I second that option. I use “Post Ride recovery” in the Theragun app. 6 minutes of calves, hamstring and thighs. It reduces the “itchiness” in my legs.
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I actually use mine four times a day, spreading the wealth a little bit, but agree it really helps me.
It’s late and it’s been a while when I read references for this, but my 10c… It’s mostly because neuromuscular level overreaches the current level it has.
So cramps occur for overdoing things, even for seasoned top pros too after long hiatus (say long off-season, crashes aso). If your workout is much longer than recently, much intense than recently, it can happen.
Magnesium is not a key, actually neuromuscular signaling needs calcium if something. If person have normal balanced off-bike and on-bike diet as an endurance athlete, it’s all about getting used to and managing training load, in this case short term.
Didn’t read the rest of the thread, but let me just say that you should be able to mitigate this by taking your time after a ride and giving yourself up to an hour to calm down and restore a resting HR, etc. This is why having a snack or a bottle to bring into the shower is so useful because you can accomplish this in the bathroom when you are alone before other people start talking with you. And also you can try to avoid chronic dehydration when possible and look at the foods you are eating, crackers and pizza can require extra water, and if you don’t eat any salt then you could have some supplemented in your bottles.
Magnesium Citrate is what you are after.
I had that same thing myself.
Started 4-6g of Magnesium citrate took 2 nights and cramps was history.
Take the magnesium daily also off the bike days. Magnesium will help to relax the muscles you can experiment/add on “Citrulline Malete” does somewhat the same you can combine the 2 of them.
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These sound like fasciculations, which are small involuntary ‘twitches’, as distinct from cramps. They can be really annoying, though they’re usually harmless, unless accompanied by things like weakness, in which case a doc’s appointment is a good idea. Some people have them a lot: my wife has BFS (benign fasciculation syndrome) and for her it’s associated with stress and caffeine.
To the OP: new, persistent leg cramps in the absence of an obvious cause would lead me to speak to a medic. The issue is very likely a benign one, but there are a few things a good doc would look to rule out.
Thanks everyone. I ended up getting some Magnesium Citrate and it seems to help the calf cramps at night but the twitching remains all day. Went to the doctor and they a UA and blood. UA came back normal, and bloodwork will be back in a few days. Fingers crossed. Doctor thinks that if the blood comes back normal that it may be a neurological. Hope not. I’ve had quite a lot of concussions from my wakeboarding days and really hoping that isn’t the cause. We’ll see.
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The forum has narrowed in on Magnesium, which in my experience is a good bet.
I have had the exact same issue and gone down the rabbit hole on it for years. Exact same pattern. I rode for years without major cramping issues. A couple years ago, in my early 40s, I started having bad cramps after nearly every ride. Almost never during the ride. It was an hour later after I had relaxed. Legs twitching, especially the calves. Inevitably I would try and stand up from a chair and collapse into a cramp. I started putting a Precision Hydration 1000mg into every bottle and supplementing with more salty ride foods after big rides. That helped but didn’t totally solve the issue.
I started daily magnesium in November, and, I do think that has solved it. Though, it took 4 weeks of consistent use to see the results. This last week was the first week of training and racing I’ve had without any cramps at all in 3 years. Not proof of concept yet, but, promising. If it continues on a few more weeks I will be getting off the couch after a hard day without fear, lol! What I read was that magnesium in the muscle is slow to deplete and slow to build. So, once you reestablish a buffer of it in your muscle, you should be able to maintain with less consistent supplementation and food.
