 What causes muscle cramping during exercise and what is the best way to prevent it? As always, today we're going to be taking a look at the science on this topic. Most cyclists and other endurance athletes have been told and assumed that cramping is due to hydration and electrolyte imbalance issues. But what does the science have to say? The answer might surprise you. We're going to get into that as well as discussing supposed strategies such as stretching, using pickle juice, hot sauce, mustard, etc to prevent and relieve cramping. Welcome back to another video. For weekly science based coaching videos just like this one, be sure to subscribe. Muscle cramping is a common problem among cyclists and other endurance athletes and it's a problem that's not well understood. There are many theories floating around out there for the cause of cramping. Yeah, it's so weird man. I don't know why I cramped today. Maybe I just ate too much last night, drank too much last night. I don't think my drink mix has enough vitamin G in it. Didn't eat enough last night? Should have stretched more. Didn't take a dump before the ride. Dude, I just chased too many Strava Cams the other day. I'm still tired. Yeah, the pace was just too easy man. My muscles aren't used to going so slow. The most common explanation out there which is widely believed by endurance athletes is improper hydration and electrolyte imbalance. I wanted to start this video off by addressing this common misconception first. So let's jump right into some studies that address this. This study on the influence of hydration and electrolyte supplementation on cramping took subjects with a history of muscle cramps and had them perform two calf raising protocols at a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius. In one subjects drank a carbohydrate electrolyte beverage and in the other subjects weren't allowed any fluids. Interestingly, the results showed that more subjects experienced cramping when they consumed the electrolyte beverage. However, of the subjects that experienced cramping in both trials, the time before the onset of cramping was more than double when subjects consumed electrolytes. So surprisingly, there was actually a lower incidence of cramping when subjects drank nothing at all. However, with electrolytes, subjects were able to go longer before they cramped. There isn't a whole lot that we can conclude from this given that the trial was pretty small and the electrolyte beverage also had carbohydrates and carbohydrates are a known performance enhancer. However, there is more research on the effect of hydration and electrolytes on cramping and it may come as a surprise that that last study which wasn't even all that convincing is about as close as we get to showing that electrolytes help prevent cramping. This prospective study on muscle cramping in marathon runners took 82 runners and performed measurements on them before and after a race. Of the 82 runners, 15 of them or 18% experienced cramping. These subjects were not different from the others in terms of racing performance or training status and serum electrolyte concentrations including sodium and potassium were not different between those suffering from cramps and those not affected either before or after the race, which led to the conclusion that results suggest that exercise-induced muscle cramps may not be associated with gross disturbances of fluid and electrolyte balance. And this isn't the only study showing these kinds of results. Similar studies done on ultra-distance runners and Ironman triathletes come to the same conclusion. Cramping is not associated with a greater percent body mass loss or clinically significant differences in serum electrolyte concentrations. This review on muscle cramping in marathon confirms these findings stating that most of the reports of muscle cramping due to electrolyte imbalance are based solely on anecdotal observations but no proposed mechanisms are offered. There is currently very little evidence that muscle cramping is caused by salty sweating, serum electrolyte changes or dehydration. This is another one of those instances where a commonly held belief, one that's almost universal amongst cyclists and endurance athletes, falls apart when you actually look at the science. Now this does not mean that your hydration and electrolyte intake is not important. Don't get me wrong, it very much is. However, the evidence that it's the cause of cramping is lacking. So if exercise-induced muscle cramping isn't likely to be caused by your hydration status, then what is the cause of cramping? The reality is that cramping likely has many different contributing factors. For example, cramping can be a symptom of various health conditions or a side effect of certain drugs. Obviously though, during exercise perfectly healthy individuals who don't take these drugs can experience cramping, and it appears that the biggest risk factors are a past history of cramping and simply riding harder than you're used to like you would during a race. This study on cramping in ultramarathon runners surveyed runners from a 56 kilometer race. They found that risk factors for cramping in distance runners are a past history of cramping, faster running pace at the early stage of a race, and possibly pre-race muscle damage. This review confirmed these findings saying that the most important risk factors for cramping in athletes are a previous history of cramping and performing exercise at a higher relative intensity or duration when compared with normal training and participating in hot and humid environmental conditions. Just like with most things in life, cramping appears to unfairly choose its victims. Some athletes never experience cramping while for other athletes it's a regular occurrence that they have to deal with. This may be because there's a genetic component to cramping. This study on collagen genes and exercise associated muscle cramping found that the collagen type 5 alpha 1 chain genotype was significantly overrepresented among non-crampers when compared to those that did experience cramping. This study for the first time identified this gene as a potential marker for a history of exercise associated muscle cramping. As far as the actual physiological cause of cramping, more and more research is coming out in support of the altered neuromuscular control hypothesis in which the development of fatigue through exercise results in altered neuromuscular