calf cramps

On 4 Aug 2004 09:13:38 GMT, in <[email hidden]>,

Arthur Clune said:

Paul Rudin <[email hidden]> wrote:

: at a pace that's a little faster than I'm used to.

You muscles are working harder than they have before, hence they cramp.

Another thought: Do you hold your calf muscles rigid when cycling?
Good technique is use your ankles during the pedalling circle.

--
Boredband: High speed internet access with uninteresting content.

Paul Rudin said:

I went for a ride on the roads yesterday with a couple of guys from
work, we did about 45k on the roads, at a pace that's a little faster
than I'm used to. Mostly I do off-road riding for recreation and
shorter rides to work or the shops.

I found that after a bit I started getting a little bit of cramping in
my calf muscles. It eased off if I didn't work as hard as I could, but
was a bit of an irritation. Is there any specific thing that I can do
to try and prevent this in the future? I wonder whether lowering my
saddle slightly so that my calves don't get stretched quite as much
might help? I'll experiment with that, but any other suggestion are
welcome.

If your saddle is otherwise ok leave it where it is.

Cramps can be caused by many different things and the cause varies from
person to person. Doing something you're not used to is a surefire cause.
So, riding faster and/or further than normal will often bring on cramps.
Training will help prevent this. Dehydration is another possibility, so
make sure you drink plenty. Lack of energy can also be a cause so you need
to eat or have recently eaten.

Stretching the calves by standing on the pedals and dropping the heels can
relieve the cramp.
--
Michael MacClancy
Random putdown - "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter
saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain
www.macclancy.demon.co.uk
www.macclancy.co.uk

I went for a ride on the roads yesterday with a couple of guys from
work, we did about 45k on the roads, at a pace that's a little faster
than I'm used to. Mostly I do off-road riding for recreation and
shorter rides to work or the shops.

I found that after a bit I started getting a little bit of cramping in
my calf muscles. It eased off if I didn't work as hard as I could, but
was a bit of an irritation. Is there any specific thing that I can do
to try and prevent this in the future? I wonder whether lowering my
saddle slightly so that my calves don't get stretched quite as much
might help? I'll experiment with that, but any other suggestion are
welcome.

in message <[email hidden]>, Michael

MacClancy (') said:

Paul Rudin said:

I went for a ride on the roads yesterday with a couple of guys from
work, we did about 45k on the roads, at a pace that's a little faster
than I'm used to. Mostly I do off-road riding for recreation and
shorter rides to work or the shops.

I found that after a bit I started getting a little bit of cramping
in my calf muscles. It eased off if I didn't work as hard as I could,
but was a bit of an irritation. Is there any specific thing that I
can do to try and prevent this in the future? I wonder whether
lowering my saddle slightly so that my calves don't get stretched
quite as much might help? I'll experiment with that, but any other
suggestion are welcome.

If your saddle is otherwise ok leave it where it is.

Cramps can be caused by many different things and the cause varies
from person to person.

Cramps are caused by one thing only: the muscles locally generating more
lactic acid (a waste product of muscle action) than your blood
circulation can carry away. Once the muscle is overloaded with lactic
acid it can't function any more and that is cramp.

The solution is regular exercise. As you exercise the vascular system
gets tuned to flush larger quantities of lactic acid out of the
muscles. Typically if you get cramp it's either because you are doing
more sustained exercise than your body is tuned for, or your blood is
too viscous and isn't flowing freely (e.g. dehydration) or you have a
actual vascular problem.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

my other car is #<Subr-Car: #5d480>
;; This joke is not funny in emacs.

Richard Bates <[email hidden]> wrote:

: Another thought: Do you hold your calf muscles rigid when cycling?
: Good technique is use your ankles during the pedalling circle.

I've never been convinced by ankling personally.

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Michael

MacClancy (') said:

Paul Rudin said:

I went for a ride on the roads yesterday with a couple of guys from
work, we did about 45k on the roads, at a pace that's a little faster
than I'm used to. Mostly I do off-road riding for recreation and
shorter rides to work or the shops.

I found that after a bit I started getting a little bit of cramping
in my calf muscles. It eased off if I didn't work as hard as I could,
but was a bit of an irritation. Is there any specific thing that I
can do to try and prevent this in the future? I wonder whether
lowering my saddle slightly so that my calves don't get stretched
quite as much might help? I'll experiment with that, but any other
suggestion are welcome.

