Quads locking up!

[oldmetal]

Has any one experienced this:

At sporadic times after light or hard rides and without warning, the next or even a couple of days later when I hit the road, within the first mile my right and/or left quads will lock with tremendous cramps that can take days to relieve.

I stretch before and after, drink plenty of water and keep a good diet and sleep in play at all times.

The pain isn't always the worst of the problem. The quads lock up so tight that at times is it is difficult to peddle and I have to stop and stretch just to get home.

I have been back on the wheels since January 04 (after too many years off) and have worked up to about 150 -200+ miles a week at present.

I have never had legs troubles of any kind that approach this.

Comments welcome!

oldmetal (Greg)

 

[ed073]

Has any one experienced this:

At sporadic times after light or hard rides and without warning, the next or even a couple of days later when I hit the road, within the first mile my right and/or left quads will lock with tremendous cramps that can take days to relieve.

I stretch before and after, drink plenty of water and keep a good diet and sleep in play at all times.

The pain isn't always the worst of the problem. The quads lock up so tight that at times is it is difficult to peddle and I have to stop and stretch just to get home.

I have been back on the wheels since January 04 (after too many years off) and have worked up to about 150 -200+ miles a week at present.

I have never had legs troubles of any kind that approach this.

Comments welcome!

oldmetal (Greg)

see a sports medicine professional for an accurate diagnosis

 

[oldmetal]

see a sports medicine professional for an accurate diagnosis

That step is definitely in the near future!

 

[dhk]

That step is definitely in the near future!

Are you sure you're getting enough salt in your diet? Training in the heat of course means you sweat out electrolytes. I'd try drinking sports drink before, during and after the ride to ensure you're restoring your sodium and potassium blood levels.

Also could be you've built up the mileage and intensity too quickly, and just need to back down for a few weeks. If you suspect overtraining, you might try a week of easy spinning, cutting distance by 2/3, and see if the problem goes away.

If that doesn't take care of it, then agree a sports professional or doctor is in order. Could be just how you're training, or some medical problem that has your electrolyte balance off. Good luck.

 

[ed073]

That step is definitely in the near future!

............

 

[Spider1977]

I had a similar experience recently. It only happened in my left leg. It was at the end of a long ride, the muscle went so tight it was like steel and quite painful. I couldn't move, had to just stand up and wait for the muscle to relax. In the meantime I drank all that was left of my gatorade drink (about quarter of the bottle). Eventually I was able to resume riding up quite a steep hill.

Funnily enough I quite regularly get foot cramps, only in my left foot. This often happens while swimming or when I take off my shoes after along bike ride and sometimes during a sprint. It's very annoying. I figure that if these problems were related to poor electrolyte balance, they would occur on both sides of my body. I just put it down to getting older. Perhaps I have some underlying problem with my nerves, muscles etc resulting from previous sporting injuries in my youth. I don't think it warrants a huge amount of money to get some quack to tell me I have to live with it. Instead I'll just live with it.

 

[gntlmn]

Has any one experienced this:

At sporadic times after light or hard rides and without warning, the next or even a couple of days later when I hit the road, within the first mile my right and/or left quads will lock with tremendous cramps that can take days to relieve.

I stretch before and after, drink plenty of water and keep a good diet and sleep in play at all times.

The pain isn't always the worst of the problem. The quads lock up so tight that at times is it is difficult to peddle and I have to stop and stretch just to get home.

I have been back on the wheels since January 04 (after too many years off) and have worked up to about 150 -200+ miles a week at present.

I have never had legs troubles of any kind that approach this.

Comments welcome!

oldmetal (Greg)

Try eating 2 potatoes right after you get in from your rides. Just grab them from the fridge, clean them with water and scrubber, and pop them in the microwave for about 6-8 minutes depending on your m/w power. Then put them down the hatch after dosing them with salt and oil.

This is a very small investment, maybe 25 cents a day not counting what it cuts down on the other foods you eat. In other words, it costs less than nothing.

Potatoes will serve a few purposes. First, it is very important to replace lost muscle glycogen immediately after you get off the bike. Studies have shown that the transference is greatly enhanced during the first few minutes after strenuous activity. If you wait longer than one hour, this effect is diminished.

So you're getting maybe 3 birds with one stone. First, you are replacing burned glycogen. Secondly, you are replacing lost potassium (maybe the key electrolyte you are low on). Third, you are replacing lost sodium (salt) because you are probably sprinkling a healthy dose of salt on the potatoes. I like to put safflower oil on them too because I think oil helps to slow down the digestion of starch, minimizing the insulin effect. But I don't want to go further with that topic because I'm not really too strong on it. It's too complicated.

Anyway, try this small thing. If it solves your problem, you probably saved $500 minumum on the doctor trying this and that until something works. If it doesn't, maybe your problem is not electrolytes or glycogen depletion but something else.

