Been on a roller coaster with massive cramping, or so I thought it was cramping. Severe lock down of quads or calves, like deep struck knives are in them taking days or weeks to recover. Have tried to explore variables responsible like training volumes, heat/humidity, balance of s-b-r.
Sometimes this happens with no exertion, perhaps stepping out of a car or off a plane, sometimes in the middle of a run, or a start of a bike. Regardless of how it starts, once it does no amount of stretching will really allow me to continue, no walking it off, I just have to cease the activity and it will take days before I can slowly resume running. I can seem to resume biking quicker as it seems less stressful, but deep soreness will be lingering but not incapacitating.
I did discover abnormally high liver enzymes last summer near the time of one of these episodes, had three major periods of this last year. Thus the question of a link to rhabdomyolysis (sorry if misspelled).
Suffering through another recent bout has me thinking there was a relationship to overseas travel, time in airplanes, swelling legs and feet, but then it dawned on me that alcohol may be a factor. I hardly drink at home, even when do it’s only one or two bud 55 with low alcohol content. But, when on the road, long dinners, entertainment, I may go several nights consuming 4-8 beer of high alcohol content, possibly qualifying as a binge drinker.
Just wondering if I have found a relationship worth exploring? Any experience or knowledge from the ST community would be helpful. Presently traveling overseas but committed to abstaining until I can get a grip on this, certainly skipping alcohol would benefit me in other ways so there’s no huge downside to this course of action. Thoughts anyone? Btw, maybe I should have started with, “hello my name is Bob, and I have a problem”
when you say your liver scores were up, which ones do you mean exactly? ALT, for instance, can go up after intense exercise. i had a liver test once right after a long, brutal century (with a ton of cramping!) and my ALT scores were very high. do depending on the timing of workouts/tests, that may explain some of it. your booze load does sound a bit high, though . . . any regular medication on top of that, or OTC stuff?
-mike
This does not make a lot of sense. I do not think it has to do with your liver enzymes regarding cramping. Rhabdo is a breakdown of muscle tissue and will release myoblobin and your CK will rise. It will not jam up your liver but your kidneys and your urine can turn red and you can go into renal failure. This is not happening to you unless you are working out at olympic distance intensity for an ironman distance. your cramping may be from all sorts of factors - however the list of theories is amazing as to why from electrolyte imbalance to dehydration to drinking pickle juice to prevent cramping - anyway very little understood regarding why some cramp and others do not - much in literature is simply to sell products fro electrolyte replacements. Your liver enzymes will go up mildly from as little as 1 glass of wine or a beer - namely your GGT. the numbers for GGT and AST will go up even higher with intense drinking - either binge style or regular daily drinking - this again should not cause cramping - you may get some mid abdominal pain from pancreatitis secondary to drinking ETOH but your lipase will go up in this condition and the other enzymes only go up if you have a blockage of your common bile duct - Anyways getting way to complicated - suffice to say, you are getting cramps - 1. make sure that is what it is and not any angry gall bladder or pancreas 2. change your diet to eat healthier - more fruits and veggies, less grains and processed crap 3. get back to training - something , swim, bike, run - something!
gordo Triathlete & Emerg Doc
Thanks for the feedback. I am usually biking 150-2oo miles a week, running 25-40 prepping for IM distance. Diet is very healthy focused on whole foods except when not possible by travel. This level of cramping is alarming health wise and prevents multiple weeks of solid training. I appreciate your input.
What happens when you back off on your training volumes? and where do you live - hot?
After a few weeks the pain subsides and I can resume normal training. It is winter in georgia , USA, not cold but cool training weather. My big periods of cramping last year were April, July, September, a mix of temps and humidity.
All I can suggest is to seek answers with a kinesiology department or a grad student interested in taking on the challenge - exercise until cramp then check blood work and compare to pre exercise. Look at urine concentration, and alter things in order to avert the cramping