If your saddle is otherwise ok leave it where it is.

Cramps can be caused by many different things and the cause varies
from person to person.

Cramps are caused by one thing only:

Really? That's not what you've subsequently written.

Quoted message said:

the muscles locally generating more
lactic acid (a waste product of muscle action) than your blood
circulation can carry away. Once the muscle is overloaded with lactic
acid it can't function any more and that is cramp.

The solution is regular exercise. As you exercise the vascular system
gets tuned to flush larger quantities of lactic acid out of the
muscles. Typically if you get cramp it's either because you are doing

1.

Quoted message said:

more sustained exercise than your body is tuned for,

2.

Quoted message said:

or your blood is
too viscous and isn't flowing freely (e.g. dehydration)

3.

Quoted message said:

or you have a
actual vascular problem.

So, cramps are caused by (at least) three things only?

;-)
--
Michael MacClancy
Random putdown - "He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr
www.macclancy.demon.co.uk
www.macclancy.co.uk

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Michael

MacClancy (') said:

Paul Rudin said:

I went for a ride on the roads yesterday with a couple of guys from
work, we did about 45k on the roads, at a pace that's a little faster
than I'm used to. Mostly I do off-road riding for recreation and
shorter rides to work or the shops.

I found that after a bit I started getting a little bit of cramping
in my calf muscles. It eased off if I didn't work as hard as I could,
but was a bit of an irritation. Is there any specific thing that I
can do to try and prevent this in the future? I wonder whether
lowering my saddle slightly so that my calves don't get stretched
quite as much might help? I'll experiment with that, but any other
suggestion are welcome.

If your saddle is otherwise ok leave it where it is.

Cramps can be caused by many different things and the cause varies
from person to person.

Cramps are caused by one thing only: the muscles locally generating more
lactic acid (a waste product of muscle action) than your blood
circulation can carry away. Once the muscle is overloaded with lactic
acid it can't function any more and that is cramp.

The solution is regular exercise. As you exercise the vascular system
gets tuned to flush larger quantities of lactic acid out of the
muscles. Typically if you get cramp it's either because you are doing
more sustained exercise than your body is tuned for, or your blood is
too viscous and isn't flowing freely (e.g. dehydration) or you have a
actual vascular problem.

I reckon there's two kinds of cramp. One where the muscle goes into
spasm, the other where they flood with lactic acid and it burrrrrrrnnnnnns.

Overdoing the pushing can lead to the former I found, but is helped by
keeping on top of the dehydration and salt loss. Simply overdoing it
can lead to the latter, but given time that clears and is uncomfortable,
while the former renders me utterly unable to even get OFF the bike,
walk, etc, and is utter agony till it subsides.

--

Velvet

Quoted message said:

I found that after a bit I started getting a little bit of cramping in
my calf muscles. It eased off if I didn't work as hard as I could, but
was a bit of an irritation. Is there any specific thing that I can do
to try and prevent this in the future?

I'm not sure about the long term solution, but the short term solution
is to put a touch of salt under your tongue. This will *immediately*
deal with cramping.

--
Callas

Paul Rudin of ntl Cablemodem News Service said:

I went for a ride on the roads yesterday with a couple of guys from
work, we did about 45k on the roads, at a pace that's a little faster
than I'm used to. Mostly I do off-road riding for recreation and
shorter rides to work or the shops.

I found that after a bit I started getting a little bit of cramping in
my calf muscles. It eased off if I didn't work as hard as I could, but
was a bit of an irritation. Is there any specific thing that I can do
to try and prevent this in the future? I wonder whether lowering my
saddle slightly so that my calves don't get stretched quite as much
might help? I'll experiment with that, but any other suggestion are
welcome.

Happened to me once, but only once. In my case the likely cause was
dehydration - alcohol the night before the ride, less water intake than
usual doing the ride, and really pushing it (for me) to get home before the
weather went nasty. So consider your liquid intake.
--
Every man thinks God is on his side.
The rich and powerful know he is. - Jean Anouilh
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Tatting, lace & stitching page <http://www.sandbenders.demon.co.uk/index.htm>