Cramp!

[jtinnion]

Yesterday on the Kinder Trial I felt cramp coming on in the back of my left leg, a few inches above the knee. This was towards the end after a lot of rough traversing, but happened in a gently falling field of very horrible tussock. I slowed for a minute or two and thankfully it didn't come back in the race. Then I actually had a sudden cramp while I was eating my soup at the finish - I had to jump up to relieve it and spilt everyone's tea and soup.

Does anyone have any idea why this might have happened when I'm OK running faster over longer distances normally, and also any suggestions as to what I might do to prevent it happening again?

Cheers
Jim

PS: this was my first MT type event, and I was moving in a sustained way probably the fastest I have ever done over rough pathless terrain (still not very fast by the standards of most...)

[Mike T]

Muscles cramp if they are asked to do something they are not used to - either in terms of volume, or in terms of the nature of the activity - or a combination of both. If you had trained to run on "a gently falling field of very horrible tussock" then you probably would not have developed cramp. Once a muscle has cramped it will tend to continue to do so for quite some time, even with trivial movements or even at rest. Despite what some say there seems to be little evidence that it has anything to do with salt or potassium depletion.

[Mr1470]

Jim,

Only just caught up with this. A couple of thoughts for you;

i) I'm aware from your blog that you've upped training a fair bit of late, this could just be a reaction to it. You're asking your muscles to do more than they were. Don't worry on this score, with the plans you have in place for this year, they'll adapt.

ii) Do you use an electrolyte drink? I never used to but swear by them now. I favour nuun tablets but other brands are available. As you do longer distances or harder training, your body will require more nutrients, and if it gets out of balance, cramp can be a result

iii) Terrain. You do a lot of training on those wonderful, short grass, fairly even surface Shropshire hills. Running in the Peak and Yorkshire is very different. There are lots of tussocks and lots of lifting your leg up out of bogs. This will place a different strain on your muscles.

iv) Finally, you can't ignore the fact that you might have an underlying injury in that muscle perhaps. Do you go for regular sport massage? If not, I'd recommend it.

[Latege]

Despite what some say there seems to be little evidence that it has anything to do with salt or potassium depletion.

I don't know how good any scientific evidence is or isn't but anecdotal evidence I certainly have. When I first moved to equitorial Africa 15 years ago I had frequent problems with cramp, even when doing only moderately strenuous activities - working outside on the truck for a few hours was enough to bring it on. Someone gave me salt tablets to take and I stopped having problems. I soon gave up on the tablets and just added more salt to my food. I've never had cramp since - until 18 miles into the Wadsworth Trog last month. Not sure why it suddenly occured then except that since coming back to the UK last year I've reduced my salt intake (on the basis I don't sweat as much when running here as I do simply sitting at my desk in Gabon, but maybe I've overdone it).

[TheReverand]

The only time i ever get cramp is in the middle of the night, after a skinful of alcohol. This is enough to prove to me that it is my body suffering from dehydration( brought on by the effects of alcohol )that cause cramp. This falls into line with the lack of salt argument etc

[Mike T]

Interesting anecdotes - does anyone know of any scientific studies that show that salt prevents cramps? My explanations would be that Latege was getting used to a completely different exercise regimen - correct me if I am wrong - and that TheReverand is sedating himself into abnormal muscle positions for long periods of time = propensity to cramp.

[Mike T]

From " Marathon Medicine" - a book based on a symposium held at the Royal Society of Medicine, 2000 ; some quotes:

Re cramp: " There is no metabolic explanation" - Prof. Eric Newsholme, Professor of Biochemistry, Oxford.

" It is difficult to find a metabolic or electrolyte cause...." - Prof. Bengt Saltin, The Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre.

Noakes says much the same thing.

[Smut]

I don't know if my experience is of any relevance, but last spring/early summer I suffered from cramps most nights. I was drinking plenty and although training hard, this was nothing I'd not done before. I mentioned my peoblem to a pharmacist and he suggested two unrelated reasons.
(1) My diet was very, very low in sodium as a result of me eating fresh food and especially loads of fruit. He also thought that the number of bananas I ate would be causing the little sodium I ate to be "exchanged" with the potassium in the bananas.
(2) I was on medication and one of the side effects was to reduce sodium uptake.
I therefore started adding salt at his suggestion (not much only about 1g/day) and wonder of wonders the cramps disappeared.

[Brotherton Lad]

There's a clue here:

Prof. Bengt Saltin, The Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre

[Mike T]

Excellent! - I had not spotted that.