Very Painful Calf Cramps

Calamity Al

Hi,

Any advise on this would great

This has been my first year riding a road bike, on average Id do 2 or 3 20-25 mile rides per week, according to strava with around 1000ft of climbing each ride at a 15mph average, so not a lot really.

For various reasons I had not ridden in the last 8 weeks, until Friday. After about 30 minutes both my calf muscles cramped really badly, you could see them cramping, going hard, twitching etc and have ached ever since.

A friend has suggest, hydration, salt, sodium levels could be the issue. Any suggestions what I can do to help this?

Before I had the 8 week break, they had on a couple of occasions felt like they were going to cramp, but never actually did.

The only other info is that a few months ago I was getting pain in the right knee, so I moved the cleat back slightly which does seem to have helped. Generally I feel quite comfortable on the bike.

Thanks,

Alex

sungod

unlikely to be due to lack of salt, those cramps happen all over and you need to be pretty far gone to experience them

poor hydration is possible, but seems unlikely as you'd only been going 30 mins

most likely is lack of exercise, try doing some stretching and gentle warm up before riding, if they're still aching massage may help

diy

Yep - totally agree with the above, hydration is only ONE of many things which can cause cramps, lack of use is the more obvious.

Stretch for at least 3 to 5 mins after every ride. e.g. something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgEbH31FbWs

The other thing you can do on the ride is increase you cadence to see if you can spin it out.

Calamity Al

Ok thanks. I will try again this week and see how I get on.

Cheers

FitzM

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19692518#p19692518]Calamity Al[/url] wrote:

Ok thanks. I will try again this week and see how I get on.

Cheers

A couple of yrs ago I used to have regular hamstring cramps. The advice I received included taking more salt and stretching, but I was already good on both. After a century sportive I took advantage of a free massage that was laid on by the sportive organisers. The masseur told me I had a lot of "knots" in my hamstrings, so I decided to have a couple more massages. Since the "knots" were massaged out I've not cramped.

BTW expect the first couple of proper deep muscle massage sessions to be a tad uncomfortable

kajjal

It may be you are going too hard before you have warmed up properly or just trying to do too much too soon. Cramp is often fatigue based but dehydration is another cause. The final thing would be to make sure your bike is setup correctly, i had my saddle too high causing knee pain from over reaching and saddle that was too narrow causing pain you don't want to know about.

ncr

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19692442#p19692442]Calamity Al[/url] wrote:

Hi,

Any advise on this would great

This has been my first year riding a road bike, on average Id do 2 or 3 20-25 mile rides per week, according to strava with around 1000ft of climbing each ride at a 15mph average, so not a lot really.

For various reasons I had not ridden in the last 8 weeks, until Friday. After about 30 minutes both my calf muscles cramped really badly, you could see them cramping, going hard, twitching etc and have ached ever since.

A friend has suggest, hydration, salt, sodium levels could be the issue. Any suggestions what I can do to help this?

Before I had the 8 week break, they had on a couple of occasions felt like they were going to cramp, but never actually did.

The only other info is that a few months ago I was getting pain in the right knee, so I moved the cleat back slightly which does seem to have helped. Generally I feel quite comfortable on the bike.

Thanks,

Alex

Toe raises should fix that problem,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0G_17zZh0

Calamity Al

Thanks for all the good advise. I think I will start by getting back on the bike and taking it easy, while making sure I am well hydrated.

I am conscious of the bike set up, as I did have to make some changes to help with some knee pain. There seems to be a lot of varied opinion on bike fits, and to me they seem very expensive.

I'm sure cycling was much easier when I was a kid!

sungod

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19693112#p19693112]Calamity Al[/url] wrote:

Thanks for all the good advise. I think I will start by getting back on the bike and taking it easy, while making sure I am well hydrated.

I am conscious of the bike set up, as I did have to make some changes to help with some knee pain. There seems to be a lot of varied opinion on bike fits, and to me they seem very expensive.

I'm sure cycling was much easier when I was a kid!

"knee pain" is too vague, knees are complicated, you need to consider exactly where the pain is, this'll guide you to things that may help according to where it hurts, have a look at...

http://www.cptips.com/knee.htm

unless you've got some specific issue needing an expert to figure out and corect, you can diy bike fit perfectly well

try reading...
https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bikefit/2011/02/seat-height-how-hard-can-it-be/
https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bikefit/2011/05/seat-set-back-for-road-bikes/
...and other artices on the site

take your time, be analytic, once you're close, make small adjustments to tweak, keep notes/measurements at each step so that you can back-up if you go astray

rafletcher

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19692716#p19692716]FitzM[/url] wrote:

BTW expect the first couple of proper deep muscle massage sessions to be a tad uncomfortable

This is a euphemism for "F***KING painful"! :shock:

Calamity Al

Had a very leisurely 11 mile ride this morning on a less hilly route and only averaged 13mph, it was actually hard holding back at times. I've also been making sure I drink plenty of water all week and had a bit of a stretch before setting off. Pleased to report no problems at all.

One of the reasons I had not ridden for 8 weeks was its a very hectic time of year for us, with holidays and various events which all seem to involve drinking! I wouldn't be surprised if I was very dehydrated as a result!

Plan is to continue as I am and gradually increase the distance and pace.

Thanks again for the assistance, I'll update this thread if I have any further issues.

diy

Don't forget to stretch after the ride also. Its more effective.

quinpat34

Usually, the calf cramps occur with the overuse of muscles or dehydration. In most of the cases, holding the muscles at the same posture can cause cramps. Like your friend said, it might be one of the reasons, but you have just gone 3o minutes and I feel that not yet a time to get dehydrated. I had the problem of muscle cramps sometimes and when I discuss this issue with my physio in Mississauga of the Physio Now clinic, he advised to get a proper warm up and some stretches before going for a ride. That advice really helped me to get rid of my usual cramps. Hope you could try something like that before you go out for a ride.

RyanB

I was suffering similar calf pains earlier in the year, despite never getting these problems in many years of riding - (average 100miles a week). I think it was changing to Speedplay pedals, which I quite like, but I didn't have the stack difference/seatpost height dialled in properly. On one club run one of the calves basically went bang, and I had to stop cycling and try and massage some circulation back into my leg.

The physio said it was build up of lactic acid in both calves over a period of time. She basically went through a process of breaking it down through deep tissue massage, which was excruciatingly painful, and said it was, ultimately, as a result of me not looking after myself properly. She strongly advocated ice baths ("12mins, no more, no less") and of course pre and post exercise stretching (which I'm too lazy to do).

Whilst being initially cynical, I've found the ice bath thing actually somewhat helpful in keeping it under control. And adjusting the seatpost height slightly downwards has definitely helped too.