Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Who else suffers from leg cramps?

Potassium pills every day for prevention. If I skip a few days, I'll start getting them.

I've been troubled by them for years. Had my right foot lock up on me last night. Jumped out of bed and straighten it. Wished they could all be stopped that easily.
Had a good friend show me the benefits of 800 mg. of Ibuprofen. Hardcore back packers call it "Vitamin I". If I know I'm in for a tough day in the mountains, I take one before starting out and one every -4-5 hrs. And one before I go to bed. Without them, at age 73, I'm going to be in a world of hurt coming out from an opening morning grouse hunt. That hunt is 4.5 miles plus in and a 2700 ft. climb, BTW.
When I'm on my month long hunting trip, I will take one before bed if I've been hiking rough ground much. I sleep much better and never gets cramps. Trust me, after a tough day on the trail, I will get them w/o "Vitamin I". E

Magnesium, zinc and calcium work for me.

Those lucky enough to not have chronic night leg cramps simply can't understand how painful and sleep depriving they are. I get them often, have had the issue since my mid 20's. I take potassium sometimes, have recently started taking it every day. Hope it helps. A couple of years ago my left calf locked up so hard that it woke me up yelling. I jumped out of bed and forced my heel down, desperate to make it stop. It was cramped up so hard that when I shoved my heel down I tore my soleus muscle (the one that runs all the way to the ankle underneath the bigger calf muscle). About half of it tore off and balled up down near my ankle. My calf swelled up to twice the normal size, I bruised all the way from my foot up to the back side of my knee and was on crutches for a couple of weeks. Doc said that if more of that muscle had torn I was looking at surgery. Took a couple of months to walk normally after that.

Oranges or orange juice when bananas are not available.

I have been using Benadryl for many years for cramps, tried loratadine and it does not work anything like as well or as quickly, IME. I usually know when they are likely to come and take Benadryl at bedtime. Very rarely do I cramp in the night after that.

Yes (Dr Art)told me the Benadryl trick just need to take them early at night or have a hangover like feeling in the morning.

I get jolted out of bed at least once / week w/ a calf cramp. I will occasionally get a severe cramp in the large adductor muscles in my thigh following hard climbs or snowshoeing in deep snow. I have found that stretching well after exercise and a banana post workout helps a lot. I drink 1 gallon of water daily w/ electrolyte supplements. If you drink reverse osmosis bottled water it is almost devoid of electrolytes. We set the timer on the phone and get up and move and stretch and exercise hourly for 5 minutes, since starting this regimen we have found that mornings are better. Old age sucks and must be resisted w/ exercise.


mike r

i forgot in my earlier post to mention soy milk. when i lock up i shotgun about 8 oz of soymilk( get the vanilla flavored and it ain't so bad!) will release my cramps within 30 seconds. ymmv

Pickle juice works for me. They seem to cluster, I'll get foot/lower leg cramps three nights in a row and then go weeks without. Doctor also suggested tonic water. Gives me a reason to drink tater sqeezins.

So many different solutions . For those of you that yours is not working have some TONIC water with quinine close at hand, Several have mentioned it and I have used it and it has worked every time.

No expensive pills or or or other things that can cause other problems . Simple and not expensive or toxic, if you use moderation .

I took the advice about the Benadryl for my foot cramps after reading about it here yesterday.

For the past several days, I'd get a cramp in my right foot from the big toe back.. That muscle was getting sore as billy goat's pecker, and getting worse with each cramp.

After I took the Benadryl, I only had one more cramp. It sure has been nice to have some respite from all that!

Thanks!