Tennis Technology Tuesday
If you have ever seen a dude carrying a jar of pickles around at a tennis tournament and wondered what that was all about, there is a two word explanation: Muscle Cramps. Pickle juice is widely regarded as a magical cure for muscle cramping within tennis circles for a very simple reason. It works.
Muscle cramps are believed to be caused by some combination of muscle fatigue, dehydration, and loss of electrolytes. While it is always best to prevent cramping through proper training and careful management of fluid and electrolyte intake during training and competition, almost all tennis players will experience cramping at some point. To those that proudly proclaim that they have never cramped, I would counter the assertion that it is more likely that they have not cramped… yet.
Tennis players swear by a lot of theories and ideas when it comes to nutrition and hydration, not all of which are exactly supported by a strong scientific basis. This is NOT the case with pickle juice, which has been tested and verified to work in lab settings. A link to abstracts from a couple of such studies are included in the references below.
While the researchers who performed the studies are held in very high regard, the TRUE HEROES are the test subjects that voluntarily allowed muscle cramps to be induced induced so that the effectiveness of pickle juice could be evaluated. Moreover, these valiant people endured the induced cramping more than once in the interest of science. On a personal note, muscle cramping is so unpleasant to me that I would not cheerfully submit to having one induced, regardless of the noble cause. I am forever grateful for the test subjects in these studies.
Possible reasons as to why the pickle juice is actually effective has also been studied. The current working theory is that pickle juice stimulates a “neurally mediated reflex that originates in the oropharyngeal region” alleviating the cramp. Right…. so translated, that choking feeling in the back of the throat when pickle juice is consumed causes a neural reflex that cancels out the cramp. This makes sense, because the cramp is a neural reflex to start with. It is kind of like the subconscious brain is redeploying the neurological impulses from the cramp reflex to the choking reflex induced by the pickle juice.
Many tennis players, including the Fiend at Court Spousal Unit, consume pickle juice prior to competition as a preventative measure. Unfortunately, studies performed show that pickle juice has negligible impact on electrolyte levels in the blood within the time frame when the cramp is alleviated. In other words, consumption of pickle juice as a preventative measure is not scientifically supported. It is better to prevent cramps through proper training and management of hydration.
It should also be emphasized that using pickle juice to alleviate a cramp is kind of like pressing the reset button on a GFCI outlet that has tripped because an appliance connected to it is pulling too much current. The cramp is a sign that there is potentially a much bigger issue to be addressed within the body. Pickle juice masks the problem. It is not a permanent solution.
If you are playing tennis in competitive situations, you probably want to carry some form of pickle juice on the court with you. It can be the difference between clocking the win or commiserating over beer and tacos that you would have won if not for the cramping. I have a definite preference in that regard.
Editorial Note: I previously ran this article on bleepingtennis.com on October 2, 2018.
Referenced Sources
- “Reflex inhibition of electrically induced muscle cramps in hypohydrated humans”, Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010 May;42(5):953-61, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19997012
- “Gastric emptying after pickle-juice ingestion in rested, euhydrated humans”, J Athl Train. 2010 Nov-Dec;45(6):601-8, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21062184
I’ve always been a big fan of pickle juice for cramps (and the taste). Companies have tried to legitimize it as a sports drink. I can usually find this brand at HEB: https://picklepower.com/
I am partial to Bob’s Pickle Pops, which are generally available at Walmart. I am officially “all-in” on pickle flavored beer, but have never actually managed to find it in stock to try it.