Help! I Keep Getting Leg Cramps During Kick Sets

Published January 23, 2019 02:15PM

Swim Speed Secrets author Sheila Taormina shares her advice for getting through with a smile on your face.

Be a flexible kicker: Men especially have cramping issues in their legs (whether it be foot, calf, or hamstring), and often it is because they go a bit too rigid in the muscle as they try to get power.

Kick with tone, not too much tension: Feel the water on the top of your foot and hold just enough tension to give dynamic energy to the down-kick. Try to hold no more than 20 pounds of tension (preferably only hold 10-15 pounds) in the leg muscles. Ten to 15 pounds of tension is equivalent to having athletic tone in the muscles without “trying too hard.”

Kick from the core: The power from the kick should come from the lower abdominal muscles, especially the psoas. If swimmers concentrate on transferring power from their core, they will be using the appropriate set of muscles to get a powerful kick.

Kick with small, quick kicks: Swimmers should kick in small, tight motions, not big kicks. Many triathletes try to get the leg super deep on the down-kick, which makes for a slow, plodding kick and also causes them to bend on the up-kick. Keep the legs closer together, which should encourage a small, quick kick and straighter legs.

Kick with a straighter (not straight) leg: Another likely cramping culprit is bending the knee too much during the up-kick phase, which engages the hamstring. Instead, swimmers can clench their glute muscle to engage the glute, which should result in a straighter up-kick. Then bend the knee only at the top of the up-kick just before beginning the bent-knee down-kick. This may eliminate the cramping problem.

Build kicking fitness: Finally, I’d encourage people to commit to kicking. Kicking stabilizes the body so the arms have leverage for a strong underwater pull. A propulsive kick will help them swim faster. Oftentimes, cramping during kick sets is due simply to muscles that aren’t ready. Swimmers who don’t have a strong kick will need to slowly build their muscle strength and the neuromuscular firing patterns before kick sets will start to feel like a normal part of each swimming workout. If a swimmer is really struggling with the kick sets or cramping, they should ignore fast and sprint kicking sets until they’ve built their kicking base/strength. Instead, go easy on all the kicking sets for the next 2-3 weeks and then try some faster kicking later in the program to see if the muscles have strengthened.