let me start off by saying that im new to weight lifting. im in the army and the focus there is primarily on endurance. lately though, i’ve been wanting to get bigger and maybe fill out my t-shirt a bit more.
i’ve heard i can accomplish this with creatine so i borrowed some from one of my nco’s earlier and went to the gym. i did notice a hell of a difference all around. if i didnt have other things to do i think i mighta spent half the day in the gym. i definitely felt more “pumped” (that’s what they call it, right?) and lactic acid seemed to take longer to hit.
the downside is that i also love to run and i sorta need to be able to run a two mile in a fairly decent time. i heard that creatine isn’t all that effective for cardio.
what i’m trying to find out is: does taking creatine regularly hurt your cardio only right after you take it, or is it a long-term ding?
if so, are there supplements that can help me get bigger gains without the use of creatine and won’t hurt my ability to run? (i read about a product cellucor makes “NO extreme” that does, but it got bad reviews)
I know you are new to this but you are worrying about to many small things.
1)Taking creatine will not hurt your cardio. Just stay fairly hydrated throughout and you’ll be fine. Creatine is only used to help recover the creatine phosphate energy system. It is a system that only last 10-30 seconds. Taking a creatine supplement will help the recovery rate of that system. Many sprinters take creatine because of the short times they run and makes them more explosive. Studies found that creatine levels were high in wild animals than captive ones’. Reason being wild animals have to chase their prey and work for their food. Having a good creatine phosphate energy pathway increases their ability to catch prey. From watching the National Geographic channel chases only last up to 30 seconds and never over minute. Captive animals just sit there and get food on a regular basis.
2)Getting bigger off creatine often referrs to water being pulled into your muscles. Creatine natually pulls water into the cell. I (can’t stress I enough) believe that water being pulled into the muscle cells is a “side-effect”. It is not the real reason for the use of it.
3)Creatine also increases your work capacity making you work harder increasing your gains. Taking it alone and not working out will not increase muscle mass etc.
Don’t even bother wasting your money on nitric oxide products. They are just filled with caffiene and other stimulants to make you think they are working.
Creatine will help the muscle fibers rebuild. The cells tear apart when running or working out. When I swam for miles I still consumed massive amounts of food and creatine and never noticed any negative effects. Work out and worry about gaining weight and not the adverse effects you heard about from your fat friends. Don’t worry about that!! Stay safe and work out hard.
As a side note, think about the guys who train for MMA. They lift weights and do massive amounts of cardio. Just worry about eating the calories.
Creatine is an extremely useful supplement and about as “proven” as they come. You can stick with a basic creatine monohydrate powder or get a supplement with creatine. I used to lift and play basketball almost daily while taking creatine and did not notice any problems. Just make sure that you stay hydrated. I have also read that creatine may reduce muscle damage during endurance exercise and thereby facilitate recovery.
[quote]Fuzzyapple wrote:
I know you are new to this but you are worrying about to many small things.
1)Taking creatine will not hurt your cardio. Just stay fairly hydrated throughout and you’ll be fine. Creatine is only used to help recover the creatine phosphate energy system. It is a system that only last 10-30 seconds. Taking a creatine supplement will help the recovery rate of that system. Many sprinters take creatine because of the short times they run and makes them more explosive. Studies found that creatine levels were high in wild animals than captive ones’. Reason being wild animals have to chase their prey and work for their food. Having a good creatine phosphate energy pathway increases their ability to catch prey. From watching the National Geographic channel chases only last up to 30 seconds and never over minute. Captive animals just sit there and get food on a regular basis.
2)Getting bigger off creatine often referrs to water being pulled into your muscles. Creatine natually pulls water into the cell. I (can’t stress I enough) believe that water being pulled into the muscle cells is a “side-effect”. It is not the real reason for the use of it.
3)Creatine also increases your work capacity making you work harder increasing your gains. Taking it alone and not working out will not increase muscle mass etc.
Don’t even bother wasting your money on nitric oxide products. They are just filled with caffiene and other stimulants to make you think they are working.[/quote]
[quote]Fuzzyapple wrote:
I know you are new to this but you are worrying about to many small things.
1)Taking creatine will not hurt your cardio. Just stay fairly hydrated throughout and you’ll be fine. Creatine is only used to help recover the creatine phosphate energy system. It is a system that only last 10-30 seconds. Taking a creatine supplement will help the recovery rate of that system. Many sprinters take creatine because of the short times they run and makes them more explosive. Studies found that creatine levels were high in wild animals than captive ones’. Reason being wild animals have to chase their prey and work for their food. Having a good creatine phosphate energy pathway increases their ability to catch prey. From watching the National Geographic channel chases only last up to 30 seconds and never over minute. Captive animals just sit there and get food on a regular basis.
2)Getting bigger off creatine often referrs to water being pulled into your muscles. Creatine natually pulls water into the cell. I (can’t stress I enough) believe that water being pulled into the muscle cells is a “side-effect”. It is not the real reason for the use of it.
3)Creatine also increases your work capacity making you work harder increasing your gains. Taking it alone and not working out will not increase muscle mass etc.
Don’t even bother wasting your money on nitric oxide products. They are just filled with caffiene and other stimulants to make you think they are working.[/quote]
How would more mass in the muscle cells not help one become stronger? Just being heavier and larger without muscle increase can get a person stronger. It has to do with leverages.
My ability to type the idea there was poor. My bad! Because your ability to work harder and longer, the creatine indirectly helps the muscle fiber. I will try once more.
