In another article I discussed the role of energy or lack of energy as being a key factor involved with muscle cramps. It goes to follow then that the more you can load the muscles with energy, the better off you will e in terms of preventing cramps.

Unfortunately, as with everything in life, its not so straightforward as that.

I think it (a carbo-load) has to be for a special athlete in a special circumstance if theyre competing once a week or twice a week like a basketball player playing matches a couple of times a week carbo-loading doesnt make sense. And as a strategy to prevent cramping in these circumstances it makes even less sense.

If youre an endurance Olympic athlete or a marathon runner and you only do 6 events a year or even less, say 2 events a year, then you could do an effective carbo-loading program to help you for that one event but not for the build up to that one event. Or if youre into extreme endurance sports or triathlons, you might think about carbo-loading.

So when I look at carbo-loading in the true definition of the term, it takes about a week to do an effective carbo-load if thats something you want to do to affect and raise your energy levels. If you can get your energy levels up higher then you may reduce the risk of leg and muscle cramps associated with fatigue especially calf cramps where athletes seem most susceptible.

What you have to do is deplete yourself and then load really hard and, as a comparison, thats kind of like allowing your stomach to shrink and then you just stretch it to the max thats what youre doing with carbo-loading in your body.

You need to deplete yourself for 2-3 days and you want to get the bodys stores as low as you can and then really shoot up. And by shooting up youre able to get up to 120% carbohydrate versus your typical 100. So youre really able to go up to a higher level by loading up and thats the trick to it.

Remember that its really only idealistic if you do it 2 or 3 times a year and most athletes compete now more than 2 or 3 times a year.

One of the problems regular athletes and people who train for sporting events face is that they rely too much on carbohydrates before events that last 2 hours or more.

What can happen is that you get all the energy in the first half of your event and then you run the danger that you start to come down past that level and youll actually starve for energy and youll feel like youve hit a wall.

At this point youre more susceptible to cramping.

The best strategy is to switch to a pre-race nutrition plan that has about 60% carbohydrates (eliminating as much refined carbohydrate and sugar as possible), with the remaining 30% good fat and 30% protein - yep that's right, 30% of each. And you need to ensure that your food sources are as fresh as possible

Why this works is simple - you're providing the body with both long term and short term energy and in a form that has less of a stimulatory affect on the muscles.

So apple pie and cream is out as part of a pre-race nutrition plan - try apples and a whey protein shake instead.

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