seizures or dysrythmias (ECG changes) far before you have skeletal muscle cramping - those tissues are far more sensitive to disturbances (potassium for the heart and sodium for the brain mostly). Even hypoglycemia and elevated lactate levels I dont buy as the cause. It has to be something local to the muscle or peripheral nervous system imo. I wrote a paper on it back in uni... Im thinking its related to the ability of the motor units to return calcium to the SR, ending muscle contraction. Likely ion pump dysfunction. Thats one thing you can say for sure, but not pin down the exact cause or remedy. Love your vids by the way! Understand training science a lot more because of it. Thx! Just thought Id share my experiences that apply to this vid.
In line with that, the TRPV hypothesis is sort of interesting, but I don't know enough about distribution to know how fast capsaicin would reach skeletal muscle.
Dehydration is a big reason we cramp.. In the summer working my hands would lock up from dehydration. When the body has no liquid it cant distribute as fast as it would hydrated.. Its like having a headache from drinking alcohol , when you drink water your headache feels way better. Now to reach the deep skeletal muscles you need more flow of blood... I dint need to go to school to learn this its common sense. stop thinking to hard you will hurt yourself
we are not talking about sick people.. we are talking about healthy athletes cramping.. if somone is not healthy and is cramping its not relevant to this discussion
What do you think about Lactate and clearance capacity from the muscles... if it builds up beyond a certain threshold, it would affect the other chemical process and signalling in the muscle fibres from an inability to get the fresh fuel needed - kind of like a cellular metabolic spasm... unable to respond to the nerve signals to contract muscle fibres...
Look at the post exercise cramps that happen that night after the race... stretching may help, electrolytes may help, but a cool down period to flush the lactic acid is probably the best strategy post race... and in regard to decreasing propensity to cramping after more training, that is also correlated with increasing the lactate threshold that comes from increased training anyway...
Cramps during exercise may be helped by stopping for a moment and letting the chemicals rebalance - the stretching or stopping to drink pickle juice may just be coincidental (stopping use of the muscle for a minute or so) to just letting the muscles clear a bit of lactate...
David King that is fatigue. Water and salt is for most cramps
I'm 68 yrs old and have cramped in some endurance events but not in others over the past 35 yrs. My take, based on experience in the same 109km event over the past 25yrs is that the better I train the less likely I am to cramp. In particular, getting sufficient long distance runs and cycles before getting down to specific hill and interval work seems to be critical for me. This fits in with your conclusion, Dylan. I would just add that one supplement I didn't pick-up from your presentation was magnesium. This is something that I am not sure about and would welcome your comments as it has strong credence with many athletes I know. Further, last year I used it extensively and got no cramps but this year I did not use it and in the same event, I did cramp towards the end of the race. However, I also trained more last year, hence my uncertainty! Loved the advert for the magic juice!
I only cramp when I’m racing and pushing high watts longer than 3 hours
I’m a cramper, it would drive me nuts, so painful especially during the night, I have increased my exercise load as I’m training for Ironman and was really concerned about the cramps I was getting, I used to cramp just about a every time I rode, I’m relieved to say I’ve cramped once in the last 6 weeks, I put this down to the extra loads my legs have been taking on and have conditioned to what was being asked of them, happy days 🙂 long may it continue
What did you do? I cramp so bad it’s insane. I can’t figure out if it’s electrolyte imbalance, kidney issue that I had when younger, or if it’s just dehydration.
But they are insane. Caused me to puke my guts up due to the fatigue it causes of hours of cramps
Excellent video as always, thanks Dylan
My broscience take: every since I started using Scratch mix or some type of electrolyte powder i have never experienced cramps -- and I used to before.
Love your channel, bro. When you spit up the 'magic potion' creation, dude, I about pissed myself LMAO! Great science with great humor thrown in! Hard to beat.
Great video promoting a lot of interesting comments. I don’t suffer cramp generally but when I have done it fully aligns with the closing comments about being fatigued through not being well trained.
