Cra(m)p!!!!

emmab0902

Does anyone know what causes cramp in the feet? I have never in my entire swimming life had cramp, but the last two nights I've got it during training and it's been excruciatingly painful!!! Have just gritted my teeth and swum through it but it's horrible!!!

beerfoamy

dehydration?
sorry, not much else to suggest apart from google!

aliciamariaq

I don't know what causes them but I get them sometimes during a kick set. Strange that you have never had them before. Either in the arch of my foot or else my toes will cramp up.

fishgutzy

Dehydration, electrolytes.
I got calf cramps so tight one time that fora couple days it felt like I heard been doing 300# half raises in the weight room.

emmab0902

I seem to have fixed it by drinking a Powerade Zero an hour or so pre swim. It's also got rid of my calf pain while running. Seems like eating more healthy might have dropped my sodium a bit.

girlwithcurls2

I'm glad you figured it out, Emma! Hopefully that was it.

lorrpb

Tight ankles. I often get some degree of cramps during kick sets and especially with fins. My masters coach observed that my ankle flexion/extension was limited. This can result from improper kick form, not tight enough in core and glutes. When I can get tight enough in core, glutes, & thighs, then my lower leg and ankles loosen up. One thing affects everything.

kayak4water

We're all different, and I do hope Emma got it right. Here's a paste from my blog:
Everything I'm doing blog

Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Cramps in the swimming pool
Yes, cramps in the swimming pool. I used to get those very reliably about 30 to 40 minutes into a swimming workout. Almost always I got them on my arches. Even if I wasn't pointing my toes I got them. My primary care provider said, well you can try NUUN tablets and tonic water or you can just drink orange juice and see what works for you. I didn't have much success with that. Something else was going on.

I knew that muscle contracture involved a lot of things like sodium pumps, potassium calcium, magnesium and chlorine but after scouring the internet I was still confused about how to address my cramps.
About the same time I was keeping a food diary because I wanted to drop a few pounds that I had picked up over the years. An app called MyFitnessPal tallied how much protein, sodium, fat, calories and other things I was taking in. Those other things included potassium and calcium, but not magnesium. I begin to look at how much sodium, potassium and calcium I was taking in and whether I was getting enough or too much. The app would say zero potassium in some foods that I knew contained potassium. It allowed me to make corrections in the potassium of some foods so I could continue to work with that app. Another handy tool it had--it could scan a barcode on a food product and all I would have to do was specify the amount that I ate.

I consumed enough calcium and sodium but consistently undershot the target for potassium intake (4,700 mg) by a very large amount. After ensuring that the foods I logged did have values for the potassium they contained, I was still short. After a quick search, I amped up my potato consumption. After four or five days of meeting my potassium requirement, I had a swim workout without cramps. Since that time I have not had any significant recurrence. I still try to remember to drink diet tonic water before swimming. I also have some days when I noticeably under shoot the amount of sodium 2,300 mg--those days I feel like I'm about to get cramps, a pretty good signal for me to eat something salty.
Sometimes, I'll drop 2-4 NUUN tablets or other electrolyte product like Emergen-C into a liter water bottle to suck from at poolside.

Because of the complexity of muscle contracture and muscle cramping, I can't guarantee this approach will work for you. If you try this without getting relief then it has to be something else, for which you need a better source of information than myself.

For what it's worth, a very high source of potassium (relative to caloric content) is V8 low sodium vegetable juice (45 Cal, 851 mg per cup. People say, eat a banana to get more potassium. One medium banana (105 cal, 26 gm) only has 422 mg of potassium--good, but not great.

Cheers!

kayak4water

Correction:
One medium banana (106 cal. , eaten weight 126 gm}

Bruceapple

pickle juice, also helps

joelann10

yes, I've heard pickle juice works wonders also