What to do when getting cramps on your feet?

At this point, I'm ready to amputate my feet so I wish you very much good luck!!! Water, stretching, bananas, all great ideas. My favorite stretch is to stand on the edge of the pool or a stair with your balls of the feet on the edge and hang your heels off and push down so that it stretches your arch. Great prevention and for getting rid of cramps when you have them. If it persists, not to completely worry you, but you might want to get it checked out. I was having cramps persistently and it turned out to be plantar fascitiis and (yep, and) tarsal tunnel and I've been in physical therapy for like 3 weeks. Stretching and water usually works though. GOOD LUCK!!!

I haven't gotten a cramp while swimming yet, but I've only been at it for a month or so. It wouldn't hurt to try getting out right away. If it doesn't work, it's not like you've lost anything.

I will get cramps if I am not hydrated. I try to drink water all day long before a workout, then continue to load up while in the pool. If I don't get enough water in me during the day my feet will cramp up, especially with long kicking sets. I have tried stretching and rubbing, but this usually does little to help. I just keep going and force more water. Usually it will pass. I have had a calf cramp one time that nearly sent me to the bottom of the pool on a turn! When I was a kid I never got cramps and I swam all the time. My dad had a little bar in the house and I used to sneak all of his tonic water because my parents wouldn't let us have soda. Maybe there is truth to that tonic solution after all! :wine:

This is my first post here- just been lurking for a while but this is a topic I'm familiar with. I just started swimming again after 16 years out of the pool. I swam competetively from age 7 through college so I used to have some skills. I never ran into cramp issues then, but I have them now. This is likely due to the fact that I have the same stroke but do no longer have the muscles to support it (yet!). I frequently get hamstring, calf, and foot cramps, typicallly near the end of practice- doesn't matter if it is a kick set or not. What is starting to help is a few suggestions from the coach. Since I do 445am practices exclusively he suggested drinking a moderate, fixed quantity of water before bed, and also suggested multivitamins making sure that they contain potassium and magnesium (magnesium has not been mentioned in this thread). I have noticed improvement since I started doing this, but I cannot tell if the improvement is due to drastic improvements in my fitness, or if it is due to the water and vitamins. I would think if you are at a fitness plateau they I'd maybe try the fluids and vitamins, or just fluids with electrolytes. I'm doing the multivitamins because my wife keeps telling me I'm deficient :) Glad to be here. Pete V

Oh OK, I just saw your new post about being diabetic- maybe multivitamins would not be appropriate. Maybe something more targeted (potassium/magnesium)? But I'd definitely hydrate. Pete V

I was told by my doctor not to consume more than half a banana a day. Too little or too much potassium (K) can have effects on the heart in so much as the cardiac rhythm. There is a safe range and some acceptable low and high tolerances, but if they are extreme then it can be dangerous.

I'm not really sure what your doctor is talking about. Unless all your meals are just high-potassium foods or you have kidney problems, a banana is not going to hurt you. I eat 1-2 a day and have been for a long time. The recommended daily value of potassium is 3,500mg regardless of caloric intake. A banana only has 422mg of potassium, so I'm not sure where he's getting the idea that a banana is going to send you into some sort of ventricular fibrillation. Of course, I'm not telling you to ignore your doctor (not that you would or should listen to some random guy on the internet anyway). Obviously, he knows your medical history and probably has a reason other than "bananas cause heart arrhythmias" because for most healthy people, it isn't true.

There are several reasons why he suggests this to me. I am diabetic bananas, oranges, apples, throw off my sugar levels so he suggests only half of one of these is what I should consume. But he also mentioned that I should be careful with bananas because of potasium. there are other items in our diets that have hi levels of potasium also so I watch what I eat. I have no problem with my kidney but they monitor the potasium levels and I do not want problems.

Yeah, I figured there was some reason other than "bananas have potassium". Bananas have a little more than 1/8 of the recommended daily value of potassium, so eating one is not going to do anything but help you normally.

In my nutrition class we learned that if you drink nothing but water all day long, you are actually flushing your system of needed nutrients and vitamins. You are tanking your electrolytes, especially sodium and magnesium (which helps the body to absorb the nutrients faster), and potassium levels. When you exercise, you all know these are depleted. These help conduct electrical signals from the brain to the muscles. When these are low, the messages get scrambled causing cramps. I still drink water all day, but an hour before I swim, I drink half of a Gatorade or sports drink diluted with half water to cut the sugar and salt. This has ended my leg cramps.