cramps

[beche de mer]

Hi folks. Over the last couple of years I have been experiencing cramps in the calves while diving. They are particularly likely to occur in colder water. The coldest water I dive in is 12C, and that's with a 7 mm wet suit.

The cramps most frequently occur while finning hard, which is usually on the surface, making my way back to the boat.

They are more likely to occur after a deeper dive (say, in excess of 40 metres) but I'm not sure whether that's because of the pressure or the cold.

This worries me somewhat because a full-on dose of cramps in both calves is quite incapacitating. Fortunately I have never had a severe episode at depth - but then again I've never been in a siutation at depth where I have really had to fin hard.

I've tried "training" my way out of them, by swimming laps in the local swimming pool with fins and mask. But I can never reproduce the cramps in the pool (which is heated to 22 C) and the training didn't help.

There's a wealth of info about cramps on the net, most of it unsubstantiated. There are also various remedies of the homeopathic type.

Lately I have been taking quinine sulphate, commencing the night before a dive. These work pretty well, but I was wondering if other people have encountered this problem and what solutions they may have hit on.

 

[ssra30]

Part of the problems may be your fins. If you have one of those stiff blade fins which are great for generating power, that might be part of the problem. While you get a lot of power, it is less efficient and require a lot more energy and oxygen in your muscle so you may run into problem with lactic acid build up and muscle cramp. Swimming laps is not neccessarily going to help since it is a more of a conditioning process for aerobic exercise rather than anaerobic exercise that you are doing with stiff fins (more similar to weight lifting).
One thing you could try is to get fins with softer blade, split fins, force fins whatever. Try them first if you can and see if they help.
It will be more efficient but you won't generate as much force per stroke but you can fin more frequently aerobically!

cold water certainly will make problem worse as it tends to cause the blood vessel in the body to clamp down to preserve heat so you get even less bloodflow to your muscle ie less oxygen and more lactic acid build up.

 

[DFC5343]

I used to get calf cramps after finning for a 5000 yd swim. I learned that leg work and calf raises in the gym, plenty of potassium (bananas) relieved the cramping issue. Never again.

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

Bananas, GatorAid, good thermal protection (drysuit) made my leg cramps go away.

 

[CameronMartz]

It sounds like you've covered all the bases, and in the end, some people are just more prone to cramping than others. Just in case, check out http://www.divefitness.com/html/articles.html and read the one on "Preventing Foot and Calf Cramps" to see if there is anything you haven't tried yet.

Cameron

 

[divewench]

At the end of a dive that can be best described as an exercise in the futility of attempting to swim upstream, both my calfs cramped. I had to hobble out of the water and kept hobbling for two full days. My boyfriend's input was that the main muscles I should use in a flutter kick are the muscles in my butt and that I am probably bending my knee too much (i.e. bad technique). I asked my piliates instructor what she thought and she agreed that in doing the flutter kick (or at least the exercise torture that she puts us through in her class that closely resembes the flutter kick) that the main exertion should be in the butt muscles (sorry the scientific name for these muscles is escaping me at the moment). She said what I was probably doing was first bending at the knee and then the hip joint thus putting an inordinate amount of strain on the calf. She illustrated the correct move was to move the entire leg up first and then let the knee flex slightly before beginning to move the leg back down (engaging the calf only a little but giving the butt a real work out). I can definitely feel a difference in the muscles engaged when applying the two different techniques. I've been bummed about not even having sufficent technique to flutter kick, but based on the last post maybe I should cut myself some slack especially when diving in cold water and start eating bananas before my dives. When a calf cramps while diving I have found that switching to a frog kick will get me where I'm going without further tiring the calf.

 

[dmdoug]

The cramps are most probably several different issues however I know that bananas are very high in potassium. The potassium in your diet is a big factor in the reason for cramps in the calves.

I changed my diet to include bananas and have never had a cramp since. Try it out and let me know how it works for you.

Dive safe,

 

[diverlady]

I used to get them in my sleep regularly. Increasing my consumption of potassium, Vitamin E and especially water has greatly reduced the frequency of my leg cramps. Basically now if I get them I know I'm dehydrated.

When diving I try to alternate fin kicks so I'm not completely tiring out one specific muscle group. I usually rotate between the flutter kick and frog kick.

Diverlady