I have suffered muscle cramps for many years towards the end of long (100 mile) sportives and usually several hours after a hard training ride throughout the year. I tried all sorts of remedies including hydration and electrolytes (specifically sodium and potassium) but nothing really made much difference including stretching.
Fast forward to this year and I have been changing my diet and doing lots of research into nutrition, (not specifically for cramping). One of the things I did find surprising was there were a lot of doctors saying that the majority of people are deficient in magnesium because there is not a lot in our modern, intensively farmed food. Magnesium is very important for muscular signalling including especially the heart so I started taking a daily supplement and noticed almost straight away no more cramping after a training ride, even quite arduous ones.
One of the things about magnesium apparently is that it is very difficult to diagnose a deficiency because most of the magnesium is stored in the cells not the blood stream so it's very difficult to ascertain your magnesium level. All of the research that I have seen into cramping revolves around the common electrolytes like sodium or potassium which are easy to measure the blood serum level.
It may just be more hooey but I'm continuing to monitor the effect and would be interested to hear if anyone has had similar experiences.
Getting in shape has been the only fix for cramping in triathlon. And I’ve tried it all!
Nicely articulated, thank you. This helped me understand why I cramp in marathons and half-marathons but not in Ironman or half-Ironman races: probably due to racing the endurance triathlons at a slightly slower pace than the pure running events. Oh, and your comment about humidity inducing fatigue - bingo! I cramped heaps more when living in hot and humid Brisbane, Australia, than anywhere else. I've tried to prevent cramps with magnesium, potassium, salt, electrolytes, etc. None worked. But ACV and an unknown disgusting cramp remedy in a race once both worked - thanks for recognising that the 'disgusting' factor may have been the magic ingredient! Keep up the great content (as long as you're still enjoying it!)
The best summary of cramping I’ve seen
Since uploading a few vids I now realise how hard you RUclipsr’s work to give us content. It might not seem it but your vids help a lot with my KOM hunting and local cyclists training.... just wanted to say thanks, Dylan 👍👍 it’s not said enough 👍
I’ve found that the primary things that cause me to cramp are: Heat, pushing your limits, strength conditioning. All said the more Fit I am, the less I cramp.
Obviously cramping is multifactorial. But why do electrolyte drinks and pickle juice help so many people? Well sweat composition and volume are individual factors that vary from person to person. Low volume and / or low sodium sweaters often have non-electrolyte causes of cramping related to fatigue, overuse, injury, etc. However the impact of localized factors is unknown. They often respond to non-electrolyte based interventions such as stretching and the mystery component (peptide fragments?) of pickle juice that alters receptor activation. High volume and / or high sodium sweaters, or average sodium / average volume sweaters, especially over long periods of time, can alter both their intra and extracellular electrolyte concentrations without getting dehydrated if intake doesn’t match output. This in turn alters both the neural and muscular action potentials predisposing muscles to cramping. Because sodium and potassium are the two major players in this process, alterations in their concentrations are the most likely to cause cramping. It’s important to remember that large amounts of electrolytes are stored inside cells and not detected by simple blood levels. It takes large shifts over sustained periods of time for these changes to be noted in the blood even when intercellular levels are severely altered because of the bodies response and drive to keep blood levels constant. Even athletes that are severely dehydrated can have normal sodium and potassium levels in their blood while experiencing a total body shutdown. We forget that action potentials are not universal even within our own bodies and vary from side to side, muscle to muscle and nerve to nerve changing throughout the course of a race. Previously injured muscles and those potentially doing more work (higher watts from one leg as an example ) over time makes that muscle susceptible to cramping. Localized pH almost certainly plays a role because of its universal effects on transporter and protein function. As an example maybe one of your muscles is more prone to cramping because there’s some sort of alteration in deoxygenated blood returning from that region. Finally most of these studies neglect the effects of, and effect of exercise on, osmolality which is regulated by your kidneys and pituitary gland, both of which can be affected by age, medications, pain and stress. These systems alone can change sodium and possum levels WITHOUT exercise but the effects are often amplified by exercise. Interestingly osmolality is most effected by sodium and potassium (as well as free water) levels. So in conclusion, sodium and potassium are the most important intracellular electrolytes related to muscle and nerve action potentials, two of the most common extracellular electrolytes and the most important electrolytes related to osmolality, disturbances in all of which lead to cramps. (Obviously I’m leaving out the negatively charged ions which don’t seem to be as important but remember they are there and you need one to have the other). Therefore replacing sodium and potassium with electrolyte drinks, tabs or the magic pickle juice will often allow your body to place these electrolytes closer to their desired levels and thus alleviate or improve cramps in many athletes no matter which of these processes is the cause.
