Extreme quadriceps starting pain after 3-4 rest days

[Trifid]

I was thinking about this thread a couple of days ago and thought about replying saying I haven't had a problem for maybe a year now but without a reply for so long decided against doing so. I attribute the lack of a problem with following a training plan that gives very few rest days (and often do a couple of short trips on my commuter bike on those days). I also fortunately avoided any problems when I caught Covid in the autumn which stopped me training consistently for 3 months, I think this is consistent with previous breaks caused by illness which have resulted in no thigh pain, maybe a higher heart rate mitigates the problem?

Here's a link to the Cleveland Clinic article some possible things you can do to help: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/it-band-stretches-and-treatments-to-relieve-knee-and-hip-pain

"“Continuing the activity that led to the problem isn’t going to make it go away,” says Krampf."

For me, the only two options for recovering are serious rest for about 2 weeks (like 2000 steps maximum) - even walking around the house is a problem or otherwise getting on the bike as soon as it starts to hurt and immediately doing several all out anaerobic intervals from cold (no warm up as this aggravates it) until complete exhaustion. I also think my pain is more forwards of the thigh then the IT band.

 

[pasaglia]

I have had this issue since I was 25 (I am now 44). Two years ago I started taking allopurinol (200 mg/ day) for gout and have not had any debilitating rhabdo since. I'm convinced this is the reason. It took a few months, but eventually all rhabdo stopped. There is some evidence here: https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/4255256

Allopurinol is cheap and relatively harmless. I've shared this before, but felt compelled to do so again. I went on a ride 3 days ago and am about to go out for a worry free run. I hope this works for some of you as well.

 

[NDnd]

Dear all,
Same problems for me. Huge pain in quads when walking downhill or downstairs. Always in the quads but the leg may very. Also the affected areas may vary.
I have been reading through this forum, and also bikeforums.net.

Just a hypothesis:
- during cycling the muscles are mainly loaded in an concentric way, while walking downhill the main loads are eccentric. Anybody tested this hypothesis?

Also possible:
- disbalance between qauds vs hamstrings / glutes;
- problems to stabilize the legs during landing phase of downhill walking;

All the best!

 

[Reno sushi king]

Long time sufferer here too! Was driven to develop a “cure” but nothing is foolproof and occasionally have set-backs like this past couple days. Finally got a ride in this morning with none of the random excruciating pains.

I like all the theories but as most know the professionals don’t have a clue. I had one doctor tell me it was all in my head and prescribed a tall canister of Calm. (magnesium supplement) Thanks for nothing!

I read through previous posts and it took a while, towards the end my attention was fading so I apologize if I missed something.

Here’s the deal, it truly believe it is all spinal related. It’s inflammation, pinched nerves, all related to nerves getting impacted in the L4 and L5 spinal segments. Wear and tear on the spine also creates stenosis which starts to clog up/limit the space/narrowing of channels where the nerve bundles run through. I’m not sure what it is with the biking but being hunched over in just the right way sparks the nerves that travel through the lower spine. I was about to give it up because getting stranded everywhere, and not being able to consistently compete, or even take a ride with friends was embarrassing.

Triggers: walking down hill, walking down stairs, moderate biking, sitting in the car too long, traveling, vacations, holidays, hotel beds, lifting a bunch of crap like helping someone move.

What’s with everyone’s rest days? And then I realized my travel days are just like rest days, after long trips it comes on like gangbusters! I’ve had the pains start even while driving.

When I was young, fat, and happily drinking beer and margaritas all weekend never had a problem. It was only until deciding to get fit, shed 40 pounds, and enjoy challenging outdoor mountain biking did this all start. I thought the body was meant to perform, and I became the strongest ever in my life from cycling , hiking, and running. (mid 40’s) Eating the healthiest, etc! Then things took a dark detour.

Family wanted me to go on a weekend cruise to Mexico, I thought why not even though it will mess with my exercise regiment, I can always hike the ships stairs like an insane person, plus eat and drink a ton. Waiting to board I had 40+ pounds of luggage in each hand plus Grandma’s luggage draped around my neck, a real workhorse but not knowing the weight of carrying everyone’s shite was slowly compressing my spine.

