post workout confusion

Hi T-men. Any advice that can help resolve my post workout confusion would be much appreciated. Firstly, I have been using Surge each time after I work out, and am not sure how I can tell if it’s benefiting me. I know it doesn’t hurt, but I’m not sure if I should be seeing something or feeling something as a result of using it.
Secondly, I made the assumption that if I’m using Surge, I no longer need creatine after my workout. I now realize this is wrong, and just bought a tub of creatine to supplement with again. Two questions here…one, do I need a loading phase (some people are telling me, it’s been to shown to be unecesaary). Two, is it preferrable to use grape juice to mix the creatine with, (rather than apple juice for expample). Grape juice is way more expensive, and I’m on a tight budget.
Finally, what about after taking the Surge/creatine combo. Am I correct that a high carb/high GI food is appropriate? My concern is that I usually work out late at night (around 8:00 pm) Would taking in lots of carbs at that time be counter productive? Thanks for your continued help. Happy Holidays to y’all.

You don’t need to load creatine unless you need to gain weight quickly for some reason(weightclass for competition etc) Your muscles can only hold, I believe, 5 grams of creatine so Loading just loads them up quicker, which in my opinion is a waste of money. I used 5 grams a day for 2 weeks and then cut back to three grams a day. Reason being for the cut back is that it takes something like a week for your muscles to lose the supplemental creatine so you don;t need to replenish the entire muscle everyday. It is a waste of money.
I have never used surge before but I would think if it contains high GI carbs than just mixing the creatine in with your post wrokout surge would be adequate.
Just my 2 cents.
:slight_smile: groove

Groove is correct; there really is not much point in loading creatine. Once your cells are full, they aren’t getting any fuller. If you eat a diet relatively high in meat, then you will likely see little to no benefit from loading creatine again.

As far as when to take it; my suggestion would be to split your Surge into two shakes. One pre-workout, one post workout. If you're using 2 scoops of Surge post-workout, just do one before and one after. Add 3-5 grams of creatine to each of these. You'll have all of your bases covered that way.

Hope this helps.

Put your creatine in your Surge, just like T-mag has always recommended.