Great stuff! Dylan ever thought about doing an episode on plasma and blood donating and what the effects are on cycling and athletic performance and training? We have a number of competitive cyclists who regularly donate plasma and it doesn't seem to effect their performance. Thanks
I don't know, but that is a good topic. If I was to guess I'd say their bodies probably just replace the blood to the volume that works with their body because they are amazing human beings, sound good?
@@moviepedro what a lame answer!!.Do a little research and make a video
This was a great video thanks for the info Dylan.
Dude, good job! Thank you!!! Respect.
I have gone into that literature deeply and my PhD is in pharmacology and physiology. My favorite theory is that damage to muscle fibers near endplates causes release of factors that cause the neurons release ACh in bursts, thereby causing cramping. I know of no exercise physiology evidence for this, but there are muscle factors that can affect neurotransmitter release (I was co-author on a paper that presented evidence for that in 1996 and we weren't the first). By the way, cramping increases with age. My cramps have never come during a ride, always an hour or so after.
Perhaps this is why quinine sulphate can be somewhat effective.
@@olbucky9413 Yes, I think so too. By the way, I get slight relief from diet tonic water, maybe placebo, maybe real. The dose in that stuff is very liw. I get pretty severe cramps sometimes, today for example. Those compounds can block certain ionic channels ( several, actually), which is why some of their derivatives can cause arrythmias. They may inhibit the synaptic changes.
Well Stuart it was long ago and far away that I studied biology. However I have object lessons as both my parents suffered from nocturnal cramping as do I primarily after over exertion and to boot (pun intended) I have peripheral neuropathy which as you are probably aware responds somewhat to gabapentin which was originally prescribed for epilepsy as an anti convulsent. Strikes me that there is probably a link to myelin synapses...something to think about?
Btw you should make your own tonic and avoid something as vile as diet sodas....just sayin’ ....Cheers!
Great video dude. I had the worst bout of cramping during the first adventure race of the year. My training was severely hampered in the weeks leading up to the event because of continuous storm systems. My training reduced to treadmill runs and a bit of gym work, no cycling or brick training. On the day of the race in my mind I was going to treat it like a training day but as soon as the first wheel passed me I couldn't resist following! Hydration definitely wasnt a problem because i had been drinking plenty of electrolytes in the days leading up to the race. I could feel the first cramps halfway around the first bike leg before a 8km mountain run😩 my quads got so bad going up the mountain I could barely lift my feet! Fun times😭😭
In short..
Racing harder than training = cramps.
Excellent video mate. Good to see the use of peer reviewed information as you always do.
On purely a subjective observation, I was once out riding an ultra, at about 210km I started to completely cramp up. I realised I had not taken my Mg+ supplement. Called into a pharmacy in a remote town and grabbed some. Chewed them up to speed up absorption. After about 45 minutes my cramps abated. Obviously one of many possible causes for cramping but it enabled me to finish the rest of the ride.
the beast mode drink spit up was perfect! that's basically what my son did with the first brotein shake i made him after a strength session last week. LOL!
The ultra-cramp beverage recipe, 'dirty chamois shake' anyone? :) I lol'd when he wretched and blew the geyser.
I am and always have been a big time cramper. What you are saying in this video perfectly matches my experience, which is that most people cramp when fatigued while some cramp very frequently and easily, a few never do. Stretching cramping muscle helps but may trigger cramps in the contralateral extremity. I am very prone to adductor and hamstring cramps and stretch exercises of those often involve shortening of the contralateral, so I've learned that the hard way. Also, at Leadville 2016 I had an unlimited access to one of the commercial products claiming that they can control cramping by stimulating the mouth and esophagus receptors (HotShot might have been the brand name but not 100% sure). It did not have any obvious effect although it is hard to tell if I would have cramped even worse without it. Bottom line: the only thing that works is pacing yourself.