 

[Spider1977]

Try eating 2 potatoes right after you get in from your rides. Just grab them from the fridge, clean them with water and scrubber, and pop them in the microwave for about 6-8 minutes depending on your m/w power. Then put them down the hatch after dosing them with salt and oil.

This is a very small investment, maybe 25 cents a day not counting what it cuts down on the other foods you eat. In other words, it costs less than nothing.

Potatoes will serve a few purposes. First, it is very important to replace lost muscle glycogen immediately after you get off the bike. Studies have shown that the transference is greatly enhanced during the first few minutes after strenuous activity. If you wait longer than one hour, this effect is diminished.

So you're getting maybe 3 birds with one stone. First, you are replacing burned glycogen. Secondly, you are replacing lost potassium (maybe the key electrolyte you are low on). Third, you are replacing lost sodium (salt) because you are probably sprinkling a healthy dose of salt on the potatoes. I like to put safflower oil on them too because I think oil helps to slow down the digestion of starch, minimizing the insulin effect. But I don't want to go further with that topic because I'm not really too strong on it. It's too complicated.

Anyway, try this small thing. If it solves your problem, you probably saved $500 minumum on the doctor trying this and that until something works. If it doesn't, maybe your problem is not electrolytes or glycogen depletion but something else.

gntlmn - Great idea, I might give it a go. I've known about this for a while as I am a rowing coach, when I'm not at work or on my bike. When at races we dole out jelly babies or energy bars immediately after a race to the crew for the same reason. Would banana's have a similar effect to the spuds?

 

[oldmetal]

Are you sure you're getting enough salt in your diet? Training in the heat of course means you sweat out electrolytes. I'd try drinking sports drink before, during and after the ride to ensure you're restoring your sodium and potassium blood levels.

Also could be you've built up the mileage and intensity too quickly, and just need to back down for a few weeks. If you suspect overtraining, you might try a week of easy spinning, cutting distance by 2/3, and see if the problem goes away.

If that doesn't take care of it, then agree a sports professional or doctor is in order. Could be just how you're training, or some medical problem that has your electrolyte balance off. Good luck.

I do get plenty of salt, in fact i love the stuff but don't go overboard with it.

I think though that Cytomax or some other pre/post drink might be a good option. I built the miles up over time and did jump up a little quick some months back but I also have a tendancy to ride all out and have had to learn to moderate the mile relative to the ride and the total weekly miles.

Thanks!

 

[oldmetal]

I had a similar experience recently. It only happened in my left leg. It was at the end of a long ride, the muscle went so tight it was like steel and quite painful. I couldn't move, had to just stand up and wait for the muscle to relax. In the meantime I drank all that was left of my gatorade drink (about quarter of the bottle). Eventually I was able to resume riding up quite a steep hill.

Funnily enough I quite regularly get foot cramps, only in my left foot. This often happens while swimming or when I take off my shoes after along bike ride and sometimes during a sprint. It's very annoying. I figure that if these problems were related to poor electrolyte balance, they would occur on both sides of my body. I just put it down to getting older. Perhaps I have some underlying problem with my nerves, muscles etc resulting from previous sporting injuries in my youth. I don't think it warrants a huge amount of money to get some quack to tell me I have to live with it. Instead I'll just live with it.

Our experiences are quite similar with the exception that the locking up will not go away. Even after a coule of days rest it will stil flare back up.

I am leaning towards the glycogen theory as a solution from what I am getting in feedback. I'll have t give it a go. Thanks!

 

[oldmetal]

gntlmn - Great idea, I might give it a go. I've known about this for a while as I am a rowing coach, when I'm not at work or on my bike. When at races we dole out jelly babies or energy bars immediately after a race to the crew for the same reason. Would banana's have a similar effect to the spuds?

Hi gntlmn & spider,

I forgot all about potatoes! The potasium is huge and I hate bananas! My wife and I are big into organic eating and alternative cooking and we both recaled a potatoe broth that is great for getting the potasium in liquid form into the body.

As i recal she drank it after child birth and it really helped her body reset a normal balance.

Thanks for the reminder!

 

[ric_stern/RST]

Potatoes will serve a few purposes. First, it is very important to replace lost muscle glycogen immediately after you get off the bike. Studies have shown that the transference is greatly enhanced during the first few minutes after strenuous activity. If you wait longer than one hour, this effect is diminished.

I like to put safflower oil on them too because I think oil helps to slow down the digestion of starch, minimizing the insulin effect. But I don't want to go further with that topic because I'm not really too strong on it. It's too complicated.

the oil is at odds with what you're trying to achieve -- in other words to replenish muscle and liver glycogen at the fastest rate the foods need to have a very high glycaemic index and don't want to be slowed down with fats.

ric

 

[oldmetal]

Well after all considerations of the feed back and my own knowledge of the body, I was able to ride this a.m. without problems.

I drank a potasium broth with extra salt and added salt to my carb drink prior to my ride. Also, I took a different approach to stretching out my quads and deeper pelvic musculature and associated tissues and found the results favorable!

Thanks all for your input!

oldmetal