The PWO shake I use contains 3g of creatine, which seems like a pretty pointless amount without supplementing it with pure creatine at other times of the day. I lift three times a week, so I am thinking three hits of 3g a week is doing nothing. What is the best way to build additional creatine around it? Should I just ignore the 3g in the PWO and just use creatine as suggested elsewhere on this site?
take 3g before and after training, and then another 3g on your off days. Creatine is so cheap there’s no reason not take more, and excess isn’t harmful to your body.
3-5g/day is sufficient. Just take in on your off days as well if you want
If it is a Mono-hydrate then i always found that for strength (and the little size it gives) that after loading 10g a day was needed.
The dose you have just after training WILL assist recovery though… just wont be increasing cell volume or contractile strength AFAIK.
Some might condemn this as old-school but when you cycle creatine it’s 0.3 grams per kg of bodyweight for one week and 5-7 weeks of 0.03 grams, so I would indeed take in extra creatine.
On a side note, it really pisses me off when supplement companies use the shotgun approach and fix up some Pot-Pourri “hey, 2grams of creatine- put it in! 1 gram of taurine- sure! 2 grams of horse nipple meat- always room for more!” When I’m not using creatine as a cycle (I’ve done it like 3 times in 4 years- not a fan) I don’t want it in my shit, dammit!
Plus i would much prefer to load and cycle at the correct (albeit old school) dosage, than to just use 2-3g indefinitely - or every time i used their product too!
I fucking agree! 
After reading that big article on Creatine i’m settling for 3g a day, at the end of the day I see it as me having bigger problems and what i took from that article was that would definitely “do” if not being absolutely perfect… maybe further down the line i will experiment but its hardly an exact science when looking at “your gains from creatine”
Cheers for the replies. It sounds like 3g creatine isn’t as pitiful as i thought at first. The Supplementation for Newbies article suggests 5g before and post workout, as well as 5g morning and night.
Anyway, I’ll add 3g pre-workout and 5g on off days. Seeing as I am already getting the 3g a day from the PWO shake (which incidentally I think is a great product, so I won’t be changing it!) do I need a loading phase?