Fitness Question - Subject: Creatine

RiseAboveRuin · 2015-05-20T21:13:37+00:00

Personal Trainer here,

You have 3 energy pathways; Your ATP-CP (creatine phosphate) energy pathway, your ATP-ADP-AMP (anaerobic glycolysis / glycogen) energy pathway and your electron transport chain (aerobic glycolysis) energy pathway.

Your muscles naturally have creatine in them. When you lift close to 100% max effort your body needs to create a lot of ATP in a short amount of time. The bonds released by breaking the creatine off of the phosphate molecule release enough energy to re-attach a phosphate molecule back onto an Adinosine Diphosphate molecule creating another Adinosine triposphate molecule ready to create muscle action.

The ATP-CP system creates the most ATP in the shortest amount of time but the thing is this ATP-CP system gets exhausted within about 5-12 seconds before your body reverts to anaerobic glycolysis which is where it begins using muscle glycogen to re-create ATP.

By creatine loading, your opening the window up from what might be 5 seconds up to around 10-15 seconds (estimation), so that you can lift closer to max effort lifts for longer durations.

Edit: I got cut off because I had a client, sorry. To answer OP's question: there's no special way to creatine load. There are many ways. What I do is generally take 2 10 gram doses for 3-5 days before backing off to 5 gram doses once a day. The body generally uses about 2.5 grams a day so just simply taking 5 gram doses a day would work it will just take longer before you become fully loaded and see the full benefits. Whenever I miss a day or two of dosing I usually repeat my regular loading protocol. Tasteless creatine monohydrate is so cheap, about 20$ for a 6 month supply, that it doesn't bother me when I re-load often and it keeps my lifts ups.

Creatine is the most researched supplement out on the market and perhaps the most beneficial next to nitric oxide supplements for building strength and size. Don't buy the expensive shit its a huge waste of money. Tasteless creatine monohydrate is all you need. All the other versions in the end do the same exact thing, they simply boast different transport methods which they 'claim' is superior. 40$ for a 30 day supply superior? I don't think so. Stick to the 20$ 180 day supply products. You'll be happy with your results.

tepper2 · 2015-05-20T19:29:12+00:00

A lot of people here lift, but this question is better suited to /r/fitness or /r/bodybuilding.

rlh1271 · 2015-05-20T21:13:55+00:00

I snort mine off the toilet seats at work for maximum gains.

London-Bananas · 2015-05-20T18:59:31+00:00

I did use it for a time, just 5g a day no loading or crap like that.

However, I stopped using it because there were some reports about hair loss. Honestly it just wasn't worth the risk for me, however small the risk on hair loss.

throw_em_all · 2015-05-20T20:19:32+00:00

Take 5g every day with water, after one to two weeks you may or may not notice a difference.

Creatine is not a hard supplement, neither it makes a huge difference on performance, there's no need to complicate yourself with unnecessary "cycles" or "load phases". You dont need to measure exactly 5g either, fyi.

bertmaklinFBI · 2015-05-20T21:30:08+00:00

It should be dosed by weight. More muscle means more creatine needed to saturate the muscle.

Edit: Personal experience. It's awesome. It is one of the very few supplements proven to work (and has health benefits), and its cheap. Anyone lifting weights should be taking it.

2uE1LiftBro · 2015-05-20T21:41:55+00:00

Excess creatine will either be used for something excess you do or will be excreted and wasted. So if you have money to buy enough and waste a bit, do it like I did. Load up the first bottle for 1 month. I used to dissolve creatine in hot tea and drink, about 20g per day, 5 g per cup of tea, 4 cups a day. I continued this for 1 month. Then the first bottle was done.

From second bottle on, I maintain-load. Some people say you only need to take 5g in maintenance phase but I have found that if I take 10 g or slightly more, I feel much better than just 5g. I feel a sudden increase in mood, energy, tirelessness and sleeplessness (like caffeine but better) when I have my creatine tea. So I tend to have about 3 cups of creatine hot tea everyday in maintenance phase.

Also I think, your body will not absorb all the creatine you give it at a time, like it will accept maybe 2g from a 5g shot. So if the objective is to provide creatine in optimum amounts, do it through out the day. This makes sense on why I felt better when I used more creatine in maintenance throughout the day

If the water or tea is not hot, creatine will precipitate back into powder or won't even dissolve. This will cause you stomach upset. So make sure you use warm to hot to dissolve your creatine.

This works for me, I really do not care what the pros are doing.

Tiway22 · 2015-05-20T22:04:33+00:00

Creatine is not 100% safe... And as someone who is big into lifting and who has used it in the past - I noticed no discernible difference with or without it. I wouldn't risk possible health side effects.

Just lift natural. Coffee or a caffeine pill for a pre-workout is ALL YOU NEED.

NotQuiteRedPill · 2015-05-20T22:43:42+00:00

I used creatine a lot in my early 20s. Did nothing.

prodigy2throw · 2015-05-21T01:51:10+00:00

Used it for a few months. Noticed hair thinning. Stopped using it and my hair is improving. Could be a big ass coincidence but maybe do some research. I think there was an article by. Exammine.com or something

RPthrowaway123 · 2015-05-20T20:32:43+00:00

Creatine helps your body to absorb protein. I have never used it separately, I have a supplement powder that has creatine and other stuff all in one. I find it works very well.

/r/fitness would be a good resource for more information. I'm no guru, I just know what works for me.

MeatCurtainRod · 2015-05-20T19:32:19+00:00

Creatine is basically concentrated sugar - at least to your body it is. I tried it for a bit when I was in college, and have since come to the conclusion that it is a complete waste of money. You are much better off eating right.

Title	Fitness Question - Subject: Creatine
Author	ValarMorghulis90
Upvotes	6
Comments	21
Date	May 20, 2015 6:43 PM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/36npw2/fitness_question_subject_creatine/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/fitness-question-subject-creatine.149173 https://theredarchive.com/post/149173

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