Marathon Runner
Marathon Runner
Marathon runners are often in great physical shape. However, the cost of getting into this great shape takes a toll on the body, before and during a race. One of the best ways to improve performance is to figure out what to do to reduce cramping and what vitamins to take.
Muscle Cramping Marathon Runners
Gary Radice of the Department of Biology at the University of Richmond has written extensively on how to prevent muscle cramps, most recently in 2006. Not much has been done in the way of researching why marathon runners get muscle cramps because the problem is not the same for everyone and there are so many variable factors to consider when figuring out what causes muscle cramps. Since before you can solve a problem, you have to figure out what causes the problem, Radice did some research. He found that there appeared to be two types of cramping. One of these types was because of what he called “endurance exercise” which is when a specific muscle group being used cramps up, such as a runner’s legs or a writer’s hand. The other type of cramping is because of the loss of electrolytes, which causes cramping over a larger area of the body than just one muscle group. The latter type of cramping is easy to avoid if you know what to do. Gatorade and salt mix is a difficult theory to prove, but will definitely not hurt your body. If you usually cramp in one certain area, you might consider doing longer runs to try to push past this, or by doing exercises specific to the problem muscle. Radice also suggests for marathon runners to practice during cool weather or on flat road courses since you will sweat less (therefore preserving your body’s sodium to help reduce the chances of getting a cramp). Starting slowly is also a good effort that can help reduce cramping. Radice concludes that since the cause of cramping for marathon runners isn’t probably limited to just sweating, or not getting enough salt supplements, it is probably more related to what you do before and during the race. With good training and using specific strategies to combat fatigue and cramping during the last six miles, cramps will reduce and performance will definitely improve.
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Vitamins For Marathon Runners
Contrary to popular belief, runners do not need to take lots of protein supplements to combat their muscle deterioration. They should however, remain at a good level of hydration and simply take a vitamin supplement to make sure that they are replacing all of the vitamins that they expel during their extensive training.