Thanks - I came here after a cramp today that struck me when I was crossing a street on a bike in traffic. Well presented with actual (non-bro) science. Guess I'll try to up my volume/intensity a bit more steadily.
I won a cycling event many years ago but gave my medal to a cycling friend who was about to retire due to illness . The podium outcome doesn't make me feel good but embarrassed instead as too many people ask you questions .
Excellent video on something I've dealt with a lot over the years - would have been nice if you had give us a singular explanation that always works though lol. Kidding aside, I can't argue with your findings although I'm a bit stuck on the electrolyte factor - it truly seems to me that no electrolyte = more likely to cramp, but if proper electrolyte intake = less fatigue and less fatigue = less cramping then yes, I see it. The gene factors seems viable too - my wife (former pro) has "never experienced a muscle cramp" in her life (racing or otherwise) whereas I used to get them so bad it's insane. I do find that A) training harder throughout the year (more evenly than a lazy winter and a spike in Spring and Summer) has helped, and B) Increasing intensity and duration more progressively helps for sure, no doubt about it C) Some of my most concerted efforts to avoid cramping involved carefully planned intake of various drink mixes and often in heavy quantities that I believe taxed my digestion to a degree that only made my cramps worse (by redirecting more blood from working muscles and putting it into digestion) D) My worst cramping has always come with feast or famine / weekend warrior rides where my body just isn't ready for the efforts after a week of sitting at a desk interrupted only by shorter rides. This does leave me with a question though - the worst cramps I used to get and still suffer from sometimes are not the ones that happen during the ride but rather later (hours after ride is over). If the effort is over, surely some form of depletion is causing this "collapse in a fit" cramps when getting up from a table 2 hrs after a ride??? The simple gesture of standing up is far from an intense effort, but man it can trigger a cramp so bad you want to cry. When this happens I find that barefoot on a cool floor really helps - like the neuro distraction of pickle juice I guess!?
Makes total sense to me. Suddenly I started getting locked up all over cramps, on long runs. Lasted months an months, I’ve decided, it’s just overuse/under fitness. I just need to improve.
where can i get the hyper gain beast mode? are there different flavours?
.. sure, we have several great flavours to choose from: "Activated Fart", "Pickled Snot" and "I buy whatever a pro athlete recommends in an ad"
@@jk0000079 dont forget cupcake
I was out of aerobic shape 5 years ago. Knew nothing about downhill mountain biking when a friend introduced it to me at a lift serviced resort. Rented a high end full sus mountain bike and biked 4 days in a row. Was instantly hooked. Was always looking for something with similar excitement as alpine skiing during non-snow months and this fit the bill. Started mountain biking in earnest and loved earning the downhill thrill by pedaling to the top. No more resorts for me. But on hot summer mornings I’d often start cramping up. As I was still in poor physical conditioning. By chance while driving and station surfing on the radio I came across a public radio talk show called The People’s Pharmacy and they were discussing leg cramps. At first it sounded like old hippy nonsense to me because they were talking about cramps and drinking vinegar. But then the host started talking intelligently so I kept listening. Bottom line - when I felt a bad cramp coming on I’d jump off my bike and do a shot of apple cider - about 2oz - like a shot of tequila. Within 30 seconds to at most 1 minute my cramp would totally disappear. Was like a miracle. Slowly over the next year I got in much better shape and suffered no more cramps. But that Apple cider trick was amazingly effective. For me.
The People’s Pharmacy
peoplespharmacy.com/articles/busting-myths-and-offering-unique-leg-cramp-remedies
This is one of your best videos. Thank you!
