I assume that as a result of the inflammation induced by hard workouts leading to fluids retention in previous weeks, now in the recovery week l am noticing fluids (and weight) loss. As a side effect l am experiencing a bit of muscle cramping at rest. Anyone with a similar experience?
You are correct in that lowering stress levels will reduce stress induced water retention. However, I’ve never heard of anyone experiencing cramps as a result nor had the issue myself. Excessive muscular fatigue can lead to “delayed onset cramps”, but honestly I can’t tell you much with the information at hand. If you normally take in large amounts of sodium and electrolytes, your body will adapt to it, so if you take in significantly less during a recovery week you may offset that balance. Although, no one can agree on whether electrolytes and cramping are even related, so…
When are you experiencing cramps? After workouts, or randomly at rest? If your experiencing cramps randomly at rest, I’d probably call a medical professional to at least hear what they have to say.
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Your plasma volume may also drop during rest weeks. It’s one of the reasons during a taper (not a rest week), it’s important to keep some intensity as this may help reduce the drop in plasma volume.
Personally I can be prone to calf cramps at night and anecdotally they do sometimes seem to be worse during rest weeks.
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