What is cramping? And what can we do to prevent it?
Does pickle juice actually do anything? Bananas, potassium, and salt – do they have anything to do with cramping?
Now let me start off by saying that there aren’t a lot of concrete answers here. Sorry. I’m as frustrated as you are. While the science is not 100% clear on the mechanisms and causes of cramping (yet), there some promising leads.
First, a quick background on cramps: cramping is an uncontrollable contraction of a muscle – i.e. muscle fibers shorten and tighten – lasting for a non-specific amount of time. Some cramps may last a few seconds, while others may be painfully longer. The quickest and easiest way to relieve a cramp is by relaxing and stretching the muscle. Here is a quick and painful way to find out for yourself, how cramps work:
Sit in a chair as you normally would, with your feet flat on the ground and your knees flexed to 90 degrees. Now slide your right foot back under the chair until it cannot go any further. When your foot stops moving, keep pulling your foot back by flexing your hamstring. Do this for 20-30 seconds and you are very likely to experience a painful hamstring or calf cramp – to relieve the cramp, straighten your leg out completely and stretch those muscles. The pain should quickly dissipate!
What causes cramps?
Recent research has not supported the old school thought that cramping is caused by dehydration and/or electrolyte imbalances that occur during exercise. Low levels of sodium (i.e. electrolyte imbalance) have not been shown to be strongly correlated with cramping, and neither has dehydration.
This research identifies “altered neuromuscular control” as the more likely cause of cramps. It is a complicated and highly-scientific topic, so I will let those of you interested dive deeper into the research on your own (below). Here’s a simple summary: [Warning: science-heavy paragraphs incoming]
Altered neuromuscular control is when your muscles and brain stop interacting in their normal way. Typically, the brain send a signal to the muscle: contract, or relax. Seems simple, right? But as muscle fatigue increases, the brain-muscle communication pathway starts to get fuzzy.
Muscles include spindles which assist in muscle contraction, as well as reflexes such as the knee-jerk response. Muscles also include Golgi tendon organs which help inhibit muscle contraction, i.e. causing muscle relaxation. As muscular fatigue increases, muscle spindles become increasingly active, while Golgi tendon organ activity is suppressed. In extreme states of fatigue, muscular control becomes abnormal (read: altered neuromuscular control), increasing the likelihood of cramping caused by the excitatory activity of the muscle spindles.
Studies have found this correlation in the real world too, citing extreme levels of muscular fatigue as a likely cause cramping. This is why cramps occur more frequently in athletes at the beginning of their seasons, when they are less fit, and further from their physical peak. It seems to be that cramps occur more readily when we push ourselves extremely close to our physiological limits, and our muscles simply can’t keep up.
How do I prevent cramps?
Pickle juice won’t hurt your performance, and neither will proper hydration and plenty of electrolytes. So drink plenty, and mix in some electrolytes too. Down that bottle of pickle juice if it makes you feel better, it can only help. But when it comes to preventing cramps completely, there is no cure-all. Sorry 🙁
In simple terms, overall fitness and flexibility are more likely to prevent cramps than at-home remedies, bottles of pickle juice, or bunches of bananas. For example, you are much more likely to cramp when doing an off-the-couch 5k than a marathon that you’ve been training 6 months for. Stretching regularly and addressing muscular imbalances through strength training, yoga, massage, and physical therapy, may also reduce the likelihood of cramping during exercise.
If you find yourself experiencing frequent, painful cramps, write down what led you to that moment, and what was happening in the minutes prior. Perhaps each cramp occurred during a hot road race, early in the morning, or after a certain number of hours on the bike. Cramps are individual, but if you look closely enough, you may be able to identify the causes of your own. If that doesn’t work, talk with your coach about what you can do to prevent those awful, uncontrollable muscle contractions.
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This blog is a quick summary of the recent research that I have read, listened to, and gathered over the past few years. I am not a doctor – if you are having severe or frequent cramps, please talk to your doctor. The studies mentioned in this article can be found all over the internet, including this episode of Fast Talk from Velonews: ep. 26