It was all I could do to simply CRAWL for the rest of the race. I haven’t had cramps like this in over 5 years. I did everything else as right as I could, ate well, hydrated (about 1.5 bottles per hour) and took ice socks.Īt 2:45 in I started getting super bad, debilitating, both quad, both calf cramps. So for me the Hot Shot was a preventative safety net, not a necessary absolute. But if history was any lesson for me, then cramping at all during an event like this would be minor and late in the event. I tried it earlier in the week, it didn’t taste horrible so I decided it would be a good preventative during what would be a long hard race in a hot climate. Since Hot Shot had just become available for pre-order I got some the week of. I raced Mountain Bike Marathon Nationals this past weekend. I can recall it happening only a few times in 11 years of racing. Rarely do I get the debilitating Charley horse, large muscle group lock up cramps. Usually at only a few events during the year. Occasionally during long or hard events I will get the twinge fluttery cramps, usually after 4+ hrs of hard racing. But if you’re prone to cramping and already dropped $40 or more on a race entry, it might be worth the insurance.ĭon’t hold your breath, it’s NOT A MIRACLE.įirst hand experience with it last weekend. They retail for $35 per 6-pack ($5.83 per 1.7oz serving), which ain’t cheap. Suggested use is 15-30 minutes before riding and/or during riding if you feel cramps coming on. For everyone else, it’s worth a shot (pun intended). I imagine this product would not be the best solution for my two friends that get the hiccups from spicy foods, though. It was actually a nice distraction from the leg burning climb. I felt it’s, um, tingle with each inhalation for the next 20 minutes, but that, too, wasn’t so bad. Yes, that capsicum burns the throat a little, but not too bad.
#Hot shots drink free#
I finished the rest of the ride (two-plus more hours) free of issues.
#Hot shots drink full#
I started feeling the twinge of a hamstring cramp midway through the longest climb, so I pulled off, downed a shot, and within minutes was pedaling back at full steam and the pre-cramp twitches were gone. The biggest test was on a long, sustained climb at the Mavic carbon clincher launch.
HotShot’s ingredients are different -there’s no vinegar here- but in my testing delivered near immediate results. There’s also vinegar in mustard, hence that product’s inclusion in folk remedies. When we spoke with Pickle Power at Sea Otter this year, they said it’s really the ascetic acid in the vinegar that disrupts the nerve signal to reduce or stop cramping…not their incredibly high sodium content. The only difference we’ve found on their current website is a slight reduction in sodium (now 40mg) and a different thickening agent that shouldn’t affect taste or performance.
That one shows the effective ingredients to be Cinnamon, Ginger and Capsicum. So what are the ingredients? They’re not listed anywhere on the website, but we tested pre-production samples under the #ITSTHENERVE label. How could it possibly work? What did pickle juice and mustard have in common? All of a sudden it occurred to him that maybe it was the activating effect of pickle juice and mustard on TRP channels in the mouth … It’s the stimulation of the sensory nerves in the mouth, esophagus and stomach that triggers a response from the nervous system and calms down the motor neurons in the spinal cord. This was Rod’s ‘Aha!’ moment: The nervous system could be prodded, using those very receptors, to cue a cascade of nerve stimulation, also involving pathways from the mouth, esophagus and stomach, projecting signals to the motor neurons of the spinal cord.”īasically, the ingredients stimulate the TRP ion channels in the mouth, which tell the overexcited nerves causing the muscle cramp to chill out, thereby relieving or preventing the cramp.
“Rod heard stories about cyclists … using pickle juice to treat muscle cramps (and) marathon runners who used mustard stirred into warm water to relieve their cramps. For the solution, we’ll summarize a bit of their origin story:
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