Unbelievable muscle cramp

fleshbroiler

My left calf cramped up on me Saturday night and I still can't straighten my leg.WTF, who ever heard of a 48+ hour cramp?Has anybod y else ever experienced anything like this?

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daveryanwyoming

Sounds more like you pulled a muscle or tore some muscle fascia. I did the latter a few years back and it was sore for a while but healed just fine with time. I'd do some gentle stretching or easy spinning to make sure you don't tighten up and lose range of motion while you let things heal.

Good luck,
Dave

fleshbroiler

Thanks man. I'll try it and see how the spinning goes. Stretching has been really unpleasant.

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Urkiola2

An ultrasound is necessary in case that it still hurts.

It sounds that you could have had a fiber rupture or a very big contraction.
If it really hurts when you stretch, probably you have a small fiber rupture. In that case the best treatment is to rest for 2 weeks...depending on how big is the rupture. For that I would advise you to get an appointment with an orthopedic or a PT to get an ultrasound done where you can see the size of the rupture and pklan the weeks/days of resting. In that case stretching is not advised...
An ultrasound will give you a very defenitive diagnosis.

If it is a considerable muscle contracture, massage, some streching and rest will help as well.

Anyways, if it still hurts my advise is to get an ultrasound which will give you the right diagnosis

Good luck

fleshbroiler

Hey, thanks for the input. Have been doing some gentle stretching which hurts a bit but the pain is decreasing, range of motion is improving. I will get an appointment for an ultrasound to see what happened. Definitely not a cramp.

-fb

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rmur17

not wanting to highjack the thread but on a related cramping note ... I do a lot of indoor training -- October until April ... sometimes May if the weather is still bad. Anyhow i try to get in around 10hrs a week split over six indoor sessions. Being a heavier guy at 85-86kg, over a typical 2-hr high tempo workout, I sweat an awful lot. i try to replace as much as possible with water and sports drinks during and immediately before and after the workouts but typically after a period of several weeks of sustained indoor training, I find my calves cramping up pretty bad. I don't believe it's exertion-related per se as it often occurs 3-4 hrs after the workout is over.

Any thoughts out there? Besides eating lots of bananas ?

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fleshbroiler

Be happy its a cramp and not tissue tearing.

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rmur17

aye - though I'll admit I've worried about it tearing at times as the cramps can be quite strong. Weird how it often happens a few hours after the workout ...

anyhow, all the best with your situation. take care.

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Urkiola2

It is defenetely a muscle problem and you need to find the ethiology (origin) of it. You say this happens after several weeks of sustained indoor training. Whenever this happens again, contact your primary care physician and ask him for a complete blood work and specially to check for the following enzimes: AST/GOT, ALT/GPT, GGT, CK, LDH and then serum levels of creatininne, Sodium, chloride, potasium. Then if you want to you can PM me with results and I can gladly help you interpretating them since it looks to me that it would be a simple answer and solution.

Urkiola2

If you are improving range of motion that "fast" and pain is decreasing, probably you had an important muscle contracture. Still, an ultrasound would be a simple and very good diagnosis to see if there is a fiber rupture, which I personaly don't think for the evolution you are having. Take care

garage sale GT

I have felt like something was about to tear. I used to drink 1/4 of the laxative dose of epsom salts to relax the muscle if stretching wouldn't do it, but found just drinking a glass of water or two worked by itself.

I would drink water after stopping but the cramps would appear several hours later as I slept.

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Piotr

When I bought my first bike in '89 it came with those Sampson pedals that didn't allow for ANY foot rotation. This was the early years of clipless pedals and the importance of foot rotation was not discussed much. I somehow survived the summer, but within a few months, while riding I suddenly developed severe pain on the outside of my knee. I had to pedal home one-legged. For couple of days I was pain and limping around. I finally went to see a physical therapist I knew and after he was done with me I danced out of his office. Apparently, it was just a painful muscle spasm caused by bad knee alignment on the bike. The pedals were the culprit as I never had a similar injury arise again. I just thought you might want to consider a possibility of a muscle spasm. They can last. But a calf muscle?

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rmur17

okay thanks very much for that specific advice. It hasn't happened yet this fall/winter but usually starts to kick in sometime in Jan/Feb.

I honestly have tried to eat more bananas for potassium etc ... maybe they have helped me this year?

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daveryanwyoming

Could be. Bananas are the go to potassium food for a lot of cylists, but you can get as much or more potassium from lots of other foods such as avocados, potatoes, most beans, etc. Check out this list of potassium rich foods: http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/foo...ssium-foods.htm bananas aren't even close to the top of the list based on weight or portion size.

Make sure you keep all your electrolytes up not just potassium even though that's important, hydration is also key as you no doubt know. I get some cramping after hard indoor training sessions, not often enough or severe enough that I do much besides drinking more electrolyte drink and maybe some gentle stretching but it does happen. I suspect it's related to the relatively constant workload and static position on the trainer relative to the varied pace, moving around and occasional standing that happens outside. Of course sweating buckets indoors can't help.

Good luck,
Dave