I've typically been afflicted by cramping when being unprepared for a much longer/harder ride than usual. High humidity and temperature were also present.
same! I guess the only thing to do is get good sleep, be well fed and ride more so your body is used to those "longer/harder" rides... I guess ill go for another ride and then anther one maybe 3 a week
For me, water/hydration intake the two days prior to my cramp issues is a marker. That is to say, if I exercise on a Thursday and don’t hydrate properly during or after, then I’m almost guaranteed to experience cramping on Saturday or Sunday. This might be the case of I worked harder on that Thursday and am still fatigued that Saturday or Sunday, so when I think I can go deep in that Saturday or Sunday session I pay for it. Veggie juice and beet juice added to my regular diet do wonders for me probably due to a good concentration of vitamins/minerals. Great video, Dylan.
Maybe unrelated but I often feel legs cramping in my sleep the night before a race, like from adrenaline building in anticipation. (They're easy enough to stretch out.) I remember my first NUE, Wildernes 101, where I passed you after you'd completely bonked or cramped . Then later you recovered and flew past encouraging me to keep up down the Croyle Run (yeah right!) You went on to get 14th and I got 21st :) (but I may be mixing races up!). You taught me a very valuable lesson that day and in the years since some of my best races were when I had the worst cramps. I knew I could stretch it out a bit, down a gel, and move on. Almost like a Sneeze I've sometimes wished the cramps on so I could get through them, because after an attack you generally go back to relative normal.
Interesting I get a similar thing before a big event I will start cramping. There seems to be a Psychosomatic aspect to my cramps as well as fatigue induced.
Excellent video. I have a strange situation, that no specialist in almost a decade has been able to figure out. Have you come across any athletes, that after they're done Is there a respective sport, regardless of Cool down stretches, post hydrating et cetera,. They go into what I call a full body cramp attack. It starts with one muscle, and then multiple muscles will be pulling and cramping for almost an hour in an allowed attack. So forget about trying to stretch out that muscle, because immediately another one, and another 1 and another 1 start pulling and before you know it,. You're on the ground flailing like a fish out of the water and there's nothing you can do to stop. It is the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life. , and no routines or hydration, or any methods i've ever learned about can stop it. I play competitive tennis, and used to play in tournaments that require multiple matches in a weekend. And now it's gotten to the point,. I'm too afraid to play a best of 3 set match because anything over an hour and a 1/2, especially if it's hot and humid I will. Go into the full body muscle cramping.
This case is really going to leave Dylan "lost for words" .
I'm a notorious cramper on mountain races. The worst part is when quads and hamstrings are cramping at the same time and I have to just stand there and wait until it goes away, because whatever muscle I stretch, the antagonistic muscle will cramp twice as painful
I've had left hamstring cramping issues for years. Always and only my left hamstring. After some research, and experimentation, I finally realized the reason for cramping....it was my sciatic nerve. By using an inversion table, back exercises, and adjusting my posture, I was able to rid the issue.
I am a cramper. Had L5/S1 surgery and now my right calf muscles and the peronneus cramp after hard efforts in particular and in the night in general. Licorice, Booze and Limptar N helps.
I have to agree with you. I tend to cramp if the race pace is higher than what I am used too. However, when this happens, I take one Rennie (calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate) and within a very short period, I am good to go. This has saved my life in many of my races and in some instances I have even gone on to win or podium.
The Rennies are fun to chew ! I found them helpful on longer brisk rides near the top of my "TRAINED - FOR" capacity to stave off leg cramps . I never get them in my arms strangely enough .
Thanks! dylan! Just what I was waiting for! :D Cheers!
Great info right there Dylan! Thanks again
Good video, as always!
Appreciate the science but stay for the banter 9:00
Mieke I like when he mouths peoples retorts/complains, half the time he’s saying what I’m thinking lol.
I stay for the discount coupon code to stock up on Beast Mode Supplements (love the cupcake flavour!) I hear the new formulation has more Bicarb to help with cramps
And the ultra-cramp beverage recipe, 'dirty chamois shake' anyone? :) I lol'd when he wretched and blew the geyser.
