For recovery I decided I would start taking some Whey Protein after my hard workouts since I had no appetite for food. Well after about a week of taking this Whey Protein, I started getting really heavy legs. Took a day off and had a glass of Whey again and woke up the next day to go for a run. After 2 miles I was walking and my calves were rock hard and cramped up tight and hard.
I walked and the blood started to flow back and I felt better but thought I was just stiff after taking a day off. I ended up running only four miles of my scheduled 16. When I got home my legs were spent. I felt like they had never stopped flexing.
That is what they felt like, not cramped in a painful way, but they just didnt relax and stayed flexed constantly. I got up the next morning to go for my long run and once again my legs were cramping but I decided to just push my way through and got about 13 miles before my legs were done. Same experience, the calves were not relaxing between strides.
Long story short, after my tempo run yesterday I was looking at my Whey Protein container and was reading the ingredients and there was the problem. The First ingredient was whey protein, The second… Creatine. No where on the container does it say anything about having Creatine except in the fine print. Having tried Creatine a few years ago, I stopped due to this cramping problem.
I have yet to confirm this but I am sure that my next run on Saturday will be a normal 16 miler at my normal 9min mile pace.
Dave
Oh and some will argue that creatine does not cause cramping, and for some it doesnt. For me it always has.
I am not familiar with creatine or its effects on running. Is it known to cause muscle tightness and cramps? I know some people use it for body building.
I have no idea how much creatine was in a scoop, but it was enough to cause the muscle stiffness. The last time I took pure creatine and was down a week due to a pulled calf muscle as a result of cramps.
Creatine has a side effect of cramping for some users. There is no question it has caused my issues. It feels like doing 20 calves raises in the gym. The problem is they don’t relax.
Since when are the listed Ingredients the “fine print”?
Seems to me that considering any nutritional supplement (note: NOT regulated by the FDA) should send someone to the listed Ingredients first.
Lots of snake oil and such out there. But, yes, not all Whey Proteins are the same. Now, don’t get me started about the Whey Protein Concentrate vs. Whey Protein Isolate debate…
Absolutely. Real food is always the realest. But sometimes these carbo+protein shakes are kinda handy. I wonder if there are reasons for not eating (drinking?) whey protein besides a general aversion toward supplements. What’s the nature of whey protein’s inherent evil?
I normally avoid drinks with protein in them. When I use drinks, gells or bars I’m looking strickly for energy so I don’t really know why people like/dislike whey protein.
personally I have the same reaction to creatine, try muscle milk, it works for me and tastes great and no lactate. If lactose is not an issue I have had success with optimum nutrition protines, they also make a food grade version. You can pick up muscle milk rtd at most 7-11 and convince stores to see if you like it.
I bought the Whey Protein in a rush and just looked at the container. What was so deceiving was the fact that the HUGE BOLD LETTERS on the front of the container said this:
“100% PURE WHEY PROTEIN”
Then it went on to rattle on about the purity and the process of the Protein in their product and on and on. I looked at the container in the store for a few minutes and saw nothing of Creatine.
Then I read the ingredients after the cramping, and we are talking fine print in comparison to the rest of the label (graphs and colors, very nice) and the second ingredient was Creatine! That means its second primary ingredient was Creatine! Geez.
I am going for a short recovery run and hopefully after four days this stuff has flushed out of my muscle cells. I am drinking water frequently as always and hope I get a good run and my poor calves dont turn into concrete.
It’s not easy to find this blurb, but it’s in the USAGE INFORMATION section, and it is listed as a note. They also recommend that you take some just before bedtime during heavy training loads.
So, does anyone have any advice on how to flush ammonia from your system? Or do you know how long it takes for ammonia to dissipate naturally?
I think you may have accidentally bought the wrong product. You can buy just plain old whey protein without creatine in it. Make sure you drink a lot of water as well.
Accelerade uses whey protien in their 4:1 ratio stuff. Acclerade has changed my life. Its the best drink during and after a workout. Never heard of ammonia creation but that may be why they use the ratio of 4:1. I know there was method to the studies behind protien in a carb drink and maybe the ammonia gets buffered at this ratio.
I tested two recovery drinks this summer and tested again in some races.
I trained using gatorade and could always count on DOMS ( Delayed muscle soreness ) after each hard workout.
Then I trained with Accelerade and got no DOMS after hard workouts and stayed strong during the long hot runs.
Then I raced a half Iron Duathlon and they served Accelerade and I had no DOMS.
Ran out of Accelerade and used some left over gatorade on a hard workout and had huge DOMS the next day.
Dont work for them, just love a great product. So my thinking was, more whey protien after the workout the better.
I just don’t believe in basing my diet on breast milk from cows. It is unnatural and has been scientifically proven to lead to heart disease, obesity, prostate cancer, breast cancer, osteoporosis, etc. Sure large amounts of protein and growth hormones work great at regrowing muscle but I feel the long term health risks outweigh the short term benefits.
Another thing I have noticed is that when I did use whey in college that my muscles grew faster than the ligaments and tendons were able to keep up with leading to numerous injuries.
I stick to egg white protein, turkey, and chicken.
I just don’t believe in basing my diet on breast milk from cows. It is unnatural
I agree with you on this point but how is eating eggs any more “natural”?
When in the course of human evolution did it become normal to eat eggs of another species? I think only in the last couple thousand years.
I am no expert on dinosaurs but didn’t some of them eat other animals eggs? There is no other species that has drank another species’ breast milk besides humans and forcefed animals.
Another funny thing is if you look up the definition of milk in the Merriam-Webster dictionary it states…
“a fluid secreted by the mammary glands of females for the nourishment of THEIR young, especially cow’s milk used as a food by humans”.
‘It’s not like someone needs to start eating immediately after exercising. Waiting 30 to 60 minutes is OK.’
JaretJ - With all due respect, research may suggest otherwise in that the sooner your intake occurs post-exercise, the quicker the recovery process can start. Below is one study and there are others to support the same:
Muscle glycogen synthesis after exercise: effect of time of carbohydrate ingestion
J. L. Ivy, A. L. Katz, C. L. Cutler, W. M. Sherman and E. F. Coyle
Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, University of Texas, Austin 78712.
The time of ingestion of a carbohydrate supplement on muscle glycogen storage postexercise was examined. Twelve male cyclists exercised continuously for 70 min on a cycle ergometer at 68% VO2max, interrupted by six 2-min intervals at 88% VO2max, on two separate occasions. A 25% carbohydrate solution (2 g/kg body wt) was ingested immediately postexercise (P-EX) or 2 h postexercise (2P-EX). Muscle biopsies were taken from the vastus lateralis at 0, 2, and 4 h postexercise. Blood samples were obtained from an antecubital vein before and during exercise and at specific times after exercise. Muscle glycogen immediately postexercise was not significantly different for the P-EX and 2P-EX treatments. During the first 2 h postexercise, the rate of muscle glycogen storage was 7.7 mumol.g wet wt-1.h-1 for the P-EX treatment, but only 2.5 mumol.g wet wt-1.h-1 for the 2P-EX treatment. During the second 2 h of recovery, the rate of glycogen storage slowed to 4.3 mumol.g wet wt-1.h-1 during treatment P-EX but increased to 4.1 mumol.g wet wt-1.h-1 during treatment 2P-EX. This rate, however, was still 45% slower (P less than 0.05) than that for the P-EX treatment during the first 2 h of recovery. This slower rate of glycogen storage occurred despite significantly elevated plasma glucose and insulin levels. **The results suggest that delaying the ingestion of a carbohydrate supplement post-exercise will result in a reduced rate of muscle glycogen storage. **
