Cramp during swim

elvis jones

Hi all,

I've had a problem in the while that my calves seem to cramp during longer swims ( anything above 1500m ). It could be left one day, right the next and sometimes its neither.

Any idea what it could be and what to do.

tunney

elvis jones wrote: »

Hi all,

I've had a problem in the while that my calves seem to cramp during longer swims ( anything above 1500m ). It could be left one day, right the next and sometimes its neither.

Any idea what it could be and what to do.

Dehydration combined with kicking off the wall with your toes.

elvis jones

tunney wrote: »

Dehydration combined with kicking off the wall with your toes.

Toes but makes sense, dehydration nope ( for myself and daily fluid intake ).

Any other way to kick off or just don't bother ?

tunney

Place more of the foot on the wall, that way it can force you to kick off with quads instead of calves

promethius

i see this a lot in swim sessions, cramping in the calf if not due to dehydration is normally due to the position during the kick.

the calf is shortened when the toes are pointed which is part of the swim kick. try keeping the ankles loose during the kick, this is where a lot of the power of the kick comes from. watch phelps underwater, looks like he dislocates his ankle while kicking, it's nothing short of amazing.

if the ankles are loose then there's a lot less contraction of the calf required.

to help improve ankle flexibility i've found fins are good.

are you getting much propulsion when you kick on a board? are you about the same speed as swimmers of similar ability? what's your swimming experience?

shotgunmcos

I've had some unmerciful cramps in the pool. More so when I was first learning to swim, less so recently. A couple of things

Dehydration, yes to a certain extent but I often swim a whole set without water and have not cramped.

Kicking off the wall, more so, especially if I glide and point the toes for longer than a second.

Cramps usually sets in if I'm tired and my form drops during a set. I kick off the wall clumsily and my kick particularly loses all sense of shape and stiffens up.

peter kern

brilliant advice to use phelps as an reference for an age group triathlete who has to run and did not learn to swim when 3 years old.

promethius wrote: »

i see this a lot in swim sessions, cramping in the calf if not due to dehydration is normally due to the position during the kick.

the calf is shortened when the toes are pointed which is part of the swim kick. try keeping the ankles loose during the kick, this is where a lot of the power of the kick comes from. watch phelps underwater, looks like he dislocates his ankle while kicking, it's nothing short of amazing.

if the ankles are loose then there's a lot less contraction of the calf required.

to help improve ankle flexibility i've found fins are good.

are you getting much propulsion when you kick on a board? are you about the same speed as swimmers of similar ability? what's your swimming experience?

tunney

peter kern wrote: »

brilliant advice to use phelps as an reference for an age group triathlete who has to run and did not learn to swim when 3 years old.

LOL. Sometimes Peter your posts are borderline nonsense. Sometimes, in this case for example, they are brilliant

A stiff ankle is good for running, greater return of kinetic energy from the tendons.

Plus those super flexible ankles are one of the sources of injuries from the swimmers who come to triathlon.

(now back to work)

promethius

peter kern wrote: »

brilliant advice to use phelps as an reference for an age group triathlete who has to run and did not learn to swim when 3 years old.

i never said swim like phelps that's plainly ridiculous. it's an extreme example

i said try keeping looser ankles to prevent cramping up during the swim. tough going on onto bike run with already cramping calves.

i've seen this work with triathletes and i don't mind disagreeing with you, the idea was to help the op.

TriWazza

Another interesting one.

Have to say there generally isn't an easy answer to this and there are many out there who are far more qualified to comment on this. There has been lots of studies done on the science of cramping and the most common reason seems to be down to conditioning of the athlete in question. As noted by some of the other posters above the cramp is often experienced once fatigue sets in.

Perhaps this might be a guide on you're current level of conditioning and/or recovery practices.Ask yourself ... are more frequent less volume orientated swims a better solution ... Are you getting enough sleep/rest in between sessions etc remembering that fatigue can be both physiological and neurological.

peter kern

promethius wrote: »

i never said swim like phelps that's plainly ridiculous. it's an extreme example

i said try keeping looser ankles to prevent cramping up during the swim. tough going on onto bike run with already cramping calves.

i've seen this work with triathletes and i don't mind disagreeing with you,



the idea was to help the op.

we did not disagree i was just smiling that you use phelpes as an example.

elvis jones

Guys it doesn't matter what advice a certain poster put here.........they are on my ignore list anyway:)

Long swim session monday so i'll try the kick trick !

911sc

I have the exact same issue as yourself. I also find cramping amplifies when i swim in cold water, e.g. sea/river.
When i swim in a pool, i hardly push againt the wall, and always get out slowly by the ladder at the end of the session. Not great, but better than cramping for now.

From talking to various people about it, the primary likely cause is lack of flexibility in the hankle (i sprained my 2 hankles in 2010 and i guess have not be careful enough about recovery). I think that echos content of some previous posts.

There was an article in Triathlon Europe August edition. You may or not take something onboard, but still worth a read imo.