Before I was 30 I don't think I ever cramped. Not even sure if it happened before 35. But you seem to have concluded the same thing as I have: increasing fitness appears to be the most efficient way to reduce cramping. In 2017, I owned a bike for the first time since 2007. One day on a climb, I had cramps in so many leg muscles that I couldn't unclip, and I could barely pedal. I looked for some spot by the side of the road where the ground looked soft and then tried to crash there as softly as possible, before immediately starting to stretch my legs.
A year later I passed the same spot, and barely even thought of the climb as a climb. Of course I didn't cramp.
Oh, and I often do drink an electrolyte drink on longer rides, but that's mainly because I like the taste, and that makes me drink more. I don't notice any extra cramping when I just have water in the bottles.
Love your Humor, Dylan 🤣🤣👍
As usual great video with very useful information
This is my experience. Double century rides and triathlon. The worst...both quads and hamstrings at the same time 200 feet before the finish at Chicago tri. Temp was around 65. As time goes on I found out 1500 milligrams of salt per hour and I was golden. Around 7 or 8 hours into a double I would get sleepy and heavy eyelids. Salt would wake me right up. Then I found out if I cut salt out of diet a month or two before event, cramping went away or almost no salt needed. I would keep track of my blood pressure, when it went down to a certain point, no cramping. For me 125 over 80 down to 105 over 70.
I would add to it one more factor - it's a temperature. I've noticed that it is a significantly higher chance to get cramps if I haven't warmed up enough or temperature around me dropping fast and muscles get cold faster than expected. Or if you underestimate the weather and wear unfitted clothes for such cold. Happened a couple of time as well.
Dude thank you for this video. I subscribed mainly due to all the Pisgah placards on your wall. I live in CLT.
Great video - especially the cameo from BHD. I actually beat him to the the involuntary spit (with coffee) when the ingrediant list got to the chamois extract....
Very good video. You could have added the impact of nutrition on cramps. Since i switched to low carbs, i need more salt and is processed better. When you are a sugar addict, salt is retained, so the system does need more. I also take pure salt rather than buying electrolytes with sugar. For the past 2 yrs, never had any cramps on bike rides of 3-4hrs.
Can you do a video on cramping after hard rides? My muscles.twitch constantly for hours and will cramp if I put them up on an ottoman.
Just did my first 50 mile ride in about 4-7 degrees Celsius, so pretty cold, felt great up to about 35miles then experienced the worst quad cramps imaginable, had to stop about 10 times during the last 15 miles taking my finish time from just under 3 hours to 4 hours and 10 mins. Never felt muscle pain like it, as someone who has been lifting and strength training for 10 years this was shocking to me. The teardrop part of my quad was split down the middle with spasming muscle fibres feeling like they were being electrocuted and forced to contract as hard as possible. Training for a 200 miles race in a few months and cannot have this happen again, if it happens in my race it will be game over
I can confirm that training helps the best: After training with increasing durations the cramps, that used to come after about 5 hrs into a race or century just didn't show up again. No cramps for more than 3 years, even when racing the longset distances (312 and 390km) ever.
Cramping is an excellent demonstrator of rumour and misinformation. The number of people that have bought into the electrolyte and/or hydration cause is incredible. However, watch a football or rugby match where they are constantly hydrated and when do the players all start cramping up? If and when the match goes into overtime. They're used to playing for 80/90 minutes but when they go past that, cramp hits a good proportion of the players. QED!
Thank you for your content. You are professional, funny and science based. Keep it up. I cramp on rides or races that are out of my usual distance/time zone BWR, Lost and Found Gravel. I'm a personal trainer and cycling coach and get asked this question that you are addressing frequently. Thanks for crunching the science and making it fun.
I got out of the road side of cycling when I told my coach about cramping for the first time . The coach bullied me about it .
When I cramp near the end of a hard, long group ride, I have learned to bite down on my lower lip (and tip of the tongue). This is a motor neuron stimulation in and around the mouth that is similar to pickle juice and mustard. It is not immediate, but it does work.
