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Souljah
01-07-2003, 09:47 AM
can anyone tell me what the effects of it are? and if not balanced can it make you too bulky => fatish?

Suntzu
01-07-2003, 10:04 AM
I only used it for like 2 weeks… I got more bloated than 'fatish'… I did have more energy… I did work harder(placebo effect or not) but as a result… I WAS SORE AS HELL… like no other time before… but it had more to do with the volume than perhaps the creatine... and i did 'pull' something in my leg... i wasn't major... i wasn't laid up in the bed or anything... i just didn't work my legs hard ( kicks, weights, etc.) for a week... i have a buddy thats into BB who uses it all the time and doesn't have a problem... so different strokes for different folks... i probably will use it again in the futrue... just as a 'jumpstart' of a training cycle but thats about it... i will just take it easy the next time...

Qi dup
01-07-2003, 10:19 AM
Creatine shouldn't make you fatty, but it can make you a little 'puffy'. I don't know all about it scientificly, but the reason for the puffyness to my understanding is that it recruits water to your muscles. That's a really basic explanation, but that's why it's important to drink a lot of water while you are on it. Creatine works by increasing the availability of phosphocreatine which allows for an accelerated rate of ATP synthesis. Creatine doesn't make you stronger right off the bat as far as 1RM, but it allows your muscles to do more work, so to speak. Everyone has certain amount of creatine in there muscles already. So basicly, by taking a creatine supliment, you just increasing that number. however, to my knowledge your muscles can only hold so much creatine. So it reallt doesn't take a lot of creatine to keep it at a high level. From what I understand loading really isn't necisary. Once you've been taking around five grams a day for a while your muscles will be pretty much filled up. at this point you really won't need to take more then 5 grams a day to keep the creatine at a high level in your muscles. I personaly take between 5-10 grams a day. The improtant thing is consistancy. you want to keep taking creatine to keep your level up, so you really don't want to start skipping days.


I remember reading somewhere that 20-30% of people see no affects from taking creatine. It has been said that people who eat a lot of red meat don't respond to it as much because they already get a lot from the meat. Im' not sure if this a still an up to date theory. Either way, it works wonders for some people, and doesn't do much if anything for others. Vegitarians report very good results, which could be a tributed to them not eating meat and thus, not really getting creatine in any other form. As far as cycling, I'm really not sure. A lot of people do, a lot of people don't. It has been stated by some that they start to lose the affects after a while and therefore cycle it. Some are also concerned that there bodies will stop producing it's own creatine. Someone else might have more info on that. Some people take it before the work out, some people take it after. I'm really not sure hom much it matters, if at all.

Ford Prefect
01-07-2003, 10:35 AM
Qi Dup summed it up rather well. Just to note: ATP is what muscles use for fuel. As he said, creatine phosphate is a key ingredient in ATP sythesis when existing stores of ATP have been exhausted, so this allows you to work harder and longer as well as recover quicker.

SevenStar
01-07-2003, 11:26 AM
Originally posted by Suntzu
I only used it for like 2 weeks… I got more bloated than 'fatish'… I did have more energy… I did work harder(placebo effect or not) but as a result… I WAS SORE AS HELL… like no other time before… but it had more to do with the volume than perhaps the creatine... and i did 'pull' something in my leg... i wasn't major... i wasn't laid up in the bed or anything... i just didn't work my legs hard ( kicks, weights, etc.) for a week... i have a buddy thats into BB who uses it all the time and doesn't have a problem... so different strokes for different folks... i probably will use it again in the futrue... just as a 'jumpstart' of a training cycle but thats about it... i will just take it easy the next time...

yeah, my guess would be that it was more volume related than creatine related.

Souljah
01-07-2003, 01:23 PM
so do you guys (ford, qi and seven) use it then?
and would you say it is effective?

TaoBoy
01-07-2003, 03:52 PM
I've been recommended a creatine stack supplement. It also contains HMB and Ribose (and some other stuff). It's supposed to be very good for pre and post training.

I previously used a straight creatine supplement that gave me some stomach pain - I have been told it was due to the fact that the product was low quality.

All interesting stuff.

Has any tried any creatine stack products rather than just creatine monohydrate?

Kempo Guy
01-07-2003, 06:24 PM
I've tried a couple of Creatine cycles in the past with great success, and never had the problems with cramping and dehydration that's often associated with Creatine use.

I will be going on another cycle using a new Creatine product (EAS Phosphagen XT) in a couple of weeks. In the past I've used GNC brand and EAS Phosphagen HP. I saw results with both, but felt I had better result with EAS' product (although more expensive).

I have also tried EAS' Betagen (which contains HMB, Creatine and Glutamine). I used this product after the loading phase and a 4 week cycle on Creatine with EAS Phosphagen HP as Betagen only contains a couple of grams of Creatine per serving, which is only good for maintenance. It actually worked quite well although I'd go with straight Creatine with a seperate Glutamine supplement as it's more cost efficient.

KG

TaoBoy
01-08-2003, 05:53 PM
Anyone know much about the mechanics of insulin spikes provided by these products?

The creatine stack I am trying uses dextrose to induce the spike. I want a little more info on all this stuff.

Thanks.