creatine length

[Iron horse]

Ive heard if u take creatine to long... it can shutup your own naturaly production of it.. is this true??

whats the longest i can take creatine in anyone's opinion?

[GenuinePL]

Yes it's true and also your gains will get smaller from it.

Creatine should be cycled either 2 months on - 2 moths off or 3 moths on and 3 off.

[bronzebeefcake]

deffinately cycle the creatine...9 on and four off....(1 week load)i find much better results that way...

[GenuinePL]

Don't even bother loading the creatine.

Take it 2 moths on 2 off
15g/day

[Iron horse]

thanks guys! good replies.

[Aguro]

15 g a day? it says on the bottle 5 g a day.. Just wanna make sure

[GenuinePL]

Forget what says on the bottle.
Everything works the same way.
They say take Deca100, you take 400
They say Creatine 5g, you take 15 for best results.

[gymnut4u]

iron horse , taken from med text , hope it helps !


Terjung headed a panel of the experts, assembled by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), that reviewed more than 120 scientific papers on creatine. Their findings were published in the March issue of the ACSM journal, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Creatine, a dietary element found in abundance in meat and fish, is available in supplement form but is not FDA-approved. Research indicates that creatine supplements can increase muscle phosphocreatine content, which is absorbed by muscle cells and becomes an energy reserve.

However, says Terjung, the body only benefits from that source of energy during short-spurt exercise. "What's been found is: Yes, creatine supplements can increase the phosphocreatine concentration (high-energy molecules) in muscle in most, but not all, individuals," he says. "It creates an energy reserve that is important in transitions from rest to exercise -- especially very intense, explosive exercise."

One example he gives is a 200 m dash, repeated three, four, or more times, with only seconds of rest in between each run. "Even then, you don't really see the effect until the third or fourth series of that very explosive exercise. Those are not typical of most athletic events, or certainly in the case of [the] amateur athlete or weekend athlete," he says.

While creatine has been credited with building muscle mass, that's not quite realistic, says Terjung. Creatine causes water retention in muscles, which usually occurs within the second or third day after an athlete starts taking the supplement. "There's 1.5 or 2 kilos of water weight. … A person appears to be a little bulked up, but that is not the same as the real accrual of body mass that comes through training," says Terjung.

In fact, the mere "bulking look" may be what's motivating athletes to work out harder. "They look like performers, so they feel like performers," Terjung says. "They pushed themselves to train a little harder, which made them build real strength. It's conceivable there might have been a placebo effect."

But, according to Terjung, most people should be taking far less creatine than they do. "Some early research gave 20 grams per day and showed increase in total creatine in muscle, so it's been commonly thought that you need that high quantity per day," he says. "But more recent research has shown that 3 grams per day will lead to the same increase in muscle creatine. It just takes longer -- several weeks instead of 3-7 days."

Elderly people may benefit from creatine, too, but it's a less dramatic response, says Terjung. "The biggest effect is seen in young, 20-year-olds with large muscle mass," he says.

To avoid cramping and other gastrointestinal side effects, athletes should not take creatine supplements immediately before exercise, especially before intense exercise or in demanding environmental conditions, like high humidity or heat.

Also, anyone under 16 shouldn't take creatine supplements because there is a dearth of information about use in that age group. "We don't know the effects, so it's better to be safe than sorry," says Terjung. While creatine supplements seem to be safe in healthy adults, those with renal disease should not take the supplement because excess creatine can overload kidneys.

amateur athletes should be encouraged to recognize those qualities that have always been honored and productive in the athletic arena, where one trains to the utmost and is involved in a sport and training needed for the sport, to become the best they can become," he says. "That results in a higher quality of achievement."

Calling the study extremely helpful, Kevin Yarasheski, PhD, associate professor of medicine in endocrinology/metabolism at St. Louis' Washington University,"There are a lot of misconceptions, a lot of myths about creatine. They've dispelled a lot of those myths and have been careful about what they have said about it. There might be some cases -- elderly people, cases of wasting muscles -- where creatine might be useful as a supplement. They did a very thorough, clear, fair evaluation of state of the art."

[Terinox]

Good article.