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I weight train twice a week. I, on impulse, bought Creatine (about 8 weeks supply) and began to load up. The more I read and took it, the more I thought it was a bit of a con. I also noted that there absolutely NO long term studies proving it to be safe. All this "It's produced in your own body natrually anyway" argument saying it was safe didn't convince me, as my body produces all kinds of things that I don't want in my mouth!
Anyway, more and more people told me that all it did was add a bit of water to your muscles making them look bigger, and I was after functional strength. I took it for 3-4 weeks (and it was a pain in the rear end swallowing it every day) and then ditched the rest. I don't think it helped me one bit, but it is fair to say that I csn hardly claim to have fully tested it.
I also somehow felt as if I was cheating, and opine that it is not that far removed from steroid abuse.
Good training, good sleep and good food is better than anything out of a BodyBuilding shop.
It can help some people, but is no replacement for, as you said, lots of sleep, a good diet and good training.
The way it works is by aiding the process of muscle contraction by improving the process of the transforming ATP to ADP. All it means basically is that normally, you need roughly 3 minutes to completely replenish normal ATP amounts, but Creatine keeps phosphates available in the muscles, which means it can happen much quicker. The reason for this is that Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) loses a phosphate group, creating energy and causing the muscle to contract. Adenosine Diphosphate (ADP) is a product of this, and a ready supply of phosphate in the muscles allows ATP to be formed mroe quickly.
I know people who have used creatine and made gains in amounts of weight they can handle and the time needed between sets, but I have also known others who have had no significant improvements. Its your choice, as I said before, it helps but is no substitute for a good diet, lots of sleep and good training.
It's a good idea to drink as much water as you possibly can when taking creatine. Creatine is found in meat, more red meat than any others. So if you are eating a lot of red meat, the extra creatine in your system could turn out to be a waste of your time and money.
what you have to be aware of is that, the first 5 days you have to do a creatine start up. in my case that ment 10g 5 times a day. ( same as 1 table spoon 5 times a day). this went on for 5 days.
and the next forteen days i usen 10g 2 times a day.
the effect was better then expected. it made me increase in strenght by about 25-30%. i also went up to 85kg rom 79kg.
because of the exsra water in my muscles.
when i stopped using it i regained my normal weight 80kg.
and lost some of the strenght.
So when i have finnished my creatine program i had a 15-20% strenght increase.
most important is to read the manual for the product you buy.
the point of taking creatin suplement is that you can't eat that much meat to get the same dose of creatine, as you would by taking supplement.
it is the same as using protein supplement, protein is found in many various grossarys, but still you need to supplement with extra proteins if you do sirious strenght training.
why do we take extra carbs before and after an work out.
it all comes down to the same answer, you don't get enough by eating normal food, when you are training hard.
Creatine is one of those supplements that you need to personally try to see if it will work for you. Different people get different results. I used creatine for a while with no perceptible change in strength or in physical size, except maybe a smaller wallet. Doesn't mean it will not work for someone else, just not for me. Or at least the particular brand I tried did not work. Different brands, different quality levels. I would recommend a brand with a good reputation, like TwinLab, Weider or another with a good reputation.
Using a carb supplement before a workout is to keep your energy level up during your workout. The post-workout carb supplement is to help restore glycogen levels in the muscles, there is only a 30 to 90 minute window after a workout where the extra carbs are actually absorbed at a higher rate. After that, there really is no point for a carb supplement. I've noticed that a carb supplement after a workout keeps me from getting mentally fuzzy, able to keep thinking clearly (some would argue that I'm beyond any sort of help).
personally i don't like to use carb. suplement after work out, i think it is to hard to control how much carbs who is needed. As most people know, if you have to much glykogen it will turn in to fat. i rther eat a mel, wich is based om food with high carbs. like pasta or rise.
but i do sometimes thake carbs supplement before a hard workout.
As biker said its found in red meat so whats the point on spending good money on something expensive when eating rare red meat is much more benifical
PLUS
Red meat is natural Creatine isn't [/B]
I'm not so sure about your assertion about red meat. For one thing, half of the calories in red meat are from saturated fat. There's also a significant amount of cholesterol. How much cholesterol is requred by the human body? None.
What works in small doses isn't necessarily "natural."
Red meat has a fair amount of creatine in it naturally. However I would not recommend eating red meat, or any meat for that matter, rare. While not the best source of nutrition, red meat is not all that bad for you. Supplies your body with plenty of protein and iron. If it really were all that bad we'd need to set aside some state, maybe Kansas, for a huge cemetary.
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