The best thing I have learned is to continue pedaling and back off on the efforts. I can usually work thru it and keep moving. My initial reaction was to stop, but that often led to a painful, full-on cramp.
same! although I have found there are two types of cramps that I experience.... a cramp that comes on almost gradually and a cramp that just kicks into extreme pain... the 1st one I can reduce effort and continue through, the 2nd type I usually have to stop
Thank you very much, very interesting! Like always actually.
Old boy here, mag-glycinate and taurine have really helped cut down the frequency of my torture like night cramps.
I am an occasional cramper. The remedy I think I found to fix cramping is Vitamin D3 + Ca and Mg Glycinate/Bisglycinate + Zinc of each combo separated intake in an interval no less than 2 hours, keeping in mind that vitamin D3 is fat soluble (it can accumulate in liver and fat tissues, thus overdose may lead to intoxication) and remember that water-soluble minerals are washed out of the body with water consumed, as well the concentration of water-solubles to a large extent depends on the amount of water drank.
Great video as always. This topic really highlights a complex topic with two polarized theories to account for it that we try to reduce to a binary solution. It is clear from the lack of consensus in the literature that the ultimate cause of cramping will not be a black or white answer, rather a vast portion of the gray spectrum in between. That being said, if taking electrolytes every 12.4 miles, while chewing on jalapeno peppers, and drinking pickle juice helps, then kudos to the placebo effect and mental conviction. I myself I'm quite fond of Backwards Hat Dylan secret formula of 98% habanero pepper and maltodextrin on the pizza and beer flavour.
My "favourite" is trying to stretch out a cramped quad only to set off a wicked hamstring cramp. It's pretty fun to watch me roll around on the ground.
What was the electrolyte drink given? Cramping also isn’t instantaneous, I missed the mention of at what time frame cramping took place and what deficiencies were or were not noted. Ie - salt, potassium, or magnesium.
The muscular fatigue explanation fits my experiences of cramping. i.e. quad cramps in races when unfit.
Hey, want to do a video on science behind ketones? We here about them all the time, gcn say they "felt" better, after consumption, but I'm curious about real scientific research. I now read that they have actually impaired time-trial performance.
I find that I never get cramps if I rest on the couch for several days while drinking wine and eating chocolate.
Thanks again for another great video
I use in 1 litter of water 2 grams of salt and 20 of sugar, in the night before the ride I consume 500 miligrams of magnesium and 65 miligrams of iron and I usually ride between 60 and 80 kilometers with my all mountain mtb. When the cramps show up I change the position of my foot on the pedal.
I've been a cramper for the 30 years I've been racing. After years of racing, I knew that I'd start cramping around 2:45-3:00 hours into any race, and planned accordingly with pickle juice, etc..I've tried everything, but still had marginal success...and then I went vegan about 6 months ago, and haven't had a cramp since, no matter how long or hard I ride. I have no scientific evidence to support the theory that meat made me cramp, but my personal anecdotal evidence has been enough for me to stay plant based.
I read an article in a non scientific newspaper that reported initial results of a scientific study stating that the reason for cramping is fatigued muscle cells not handling the demands placed on them. Have you heard anything of this?
I cramp within seconds after eating/drinking carb based foods on a hard ride. I found if I have an electrolyte drink or just salt in water, I have far less problems on the same type of ride.
I started cramping when I was about 40 years old. The thing that always helped - even in Gran Fondos in Southern Italy - was magnesium and potassium. It is no secret amongst endurance athletes. Why are these substances not reviewed in the video?
Any particular foods or supplements that you would recommend? I drink coconut water and it contains magnesium and it seems to help
You deserve a big like to this video for giving us some literature review on this topic. Totally debunking the electrolytes myth.
Is there any reason to drink electrolytes during a workout then? Should i just stick with drinking water and eating carbs when i ride? Thanks!
Yes, for proper hydration. I should do a video on this.
Dylan Johnson: Please do, Dylan.
