Hey I am considering starting using creatine. What is your experience with it? Did your weights move up significantly?
Thanks for any input.
It’ll help to some degree but it will not continually push up your lifts and mass .
If your nutrition is in check, Im sure it will help with strength gains. From my own experience and listening to the experiences of others, I stand at the opinion that creatine helps more with muscle mass and than strength. But none the less it can help.
I find it most useful when I up the volume of my routine. I feel it improves recovery and weightlifting stamina with higher volume routines.
Only use it when I need an extra ‘push’ in some of my workouts. And sometimes, I hardly feel the effects. Beta Alanine works better for me.
Awesome…I am a naturally skinny guy so additional muscle mass would not be a terrible thing to go along with heavier lifts.
I never found any significant difference when on creatine. I would use it if I was trying to fill out a weight class because it should help you hold a little more water weight.
[quote]pvoosen wrote:
I never found any significant difference when on creatine. I would use it if I was trying to fill out a weight class because it should help you hold a little more water weight.[/quote]
Me too. It really seems like some folks have very positive experiences with creating or none at all. I’ve personally never really noticed anything except my wallet getting lighter.
Do any of you guys cycle it or do you just cut the crap and take a daily dose?
Luke
Personally, I’ve have better luck with trib. Although, it can make me a smidge more irritable than usual, but that’s balanced out with having more energy and drive to “gitt’er done”.
[quote]CSEagles1694 wrote:
Do any of you guys cycle it or do you just cut the crap and take a daily dose?
Luke[/quote]
I’m pretty sure it’s been established that you can use it all year to no ill effects. I also got a little extra stamina out of it, but nothing else.
I only take it because it’s dirt cheap, I don’t really get anything noticeable out of it… it’s just another supplement.
Guys, it isn’t some dangerous drug. You don’t have to cycle it. Supplementing will increase intramuscular levels of phosphocreatine and may affect fluid retention within muscles. From a clinical perspective, it works, but it won’t be a magic bullet or anything.
[quote]BlackLabel wrote:
I only take it because it’s dirt cheap, I don’t really get anything noticeable out of it… it’s just another supplement.
[/quote]
No I get what you’re saying, I’ve heard of people cycling it so their body isn’t always used to it and it doesn’t really lose it’s effect. I think it’s probably a bunch of shit. But, who am I to judge?
Luke
Your body won’t get used to it or build a tolerance. Creatine synthesis occurs naturally. It is constructed from the amino acids glycine, arginine, and methionine. It is stored as phosphocreatine, which is a major substrate for anaerobic metabolism. You have creatine inside you at all times, even if you do not supplement with it. Supplementing just increases the amount you store. Cycling and loading are products of clever marketing targeting the uninformed.
There is some terrible information on here. Pretty much everyone should be taking creatine. Not just lifters but everyone on Earth.
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Yes, you should cycle creatine.
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It does not give you energy or stamina and taking it to get an “edge” in a single work out is fucking retarded.
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You can’t feel it working.
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Creatine is a product of ATP-PCR energy metabolism. You use this energy system when you do extremely intense work. Creatine can do 2 things once it has been seperated from its phosphate:
- Bind to a new phosphate to continue ATP-PCR cycling, assuming your efforts are intense enough.
- Signal the creatine shuttle to bypass aerobic metabolism, beta-oxidation and krebs cycle, to activate ETS during rest (all recovery, ATP regeneration, is done aerobically).<~~~ this has always facinated me why there are no studies on creatine as a means of accelerating fat loss… because it does if you train smart and if that is your goal.
With those in mind, all that matters is taking enough to keep your levels topped off. You should take more during a cycle where your workouts are more intense and when relative training volumes are highest. You should take less, because you don’t need it as much, earlier in your training plan… if you even have. A rule I follow:
Recovering from a meet: Basically no extra creatine other than whatever is in the meat I eat
Initial training cycles: 3-5g a day
Closer to a meet (final 3-4 weeks): 6-8g a day
Start over.
Its another tool in the tool box. If your diet sucks, none of this matters. If your training sucks, none of this matters. Just like every other training variable, its a part of a whole.
and to over simplify…just try it. it doesn’t have any side effects to speak of.
[quote]matsm21 wrote:
and to over simplify…just try it. it doesn’t have any side effects to speak of.[/quote]
It makes me grind my teeth.
STB
Why would you cycle creatine?
I just take 3-5 grams on normal days, 6-8 grams on days I don’t have red meat.
[quote]BigSkwatta wrote:
STB
Why would you cycle creatine?
I just take 3-5 grams on normal days, 6-8 grams on days I don’t have red meat. [/quote]
I am nowhere near the level STB is at and probably never will be but in all honesty, I seriously doubt it matters. For every study done on a type of diet, supplement, or how to take that supplement, there is another study contraindicating it. The only people I believe should worry about this is the elite. Again, Im not saying cycling is wrong but I wouldnt worry about it too much.