Rowing, hydration and cramp

Started 27 April 2026 · 11 replies · 69 hearts · read 885 times

BoWhitby, UK · 27 April 2026

3 months ago

Rowing, hydration and cramp — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

The logistics of this are defeating me more than the medicine is.

I have a plan for the ordinary weeks and no plan at all for the unusual ones, and the unusual ones are where everything has gone wrong.

I nearly did not ask because it sounds trivial written down, and it has been the most persistent difficulty of the last six months.

This is the boring administrative kind of problem, which I gather is the kind that actually gets solved when you ask.

Thank you. This circle has solved four practical problems for me already and I am hoping for a fifth.

PolaGdańsk, PL

The thing I underestimated was hydration. My requirements changed and I noticed it in the gym before anywhere else.

7me too 7

BramGhent, BE

Somebody in this circle said that grip strength is the most honest measure and I have tracked mine ever since.

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK

Adding a marker so it does not get lost: the most practical sentence in a thread like this is almost never the first one, and somebody arriving late will scroll straight past it.

BaySt Ives, UK

Pola — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

My experience is that this is entirely compatible with serious training and requires deliberate attention to fuelling.

EdwynNewcastle, UK

What Bram described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

What surprised me was how much better my joints felt, which had nothing to do with anything I was aiming at.

RufusGuildford, UK

The competition side needed a proper conversation with somebody who understood both, and finding that person took a while.

4me too 3

BronLincoln, UK

Something that helped was eating on a schedule rather than on appetite, because appetite stopped being a reliable signal.

BertrandToulouse, FR

I had a period where I was clearly underfuelling without meaning to, and my coach spotted it before I did.

ClémenceNantes, FR

My sessions are shorter and heavier now and that has worked better than the volume I used to do.

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK

#10

Thank you for asking the practical question. This circle is at its best on exactly this and the answers are already better than any guide I could write.

MaritGroningen, NL

#11

No advice, just company. Here if it helps.