Within muscle tissue, creatine is used to help create energy. Stored as phosphocreatine[PCR], it acts as a reserve for the quick high-energy needs of a muscle contraction. With better regeneration of ATP, this will occur and therefore allow the muscles to train harder before fatigue sets in. The failure to perform an additional rep in a set is caused either by a lack of ATP or a build-up of lactic acid. When improving the rate of ATP regeneration, glycolysis is postponed and lactic acid build-up is reduced. Creatine supplementation also hydrates the muscle cells. The ability to train harder allows bb’s to gain more mass, the ability to regenerate energy more efficiently positively affects performance.
[quote]Fuzzyapple wrote:
[quote]kneedragger79 wrote:
Creatine will help the muscle fibers rebuild.[/quote]
Creatine does not help in any shape or form to rebuild fibers.[/quote]
How would more mass in the muscle cells not help one become stronger? Just being heavier and larger without muscle increase can get a person stronger. It has to do with leverages.[/quote]
I really doubt if someone takes creatine to make their muscle cell increase in water mass yet never lift a weight become stronger.
if youre training with weights then just take the creatine (basic monohydrate) it will help you in the gym . no it dosn’t affect cardio or endurance . i train weights and in the summer bike ride hard climbs and long distances with no problems but as others have said you MUST stay very well hydrated and also when you start taking it regularly increase your water intake .
How would more mass in the muscle cells not help one become stronger? Just being heavier and larger without muscle increase can get a person stronger. It has to do with leverages.[/quote]
I really doubt if someone takes creatine to make their muscle cell increase in water mass yet never lift a weight become stronger.[/quote]
He probably didn’t mean that you become stronger per se. If in say, bench press, you lower the weight on your chest and you get bigger pecs because of water weight, you will have a shorter ROM, and therefore might be able to lift more.
Meat also has about 0,5 to 1 gram of creatine per pound. You should load on creatine for the first 1-2 weeks with 12-24 grams per day, then maintain with 2-5 grams. You should take creatine every day and post workout because exercise increases the receptiveness of creatine receptors by 50 %.
The dosage also depends on your muscle mass and how hard or much you train.
Then there’s people like me. I’ve tried creatine 3 different times. I have noticed ZERO difference. Literally none. I’m currently bulking from 187 to 230, and around 215 I started taking creatine again to see if my rate of strength increases would increase, or if I would gain weight any faster. Negative on both.
Kept gaining about the same each week, strength kept going up at about the same rate. I stopped taking it, and did not notice an iota of difference in my work capacity during workouts, energy, lift numbers, or reps I was capable of. The same thing happened the other 2 times I tried using creatine as well.
Also, Raw; loading is just a gimmick, there’s an article somewhere on here that explains it.
[quote]kraylus wrote:
let me start off by saying that im new to weight lifting. im in the army and the focus there is primarily on endurance. lately though, i’ve been wanting to get bigger and maybe fill out my t-shirt a bit more.
i’ve heard i can accomplish this with creatine so i borrowed some from one of my nco’s earlier and went to the gym. i did notice a hell of a difference all around. if i didnt have other things to do i think i mighta spent half the day in the gym. i definitely felt more “pumped” (that’s what they call it, right?) and lactic acid seemed to take longer to hit.
the downside is that i also love to run and i sorta need to be able to run a two mile in a fairly decent time. i heard that creatine isn’t all that effective for cardio.
what i’m trying to find out is: does taking creatine regularly hurt your cardio only right after you take it, or is it a long-term ding?
if so, are there supplements that can help me get bigger gains without the use of creatine and won’t hurt my ability to run? (i read about a product cellucor makes “NO extreme” that does, but it got bad reviews)
please advise!
thanks,
ryan[/quote]
The real issue here is getting bigger reduces your ability to run distance for time because you’re going to be trying to get oxygen to more muscle mass. At your present VO2 max with extra muscle mass, you’ll get tired quicker because the oxygen you now take in will be spread across more tissue that demands its use.
On the flip side, the more you run to increase your oxygen intake and utilization, the more calories you burn, which makes it harder to gain the mass. It can be done, but it will require a caloric increase that takes into account the addition of mass as well as the increase of sustained activity(running). Keep in mind also that the increase in body weight will place more stress on the ankles and knees as you run.
In short, you need to sit back and evaluate your job requirements vs. your physical goals. You probably won’t be Jay Cutler and run an elite 2 mile.
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
Then there’s people like me. I’ve tried creatine 3 different times. I have noticed ZERO difference. Literally none. I’m currently bulking from 187 to 230, and around 215 I started taking creatine again to see if my rate of strength increases would increase, or if I would gain weight any faster. Negative on both.
Kept gaining about the same each week, strength kept going up at about the same rate. I stopped taking it, and did not notice an iota of difference in my work capacity during workouts, energy, lift numbers, or reps I was capable of. The same thing happened the other 2 times I tried using creatine as well.
Also, Raw; loading is just a gimmick, there’s an article somewhere on here that explains it. [/quote]
then you might be a nonresponder.it is known that some people dont respond to creatine.
I read an article stating that a much more effective way to use creatine is to take it in a 3 days on 3 days off fashion.
"# Excessive loading (the traditional way) may cause creatine saturation outside the cell that prevents effective muscle uptake for weeks or even months! [4]
A small maintenance dose is futile at maintaining high muscle creatine concentrations. Using a small dose after loading ensures that high muscle creatine concentrations disappear within 6 weeks![5]"
"Creatine cycling stipulates the use of creatine for three days only. Then the athlete abstains from creatine use for three days before repeating the schedule. The daily dose of creatine will range from 15-25 grams/day depending upon the size of the individual. Bodybuilders that are 180 pounds or heavier are advised to use the higher end of this scale (20 to 25 grams per day). These doses are best taken in the following manner.
Perform Step 1 followed by Step 2 repeatedly to form a three days-on/three days-off cycling pattern throughout your 8 week
it is imperative to follow this three days-on/three days-off cycling strategy regardless of whether or not it is a training day"