Lorne Lee the TL;DR summary is that when you exercise you sweat via your eccrine glands. your sweat contains not just water but “other stuff”. Some of this stuff like urea is true waste that your body is looking to dump on purpose. However other constituents of sweat are stuff that your body doesn’t “want” to dump but has to as part of the osmotic mechanism by which sweating occurs. What you’re looking to do is to basically drink something that is close to sweat in order to help replace the stuff that’s lost. You don’t need to replace the waste elements such as urea obviously (though drinking urine is unlikely to do you any harm if you’re in a pinch despite not sounding appealing). But you do want to replace the salts that your body was forced to give up.
I have heard that you need some salt in the stomach to allow water to get where it needs to instead of peeing it out.
Thank you for the explanation, I always was told, first of all my Dad who was a cyclist, don't forget the electrolytes
I know for a fact that pickle juice will stop cramps once they happen. When I was racing off road motorcycle hare scrambles I would get severe legs cramps after the race on my way home. They were so bad that I had to pull over and walk around for a while. I started drinking 20oz of pickle juice immediately after the race and never had another leg cramp again. This is proof enough for me. I drink it after an MTB race now and I've had no cramps. As far as preventing cramps, as a pre race drink, I've never tried it so I don't know if it will prevent it. It would be interesting to find out.
I had a ton of cramps while cycling. Solution, my cleat position was too far to the tip of the shoe. Do not underestimate the problems that originate from a bad bike fit.
Thanks for the great analysis.
Red meat: I have been a chronic cramper for years: during exercise and after. sometimes not even long rides and almost no matter how much riding. I have just had my 4th ride in a row without cramping during the ride or after and all I can think of is that I've been pigging out on steaks most nights recently. This is the closest thing to a solution I have experienced and completely unexpected. Had tried all the electrolyte crap, gels, chews, bananas, concentrating on hydration (pre/during) and nothing has worked until stumbling across what may turn out to be my personal fix.
Again informative as usual as we come to expect. Did not FSU pilot a program to assist football players and cramping. it would be interesting to read there initial hypothesis on the question being posed here in relation to DELAY the onset of cramping vs a REMEDY for cramping. I think that would be an interesting read if it exist. Again kudos for your work!!!
I have cramped in the past. And really bad. The site for cramping was consistent. The same spot the muscles. I agree that conditioning is a big player as with my greater consistency in training cramping has become a super rare event.
One thing I find interesting is that if I drink alcohol the night before I will cramp up like clockwork the next day. If salt imbalance and hydration play no role, I'd really like to know the cause of this.
Science is one thing..though a bit distance in comparison to personal experience
Great video!
FMD. I peed a little during that BackHatDJ skit 😂🤣😂🤣😂😂😂
My sister is an anesthesiologist. She says after surgery they give patients Ultra-mins by Nature's Plus to prevent cramping.
I’m so lucky I never cramp. Watched a guy bail out in the last two miles of a century due to cramps, it looked like torture.
oh you lucky dog, it is torture.... oh the tales I could tell. actually the good thing is it usually doesn't last long, but it is agony
I was that guy for sure went down
Very rarely get cramps while on the bike, but used to get terrible cramps afterward, in the car on the way home or on the couch. Mixing my own electrolyte drinks more or less stopped it.
Well , in the late 60's definately the perceived wisdom was cramp was caused by lack of body salts......so take a drink with you and add some table salt....say one or two teaspoons per pint. Having said that, at the lower levels of the sport (42 mile road races) nobody took a drink with them.....we didn't want the weight.. and hey it was no more than a training ride....and we didn't take drinks on those either. But whilst doing physio recently i was able to ask a pro physiotherapist the cramp question. The answer was exercising the muscles in extended range because in her ooinion it was about working a muscle in a range not trained for.....so stretching ....and weight training in an extended zone was key to avoidance. She said it wasn't about salt intake (doh! 50 years of faulty diagnosis by me!)
Great stuff here! I do cramp a lot on longer rides so this was right on time for me!
Also, how do you adjust your training if you are preparing for a ride or race at a much higher altitude? Maybe a video idea
Maybe wearing a "dustmask?" while training could help. sawed it once but i live at high altitude so idk
@@notparanoid912 I've seen some recommend those "training mask" things but also heard that's BS too..
Classic Backwards Hat Dylan take! I laughed so hard, I almost dropped my IPad.