Creatine, Before Or After?

Do you take creatine before or after workouts?

after

every morning with my first drink so I remember

Keep it simple take it when youll take it IMO
Phill

after

Post workout.

[quote]fartmonkey64 wrote:
Do you take creatine before or after workouts?[/quote]

The testing has revealed postitive results only from post workout intake, but I do pre and post, why not cover all bases eh? it’s so cheap and they didn’t disprove the pre workout, it just hasn’t been proven in studies…yet.

         I generally take 5g pre and post, but post is the way if you want to know which way is best..

               now go stir some into a shake brah..(:

                  TBN

Post.

After.

[quote]Phill wrote:
every morning with my first drink so I remember

Keep it simple take it when youll take it IMO
Phill[/quote]

Bingo. I toss it in my pre-workout Surge because for whatever crazy reason I would always forget it post-workout.

And then with my first meal on off days.

During.

I throw it in with my Surge per Mike Roussell’s recommendation.

Before and after. Studies show to get it into the muscle you need to take it post workout. However there is another way with a insulin spike, you need 100 grams of fast digesting carbohydrate or even 50 grams carb and 50 grams protein ratio.

Basically take the creatine before the workout with plenty calories to spike insulin then after workout with or without.

There is also another way ala or alpha lipoic acid. Take 600mgs with your creatine dose and it will fill your muscles. Remember after as little as three days your muscles will be saturated with creatine and you cannot overload.

So you could just take 20-40 grams a day depending on your size three days a week. I prefer this method i cycle creatine normally only taking it at the beginning of the the week. Remember that without training theres little benefit to it so gear it round your training and see what works for you.

[quote]big balls wrote:
Before and after. Studies show to get it into the muscle you need to take it post workout. However there is another way with a insulin spike, you need 100 grams of fast digesting carbohydrate or even 50 grams carb and 50 grams protein ratio.
[/quote]

Granted, I don’t spend my time reading studies on creatine anymore, but I don’t think it’s that it has to be taken post-workout in order to be taken up by muscle cells. It’s just that most of the studies only looked at post-workout consumption.

I put it in my workout shake which I drink about a third of before training, sip another third while training and drink the rest when I’m done.

I throw it in the Surge bottle and drink it PWO. Easy and it works.

Alright, I’m still confused if no-one else is. Standard biology, tell us that it takes at least 20-30 min. for something taken in orally to digest and be absorbed by the intestines into the blood stream.

Would not then it make more sense to take it pre, rather than post?

Thought, and just a thought…

If the goal is to get bigger and stonger. Do we not then want to push more weight? Would not the absorbition of the creatine already in our system help more significantly pre, rather than post? An already well feed muscle.

Or, looking at through a nutrient support? Meaning the muscles are already deprived of all there nutrients after a workout. The creatine fills that nutrient void. Thus making the starved muscle feed and stronger? Sine it is in rest that the muscle gorws (side note for self).

I know this is very elementary in thinking. It is just I hear it go back and forth all the time. Does it really matter or is it personal preference.

I think the major benefit of creatine is what you have in your “reserves”. Not being what you just ingested, as a stimulant would be.

That being said, it makes sense to me to have it with a post-workout meal to optimize uptake. Remember that your shake is your “meat” from your “hunt” in the gym.