Ship sails off and hit the stairs to burn some calories before the buffet. Go one flight down and the quads immediately seize, like a cramp but worse can’t even walk. WTF is this some medical emergency? If you stop it relents but if you push through I can’t even think of what would happen. Does it go away, hell no, I think it’s either check into the infirmary or just jump overboard because something serious is going on and you’re going to die shortly anyway.

Alright enough with the stories, have too many of them.

My cure:

If you are out biking and feel it coming on, get off the bike, lay on the ground stomach down and push up with your hands creating the upward dog. When I do this I can feel the pain start to fade away and it departs just as quickly as it got there, why? Perhaps the spine channels open up just enough. Usually hold it for 15 seconds and start biking again. Pain comes back, do it again. I’ve been out in the middle of nowhere and it can take 3-6 cycles of doing this and it’s gone for good for the day. The trick is not to let the pain continue too long because then you’re screwed for 24 hours.

Anti-inflammatories help, but I’m not into popping those like candy. Sometimes they are just enough to quiet down your wiring in the spine.

I just learned that THC/CBD salves really work well after the fact especially on sore blasted quads. CBD alone does nothing. And it has to be potent. If pain is deep in the glutes it can’t really reach, but for pain near the surface it surprised the hell out of me that it can knock it out within minutes.

What you eat or don’t doesn’t matter at all, same with alcohol but to a point. If you go on a weekend bender you inflame your whole body, and if it’s combined with a vacation good luck! It’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole of diet and rare syndromes but none of us ever had a problem before, this is different. We aren’t having some energy conversion problem, crap, I can bike, hike, and lift weights beast mode style while in a 40 hour fast, and feel great.

Sometimes the inflammation is just enough to ruin everything.

Walking down hill just compresses your spine, and it starts! Before I knew how to reverse it I’d go out on a 10 minute walk with the dog and get stuck on a hillside for an hour and unable to walk down. I hike now with trekking poles and that helps.

Stretching helps, especially those that improve spinal flexibility.

Spinal doctors can help, look for those that have decompression machines, and hot/cold treatments, ultra sound/light therapy, etc. It isn’t cheap but may just do the trick, same with hanging from a pull up bar and letting your legs dangle.

Sorry for the book report, hope it is useful!

 

[lohmatik]

Hello everyone. I’ve written here before about my episodes. They have annoyed me so much that I decided to try the most desperate advice from this forum. I managed to overcome two episodes. Both occurred, as always, after a break of two to three days after cycling.

1. The episode began to hit me on the 10th minute of my cycling workout, as soon as I started to increase the power a bit. I was so unwilling to accept another forced break from cycling that I decided to push through the unpleasant sensations right at the beginning of the episode. I completed an hour-long workout at the edge of zones 3-4, to the point where the pain became negligible behind this load. However, this pain turned into a familiar muscle soreness (like the second day after my first-ever barbell squats). It was strong but understandable pain.

2. After another break on a gloomy day, I went to the gym. The episode caught me at the beginning of a squat set with back squats. I got scared again and started squatting faster, trying to somehow shake off the sensation. I quickly added more weight and continued squatting until I transformed the sharp muscle cramps back into a familiar feeling of muscle soreness.

I read the new messages in the topic, and for now, I think the idea about the imbalance between concentric and eccentric loading is the closest to the truth. Sugar probably also plays a role.

 

[Reno sushi king]

That's awesome you were just able to "power" through on both episodes. When this syndrome really ramps up powering through will leave most people on the ground (or worse disabled and temporarily in the hospital) and that is why we are here. In my opinion you experienced a very mild case, which is great! Those can almost disappear as fast as they arrive.

Was curious about the most desperate advice you tried? Only asking because tough to go back and read through everything again, thanks!

 

[lohmatik]

That's awesome you were just able to "power" through on both episodes. When this syndrome really ramps up powering through will leave most people on the ground (or worse disabled and temporarily in the hospital) and that is why we are here. In my opinion you experienced a very mild case, which is great! Those can almost disappear as fast as they arrive.

Was curious about the most desperate advice you tried? Only asking because tough to go back and read through everything again, thanks!

Sorry, I probably didn't express myself clearly. To overcome this attack by increasing the load - I think it is quite dangerous and desperate advice. But this is exactly what helped me twice. But I think it can have a bad effect on something else, because many people mentioned that blood parameters change, as in rhabdomyolysis. This raises concerns when trying to overcome the attack with load.