I'm an author, strength coach, and physical therapist — also a father, husband, and hack golfer. Every Saturday I send The Saturday Standard: research worth knowing, a thought worth keeping, an action worth taking, a book worth reading, and a note from me. Five things, five minutes, one coffee. This and other blog posts are available for free every week — join below.
Saturday Standard: Is Cramping Because of Dehydration?
The Saturday Standard — Vol. 24Saturday, October 17, 2026 As always, coffee first, fellas — and let's talk about cramps, and why a few bananas and a gallon jug of water probably isn't the fix. The ResearchCramps aren't a water problemYou've been told your whole life that a cramp means you didn't drink enough water. Maybe you needed more salt. Maybe a banana. Electrolyte companies claim their fancy packets can fix your cramps. It makes sense on paper. You sweat, you lose water and sodium, the nerves that run your muscles get twitchy, and the muscle locks up. Unfortunately for the supplement companies and far too many fitness professionals, the research has poked cavernous holes in that theory. What our studies show. Researchers in Spain followed 58 experienced runners through a 106-kilometer mountain race, about 66 miles with roughly 5,600 meters of climbing.¹ They measured hydration, sodium, and potassium before and after. They drew blood for muscle damage markers out to 48 hours. They asked about training habits. Nine runners cramped. I can see your thought bubbles now: "Nine runners? That's nothing, Jackson." Yes, it is a small group, and the authors admit as much. Treat what follows as a pattern, not proof. Then again, we can prove very little in this world. The crampers were not more dehydrated. Their change in body weight, their urine concentration, and their post-race sodium all looked like everyone else's.¹ What was different was muscle damage. A day after the race, creatine kinase, a blood marker of muscle damage, was more than two and a half times higher in the crampers. Two days out, it was more than three times higher.¹ An important point to consider: a cramp is a muscle locked in a hard contraction it can't let go of. That alone could damage muscle. So the higher damage markers in the crampers may be partly a result of the cramp, not just a cause of it. These studies can't tell the difference. One study tried to get ahead of that. In a 56-kilometer ultramarathon, the runners who went on to cramp had somewhat higher damage markers before the race even started, but the gap wasn't statistically significant.⁷ So the question is still open. These studies also relied on runners reporting their own cramps, and pace, fitness, and muscle damage all travel together, so pulling one cause out of the pile is hard. And 87.5% of the runners who did not cramp strength trained at least twice a week. Among the crampers, 55.6% did.¹ It fits a pattern. The same research group studied 84 marathon finishers. Twenty cramped. Again, hydration and sodium were no different, and muscle damage markers were higher in the crampers.² Fewer crampers lifted, 25% versus 47.6%, though that gap fell just short of statistical significance.² In 210 Ironman triathletes, body weight change and blood electrolytes were the same in those who cramped and those who didn't. What predicted cramping was racing faster and a history of cramping.³ In a lab study, 10 men were dehydrated by about 4.7% of their body weight, and it took no less stimulation to trigger a cramp.⁴ So what causes cramps? The leading explanation is fatigue. When a muscle is pushed past what it has been trained to handle, the signals that normally tell it to relax get drowned out, and the nerve keeps firing. In effect, it's like putting noise-cancelling headphones on the muscle while the rest of your body is screaming at it to chill out. That fits the Ironman data. The athletes who pushed the pace were the ones who cramped.³ Genetics may play a role too. The other predictor in that Ironman study was a history of cramping,³ and a major review of this research lists a family history of cramping as a risk factor.⁶ Some men may simply be wired to cramp more easily. Nobody knows exactly why yet. In plain terms, cramps have less to do with what's in your water bottle and more to do with whether you trained for the job you're asking your body to do. What about pickle juice? My buddy and I came off the practice field huffing and puffing. The trainer handed us a couple of cups to quench our thirst. I watched my buddy throw his back in one gulp. Before his conscious mind could make sense of what happened, the liquid came spewing out of his mouth and he heaved. His brain had finally caught up: he had just downed a triple shot of warm pickle juice. The thought of it still makes me gag. Nonetheless, pickle juice is hailed as a miracle drug for cramps. It does something, just not what people think. In a lab study, men drank a small amount of pickle juice during an electrically induced cramp, and the cramp ended about 49 seconds sooner than it did with water.⁵ It worked too fast to have restored any fluid or electrolytes. The researchers think the sour taste triggers a reflex in the throat that calms the nerve.⁵ Shortening a cramp is not the same as preventing one. So what do you do? Train for what you're going to ask of your body. If race day, game day, or the big weekend project is longer or harder than anything you've done in training, that is when you're most likely to cramp. Lift. In both running studies, more of the runners who didn't cramp were strength training. Skip the extra salt. You probably do not need more sodium to fix your cramps. The average American already eats more than 3,300 milligrams a day, well over the 2,300-milligram limit.⁸ And in these studies, the athletes who cramped didn't have low sodium to begin with.¹·²·³ Downing more of it isn't going to help. Keep drinking water. It matters for plenty of reasons. Just don't expect it to fix your cramps. Worth Remembering"A wise man told me once that we can only embrace who we truly are meant to be, once we let go of what we think we should be."
