The biggest clue to your next cramp

You're well into a ride when the familiar tightening starts. Same calf. Same warning. You reach for your bottle and wonder whether you should have packed more salt.

Before you change the contents of that bottle, there's a more useful question: has this happened before?

A new systematic review found that a history of exercise-associated cramps was the clearest, most consistent predictor of another episode. Hydration markers and sodium concentrations didn't show the same consistent relationship.

The review brought together nine studies involving 11,274 athletes. These were studies following people through exercise or competition, rather than experiments deliberately inducing cramps. Most participants were men, mainly aged 18–45, drawn from running, triathlon and rugby. It wasn't a study of 11,274 cyclists.

The cramp-history result came from four of those studies, involving 516 people. Athletes who had cramped before had roughly 4.5 times the odds of cramping again. The authors rated this as strong evidence within their review. That describes an association, not a guarantee you'll cramp, and odds aren't the same as an individual's probability.

Why might history matter? The authors suggest it can flag an underlying susceptibility. One possible explanation involves the signals that tell a muscle to contract and relax: some people may reach the point where those signals become unbalanced more readily during demanding exercise. The review doesn't establish exactly why, or prove that a previous cramp causes the next one.

It also doesn't settle the hydration argument. Changes in body mass, blood sodium and other hydration measures weren't consistently associated with cramps, but much of that evidence was limited or inconsistent. Higher potassium and magnesium after racing appeared in some pooled results; those measurements don't establish a cause or tell us to take a supplement.

These were risk-factor studies, not trials of prevention strategies. Five of the nine studies had a high overall risk of bias. Keep your fuelling and drinking plan for the work and conditions. The useful change is to stop treating another cramp as automatic proof that you got your sodium wrong.

My coaching takeaway is to make the history specific. Which muscle? How far into the ride? What happened just before it tightened? Note the effort, terrain, heat, food and drink alongside it. That gives you something to review before the next big ride. It's a practical way to investigate a pattern, not a prevention method this review tested.

What you do with this depends on which rider you are.

If you're time-capped: use the rides you already do to keep a brief cramp record. Don't add another hard session simply because you've decided cramping must mean you're undertrained. Start by finding out whether it happens under the same conditions.

If you're over 50: don't write repeated cramps off as your age. Age wasn't associated with cramps in the pooled analysis, although older cyclists weren't well represented. Your own history is a more useful starting point than assuming this is inevitable.

If you're chasing a result or facing a new event: bring that history into your preparation. Discuss the affected muscles and demands with your coach, and build unfamiliar demands progressively. Keep your drinking and fuelling rehearsals, but don't make a different electrolyte mix your entire cramp plan.

Your last cramp is information. Use it before the next one.

Source. Costa LdS, Correa VAF, de Oliveira VF, Jahn AJS, Aliano GB, Nunes GS. Risk Factors for Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramps: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis. Muscle & Nerve. 2026;74:1375–1386. doi:10.1002/mus.70389.

On my mindSomeone to work it out with

I had a call this week with an athlete who'd spent much of the past 18 months using an automated training service. He was also using AI to talk through his training data.

He likes technology. He enjoys looking at his numbers, and he'd seen real progress. He was interested in how much further he could go with a coach alongside him.

What stood out was how much he wanted to share the experience with someone.

He wanted to talk through the plan, look at what actually happened, understand what went well and decide what to change. He liked the idea of working on something together and seeing it improve.

He also wanted another perspective. His concern with AI was that it tended to agree with him. Even when it pushed back, he was conscious that he was shaping the conversation through the information he gave it.

That's a useful standard to hold a human coach to as well. A coach should be willing to question your interpretation, explain their own, and change their mind when the evidence calls for it.

It's easy to focus on getting the next workout right. There's a session in the calendar, you complete it, and another one appears. Meanwhile, the questions about what you're learning can sit there unanswered.

Did that session do what we wanted? Does the plan still make sense around the rest of your life? Is there something you're missing because you're too close to it?

Do you recognise any of that in your own training?

Maybe you're following the plan, but still doing all the interpreting yourself. Maybe you've got plenty of answers available, but want someone to challenge the question. Or maybe you finish a good session and would like to share it with someone who's involved in what you're trying to do.

This week, pick one thing you're unsure about in your training and talk it through with someone whose judgement you trust. See whether you come away with a clearer decision about what to do next.

— Damian

PS. If The Winter Block has been on your mind, now is the time to act. Training and weekly key-session reviews start on 2 November, and enrolment closes when training begins. You’ll have sixteen weeks of structured training for riders 40+, indoors or outdoors, with individual feedback on your key session and a small group to train alongside. Join now, get set up and arrive ready for week one. Join The Winter Block →

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