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Cramping? Try Pickle Juice

08.05.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 10 Comments

After my recent minor cramping incident, I poked around online a bit to find out more about cramps, and electrolyte replenishment, and staying hydrated.

It turns out that loss of electrolytes is NOT the likely cause of cramps.  What is? Some form of exhaustion.

The scientific experiments into cramping are interesting, but they’re limited. At Brigham Young University, male athletes pedaled with one leg on recumbent exercise bikes until they lost three percent of their body weight. Then, a gizmo was affixed to their toe, and electrical stimulation applied to their tibial muscle, which caused the toe to cramp.

Long story short — when they drank pickle juice, the cramps stopped in about 35 seconds. Those that drank ionized water continued to cramp.

How come?

Dr. Kevin Miller of North Dakota State University speculates that something in the acidic makeup of pickle juice is sending a message to disrupt the cramping. He says the cramp isn’t because of loss of electrolytes — it’s because muscles start misfiring when they’re suffering from symptoms of exhaustion. The pickle juice was still in the athletes’ stomachs — it hadn’t gone into the blood stream yet — so it wasn’t replenishing lost electrolytes.

And it’s probably not the pickle juice that stops the cramping anyway. It may be the vinegar in the pickle juice. One study had athletes drink vinegar while cramping (I don’t think I’d volunteer for that one!), and it worked even faster than pickle juice.

I’ve tried both juice from pickle jars and the commercially-bottled pickle juice, and I gotta tell ya, it’s an acquired taste. Each time I tried it, I didn’t get cramps, but since I’d been stopping at every rest stop and having something, I don’t think my muscles were in that state of exhaustion that would make them susceptible to cramping. Pickle juice is not a regular part of my hydration regimen.

And if muscle exhaustion is what’s causing the cramps, then build up the muscles. You might have to hit the gym in addition to the bike rides.

But hey — next time you’re out on an organized ride, and you come across a jar of pickles at a rest stop, pour some of the juice into a cup. Or even try some Pickle Juice Sport — it’s often available on those rides. Your cramping problems might become a thing of the past.

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Categories // Heat, Injury Tags // cramp

Is Cycling Dangerous?

05.23.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

Our friend Don Blount got some bad news last week: In addition to a broken wrist from a fall during his first century ride, it turned out that his arm was broken, too.

Don had surgery on the arm Friday, and says it went well, but he’ll be off the bike for six to eight weeks while he heals.

That gives him time to do some thinking. He’s been thinking about his second major crash in the last nine months, and breaking the same wrist in those crashes. On top of that, many of us rode in the Ride of Silence last week, which commemorates riders who died in bicycle crashes.

So Don poses the question: Is cycling dangerous?

Don says some of his non-biking friends are telling him to give up cycling, because it’s “too dangerous.”

A couple of studies done in the 1990s found about 500,000 visits to the emergency room each year in the U.S. as the result of bicycle crashes. Just a small fraction required a hospital stay.  Over half the accidents involved motor vehicles, and road surface and mechanical problems with the bicycle are also common causes of accidents.

That reminded me of a club ride I was on a couple of months ago. We were nearing the end, but had to ride for a short distance on a two-lane highway with no shoulders. The road is hilly and curvy, and we mostly avoid it. When we turned off it to cut across a parking lot to another road, one of the riders remarked how glad she was to have survived another ride.

“Well,” I said, “it seems to me that every time we get on our bikes we’re taking a risk. It could be the car that doesn’t see you, or the car that does, and wants to ‘teach you a lesson.’ Or you could hit some bad road surface and lose your balance, or any number of things. But usually we don’t. We’re smart enough to know the risks and we watch out for problems.”

I guess that’s how I’d answer Don’s question, too. Cycling can be risky, but it’s not inherently dangerous.

Don concurs. “I never thought of riding a bike as dangerous,” he emailed me, “probably because it’s something I learned to do as a child. And if I felt it was dangerous, I doubt I would have taught my children to ride.”

He says his injury occurred because he became overly concerned with one risk factor – cars – and lost sight of another – a railroad track at an intersection bad for riding.

But he also notes that other adults get hurt in sports like skiing, soccer, or basketball, and don’t think twice about getting back to them.

And after his convalescence, he says, “I intend to get back on my bike as soon as I can. After all, I received my new helmet just a few days ago.”

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Categories // crash, Injury, Safety Tags // crash, Injury, Safety

Bee in My Bonnet

04.29.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 10 Comments

Or my helmet, actually. I took an after work ride this afternoon, and while I was on the road, something hit the big vent in the middle of my helmet. I could feel it jiggling around inside.

I put up with it a little while, but it drove me nuts. I felt around inside the vents with my fingers, but couldn’t find anything. Since I am allergic to bee stings, I decided to pull over and get the critter.

The incident reminded me of a ride with my friend David.  He was a few bike lengths behind me, when he called out that a bee had flown into his helmet. He kept feeling around in the vents, but couldn’t find anything. In a little bit, though, he had some discomfort, and asked me to stop. He pulled off his helmet and a bee flew out. He had been stung. Luckily, he didn’t swell up badly.

I know this has happened to others, as well.  Have you ever had a bee fly into your helmet?

In my case, it turned out not to be a bee at all. Instead, it was a small round black bug of some kind. No stinger, no venom. When I took off my helmet, it was crawling around along the inside styrofoam surface. I shooed him away and continued the ride, but now that the warmer weather is here, I think I can expect I’ll be tussling with bees and other bugs in the helmet more often. And I won’t be taking any chances. If one gets into my helmet again, I’ll stop immediately and get it out.

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Categories // Injury, Odds 'n ends Tags // bee

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