— Gray, in Tides of Fate (The Ronin Saga, Book 4) by Matthew Wolf
Yes, that's from the series on last week's bookshelf. Fair warning: it's not really about dragons at this point. It's about nine magical heroes once branded as villains. Everyone has an opinion on who we are supposed to become. My generation had "You need a college degree!" shoved down our throats. For others, it's running the family business or similar. Regardless, it's about meeting someone else's expectations, or our own, and those can be just as misguided. Sometimes we spend years trying to fit a square peg into a round hole because we think it's what we're "supposed" to do. I can't tell you what that looks like for you. But if your life feels unfulfilled or all over the place, take a look in the mirror and ask whether you're trying to be something you simply are not. Try This WeekCrockpot Chicken Enchilada Soup It is officially fall, and my wife is in full-blown pumpkin spice, candles, and comfort-food soups. I approve of all of it. Soups are an incredible way to get quality food and plenty of protein. Here's one we tried recently. Ingredients
How to make it
Want more heat? Use hot enchilada sauce or hot Rotel. Per serving (per the recipe): about 389 calories, 37 g protein, 26 g carbs, 13 g fat, 8 g fiber. From the BookshelfYes, I have read almost four books of the Ronin Saga in a week. My wife gets on me for being awake at 2 a.m. reading, but reading is my happy place. Behind me in my office is one of my favorite poems, "If—" by Rudyard Kipling, and I read it most days. I encourage you all to keep it handy and read it often. Few poems give better advice on being a father or a mentor. "If—" by Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!
Closing ThoughtA great mentor told me recently that you should always be looking to shake hands with the man you have never met: the one who lives inside you. He has to be unlocked through effort, patience, and perseverance. That metaphor stuck with me, and I encourage you to think of life that way. There is a man inside you waiting to shake your hand. One day he'll tip his hat to you, and without a word, you'll know you are becoming a better man. That is all for this week, fellas. Have a great weekend. Sources
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Forging Capable Men
I'm an author, strength coach, and physical therapist — also a father, husband, and hack golfer. Every Saturday I send The Saturday Standard: research worth knowing, a thought worth keeping, an action worth taking, a book worth reading, and a note from me. Five things, five minutes, one coffee. This and other blog posts are available for free every week — join below.
The Saturday Standard — Vol. 22 Saturday, October 3, 2026 As always, coffee first, fellas — and let's sort out this whole "seed oils are the DEVIL" situation. The Research Seed oils are taking too much of the blame Seed oils are getting a lot of blame. But is it deserved? The internet treats them like villains in a Marvel movie, branding them the Hateful Eight and treating them as equal conspirators in destroying the world. The eight: canola, corn, cottonseed, soybean, sunflower, safflower,...
The Saturday Standard — Vol. 21 Saturday, September 26, 2026 As always, coffee first, fellas — and let's talk about testosterone, who actually needs it, and why some men are on it without ever being properly tested. The Research Should you be on TRT? Testosterone and men's wellness clinics are riding a high right now. From the Hims commercials about libido, weight loss, hair loss and the like, to local shops leaving flyers on your car, to your buddy at the gym who swears by this clinic up the...
The Saturday Standard — Vol. 20 Saturday, September 19, 2026 As always, coffee first, fellas — and let's clear up some confusion on the amount of muscle you have being more important than the amount of muscle being used. The Research Muscle is a storage tank, but it is also metabolically active We usually think about muscle in terms of how much of it we have. More muscle, more strength, better metabolic health. Less muscle, worse in all the same categories. If something is going wrong, the...