As far as what I take (I went down the internet rabbit hole many times on this one): I followed Peter Attia’s protocol: https://youtu.be/uBwXNNkdkLI?si=eXxoBy8sIet9BmGI
combined with JigsawHealth’s recommendations for mag types: https://youtu.be/x8mINHl_AF4?si=bN_OudniBMGZXJRG
Attia targets 1gram a day in a split AM/PM dose. I went with 600mg of a Mg complex (glycinate, taurate, malate, orotate) and 300mg of “slowmag” (chloride) in the AM. Then a 100mg (l-threonate) capsule before bed. I did not see an impact in the cramps for a few weeks, but, I did immediately see changes in my sleep that very likely were the result of the supplement. I started dreaming again. I had only dreamed sporadically for years. After Magnesium, nightly dreams. I didn’t take magnesium for 2 weeks when I traveled over break: minimal dreaming. Started again when I got home: dreams again. It is like a switch telling me something is working.
Mg supplementation types, dosages, and results is a giant tangle of poorly studied confounding information, but, this does seem to be working for me. Have you started this journey? Is it helping you?
Feel free to IM me and good luck! Cramping sucks.
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FWIW, I think it was Peter Attia who mentioned that there is not a good blood test for Mg deficiency in the muscle because of the slow rate of absorption and depletion.
Thank you everyone for your replies. I’ve still been having the twitching but the cramping has subsided a little bit. They occasionally still happen in my calves however, but I can usually feel them come on and I can avoid a full on episode.
The twitching remains constant in both of my calves and has since moved up to my thighs, hands, glutes, ribs, neck, eyes, etc. Basically, they are now everywhere. I’ve been getting on the bike on the weekends and trying to do a little more as a test to see what happens. My longest ride since everything started was a couple of hours, and was pretty chill. I will test myself a bit more on Zwift, but only for about 60-80 minutes. I’m afraid to do anything longer and with more intensity for fear of major cramping on the bike.
I see my primary doctor tomorrow and local neurologist in two days. I hope they will perform a plethora of tests to figure out what the hell is happening. I just want to get back to training and eventually racing again.
Thanks again for all of your comments and insight.
Brandon
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What did your Dr say? I’ve had that twitching all up my legs but it didn’t spread to the upper body.
But, the effect magnesium has had on my brain, cramps,and twitching after 3 months is so shocking, I feel like there’s a good chance it is a magnesium deficiency, or some similar micronutrient/ mineral…
Have you solved it?? Are you ok?!?
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Hey so I don’t have my follow up from all the testing until 4/23 which sucks. I also have an appt. at Cedar Sinai on 5/20. I did get some insight to the neck and lumber MRI’s that I had done. Turns out my neck and back are pretty messed up from my semi-pro wakeboarding career of almost 18 years. Lots of nerve pinching happening and pretty good disc degeneration disease in my lumbar. I’ve been seeing an aggressive chiro as well as an acupuncturist too to try to help with the shooting pain that starting running down the back of my right leg.
I also had EMG tests on both my upper and lower body. They won’t give me the reports on those until I see them on the 23rd. They saw something though because the doc performing the test was asking a lot of questions when he was testing the lowers that he wasn’t asking on the uppers. Fingers crossed that it’s nothing major.
Twitching still remains all over, and primarily in my calves. Cramping is also primarily in my left calve at night. I found an ionic liquid magnesium supplement that I starting taking a couple of days ago. We’ll see what happens with it. The other magnesium supplements I have been taking haven’t made any changes just yet. So far, I’m just dealing with it and continuing my “road to recovery”. My FTP dropped 70 points and I’m slowly gaining it back. More info to come in a few weeks.
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Good luck, I hope everything turns out well
So after many months of tests and waiting, I finally have an official diagnosis. Benign Fasciculation Syndrome. Doctor’s said that they don’t really know why it happens or what causes it, but that I’m in the demographic that mostly encounter it. There is no cure or magic pill to make it stop or go away. The BFS is responsible for the cramping as well as the constant twitching. The overall fatigue that I’ve also been experiencing is something totally different, which I’m still trying to figure out.
So, the good news is that it isn’t really anything to worry about. The bad news is that I now have to deal with it for the foreseeable future. I also have disc degeneration disease in my neck and lumbar and they are going to go through the images and see if that COULD be a possible link to the BFS, but they were doubtful.
Onward and upward.
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