Concept2 Forum

Recently during winter training, some kids on my team have been having foot cramps after their pieces, mostly after 2k's. why is this? it has happened to me too and its not fun.

Electrolytes deficiency start taking Magnesium, so 300 mg daily. You are sweating more than salt.

300mg daily of magnesium, some how that doesnt sound too good...there HAS to be another way.

Anything your body doesn't need will be washed right out.

The current RDA, 350 mg. per day, is considered to be sufficient but there is mounting evidence that this figure is lower than optimal intake and that this low level of magnesium contributes to all of the listed degenerative diseases. Until a better way is devised to determine optimal total body magnesium (TBM) consider supplementation and watch for results.

are you sure i dont get 350mg of magnesium in my diet already? how about I check before i start putting this magnesium stuff in my body.

They probably all have rubber arch protrusions, i.e. "supports", in their shoes.

Lift up the insoles and scrape out the protrusions with a knife, or else get flat soled shoes that don't have anytying jamming into the muscles in your feet.

If you are healthy it's harmless and the excess will be excreted.

i have been wearing skateboard style shoues to row, which are perfectly flat...i still get cramps.

Ben Rea wrote:i have been wearing skateboard style shoues to row, which are perfectly flat...i still get cramps.

Another thing to check on if you're not too keen on additional intake of Magnesium yet is to check that you're not using the balls of your feet too much at the catch to push off. If your achillies isn't very flexible and you can't get your heel down to the footboards, it would be easy to push from the ball instead of focusing on using the whole foot.

Don't know if you have that problem, but something else to check.

Aiko

push from the balls? i dont see how thats possible, i almost always push off with the upper part of the foot and my toes.

Ben Rea wrote:push from the balls? i dont see how thats possible, i almost always push off with the upper part of the foot and my toes.

That's the part that I mean. I thought that was the ball of the foot, the wide part of your foot right under your toes? If that's the only part you're pushing off from, I would think that might be contributing to the foot cramps. It would be like doing continuous jump roping for however long your piece is (obviously at a slower pace... ).

Just a theory, not based on anything in particular. You could probably test if by doing some longer pieces and not compressing as much, focusing on keeping contact between your heel and the footboards and pushing from the whole foot. If you don't get cramps or pain, could be the answer?

Aiko

Ben...

I know what you are talking about, and it hurts like hell...

The reason for it is that you are compressing too much by lifting your heels off the footstops too much... This is cutting the circulation right off and over 10 minutes of hard rowing you cant walk.

If it's the same thing then the remedy is to practice keeping your heels held to the footstop as much as possible. This is possible by stretching your calves for 10 minutes after every cardio session... over 1 month you will see a dramatic improvment of your flexibility at the catch... the pain will immediately go away after you change your technique.

Just to let you know, keeping as much keel to the footstop is not so much a big deal with erging results, but on the water it greatly increased the boats speed in terms of catch 'explosion'.

yea , my coach just told me yeterday to keep my feet on the footboard as much as I can, whoever said im doing pieices at a slower pace, im not. trust me.

Ben Rea wrote:push from the balls? i dont see how thats possible

csabour wrote:I know what you are talking about, and it hurts like hell...

Am I reading what I think I'm reading?