Retraining Issue #1, Muscle Spasms

Getting ready for the season

Ouch! Did you feel that? I have one in my back and every once in a while (several times a day) it likes to flex it's power and freeze me in some very odd pose while it has it's way with me. And not in a good way either...

It's a muscle spasm and it comes part and parcel with working out and not stretching, and not drinking enough water and a few other factors that I personally need to review here and now. Otherwise this Season of the Trikke (others know it as summer) will be a painful one.

Muscle spasms, or cramps, come mostly from overuse. If you have increased your ride too soon or continue to ride at your limit, you are on your way to cramp town. Of course there are other reasons like I mentioned in the previous paragraph but could bare repeating, such as not drinking enough water and losing electrolytes through profuse sweating (I know some of you personally and you go all out when you ride which causes some serious liquid loss -- see Real Women Sweat).

When you drink six-to-eight ounces of liquid ever hour as you ride, you need to replace the potassium that you lose through sweating. Carry a sports beverage on your ride, especially on hot days. Or supplement with a buffered salt tablet. One important note is that replacement of potassium takes longer than one day, so continue this regimen the next day as well.

This essential electrolyte comes in many flavors, like banana, green leafy vegetable, tomato and orange. Of course you know I mean the actual food, right? There are some very serious consequences to low potassium levels like irrational behavior (note to self: get potassium checked), confusion, muscle spasm, weakness, cardiac problems, nausea, swelling of the hands and feet and lethargy. Yikes!

Now that I've scared myself sufficiently, I'll move on to my personal reason for muscle cramps -- not stretching. This needs to be an article in itself and so it will be. Look forward to a post on stretching and other ways to treat spasms, in the next few days, cause I'm back, baby, and I'm ready to attack that which concerns us as Trikker Chicks. How's that for pulling you back in?