control in which muscles become more excitatory and less able to relax. This review on the cause of exercise associated muscle cramps stated that the electrolyte depletion and dehydration hypothesis do not offer plausible pathophysiological mechanisms with supporting scientific evidence that could adequately explain clinical presentation and management of exercise associated cramping. On the other hand scientific evidence for the altered neuromuscular control hypothesis is based on evidence from research studies in human models of muscle cramping, epidemiological studies in cramping athletes, and animal experimental data. Whilst it is clear that further evidence to support the altered neuromuscular control hypothesis is also required, research data are accumulating that support this as the principal mechanism for cramping. So it appears that being genetically predisposed to cramping, along with working your muscles harder or longer than they're used to causing fatigue and altered neuromuscular control is the cause of cramping and not electrolyte loss and dehydration, at least according to the current evidence. And if you've been thinking this whole time that you always seem to cramp on hot days when you're sweating a lot, so surely it has something to do with hydration, that may be because heat amplifies fatigue, as does other factors that affect cramping such as a lot of climbing or riding long distances or riding at a higher pace. With that out of the way, what can you do to prevent or alleviate cramping mid-rider race? There are a lot of theories out there from stretching to drinking pickle juice or eating mustard packets. Let's see if any of these hold scientific weight and we'll start with stretching. This study on stretching and cramp susceptibility had subjects perform three minutes of static stretching, PNF stretching, or no stretching before testing their cramp threshold frequency. They found that cramping threshold frequency was unaffected by stretching and concluded that acute stretching may not prevent muscle cramping and these results have been confirmed in further study. Now even though stretching before your ride may not prevent cramping, if you do experience cramping mid-ride, stretching may be the best thing that you can do to stop it. From this article on muscle cramps during exercise, passive stretching invokes afferent activity from the Golgi tendon organ, thereby relieving the cramp and decreasing EMG activity. This review confirms this stating that the most successful treatment for an acute bout of EAMC is stretching. If you start cramping mid-rider race, unclipping and doing a quick quad stretch, or even getting off the bike and stretching out, may be your best solution. There are also a long list of oral remedies for cramping that include everything from pickle juice, hot sauce, mustard, or other strongly flavored substances and products marketed specifically to reduce cramping. Do these substances have any evidence to support their effectiveness or is it mostly just anecdotal evidence that you heard from your bro? Guys, I have some exciting news. Hypergain VsMode has just come out with an anti-cramping formula. That's right, we combine pickle juice, hot sauce, mustard, sweat from a dirty chamois, and amp-humans PR lotion to give you the ultimate anti-cramping beverage. In this 2019 review on muscle cramping during exercise, they stated that interventions prove difficult to evaluate as muscle cramps generally resolve spontaneously before any intervention can be implemented. However, pickle juice has been reported to be effective in reducing the duration of cramps. One study found that cramp duration was reduced by about 37% on average when one milliliter of pickle juice was ingested. However, this study induced cramping through electrical stimulation and not exercise so there's not a whole lot that we can conclude here. However, it is a promising first step and if you do suffer from cramping, then it's at least worth giving it a try. It's also interesting to note that the reduced cramp duration was not due to pickle juices electrolytes as many believe. Instead they proposed that it was due to the activation of receptors in the mouth that resulted in a reduced firing rate of alpha motor neurons that innervate the affected muscle. A way oversimplified way of explaining this is that when you drink pickle juice your body has more important things to deal with like that intense flavor in your mouth rather than your fatigued quad muscle. If this theory is true it would explain why other remedies such as hot sauce and mustard might have the same effect. As far as other supposed treatments go the review had this to say. Some may reduce the likelihood of some forms of cramping and reduce its intensity and duration but none are consistently effective. It seems likely that there are different types of cramps that are initiated by different mechanisms. If this is the case the search for a single strategy for prevention or treatment is unlikely to succeed. So given the available research what can you do to prevent or relieve cramping? Number one is train more. Train more? Dude I was just looking for some sort of supplement or something that I could buy that would take care of it. I don't want to actually have to do hard work and train. Being well trained will reduce cramping because cramping usually occurs when you push your body past a point that it's used to. If you've done a lot of training and pushed yourself hard in training cramping is simply less likely to occur. The next thing is be prepared for factors that may cause extra fatigue. For example if you're going riding in the mountains and you're going to do a lot of climbing have the appropriate gearing on your bike. Be well fed well rested and well hydrated on hot days. Not because dehydration causes cramping but because dehydration causes fatigue. If you do experience cramping the best thing that you can do is to stretch the cramping muscle. After that although the evidence for things like pickle juice hot sauce mustard etc are limited it may at least be worth giving them a try if cramping is a regular issue for you. Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this video be sure to give it a like. Follow me on Instagram to stay up to date on my training and racing. I also announce when I post new videos on there and finally if you haven't subscribed yet be sure to do that. Thanks and I'll see you in the next one.