Creatine

[brian11]

I have just started taking creatine and I have heard most people say to take it before lifting. However, i have recently been reading that it should be taken after lifting. The theory behind taking it afterward being that after the loading period you maintain a higher than natural level of creatine in your body. Therefore you don't need to take it prior to your workout for the prolonged endurance while lifting, but rather after you lift for aiding in recovery and drawing water into your muscles.

So anyway, before or after? what are you opinons?

Thanks
-B-

[nsa]

Before helps with reps during your workout, and after helps with the recovery of that muscle.

[Aboot]

As well, if you take it after working out, you can take a large amount of dextrose with it to spike your insulin levels and the sugar should be converted to glucose not fat.

[brian11]

Isn't that basically what Cell Tec is? 3rd generation creatine mixed with sugar to get it through you quicker or something. I heard Cell Tec wasn't very good though. Thanks for the info.

[DBarcelo]

Just keep in mind that creatine tends to dehydrate you, so if you take it before you work out, make sure you have enough water on hand to drink while you're working out. Like nsa said, taking it before you work out will help you get through another rep or two and after helps you to recover your creatine levels and it also draws water to the muscles. At one point, I was taking half before working out and half after working out.

[Aboot]

Isn't that basically what Cell Tec is? 3rd generation creatine mixed with sugar to get it through you quicker or something. I heard Cell Tec wasn't very good though. Thanks for the info.

Yes Cell-Tech does have dextrose and creatine. It's more expensive than other brands with pretty much the same ingredients. Try Champion, EAS or AST for their products, or you can simply get some creatine and dextrose and mix them together yourself.

[brian11]

Thanks D. I'll probably just take a little before and after because I dont really want to take much more than 5-7g a day. Do you cycle it, if so what does your cycle look like?

[eacman65]

5 g's afterwards is alll you really need

[brian11]

why only afterwards? you dont think its effective to take before the workout?

-B-

[iNvid]

I like your avatar brian

[DevilsDeity]

yeah she got nice socks on

[brian11]

the floor is cold the socks make her no less sexy

[Fame]

i take 5g in the morning w/ shake and 5g post workout (evening)

[brian11]

so it seems like the consensus then is that its not necessary to take it right before you workout. Interesting since ive been hearing since high school to take it then. Oh well

[bulldawg_28]

I've been taking it before my workouts and it seems to be giving me a little more energy.

[DBarcelo]

You don't have to cycle creatine. Just stick with the amount you're taking or plan on taking. Don't go over 10mg per day and you'll be good.

[nsa]

For me and most other people i know, creatine works best with a break every once in a while, i like 1 month on and 2 weeks off. After a while of taking it constantly you won't see any gains from it.

[Chemical King]

I currently take 2 x 1000mg of creatine capsules per day. I take 1 before workouts and 1 afterwards making sure I drink plenty water. On days taht I dont train I take them in the morning along with my other vitamins. But I also done a loading dose of 25 capsules per day for 4 days.

Hope this helped

[DBarcelo]

You don't notice any gains after staying on creatine for a while because of the fact that your body can only hold but so much creatine at one time. By maintaining your creatine at a maximum level, you get the maximum benefit all of the time.

For example, if you own a sports car, you need oil in the engine. The quality of the oil will have an effect on the engine's performance. You can either run the engine until the oil is completely broken down, and when you change the oil, you will notice a difference in performance, or you can keep fresh oil in the engine all the time. If you keep fresh oil in the engine all the time, you're not going to see any difference in the engine performance from one oil change to the next, but you know your engine is running at 100% all the time.

Pretty much the same thing when it comes to creatine. Just because you don't see an improvement in performance doesn't mean that it's not working.

[nsa]

Actually your body adapts to it. Like steroids, you could run test e for a year, but after the 4-5 month you will stop seeing gains. If you want to use creatine year round you need to up the dose to see gains, but i would not recommend this.

[DBarcelo]

You would keep gaining, it would just be at a slow, consistant pace, aposed to starting to gain and then stopping and then starting again.

Creatine is in your body if you take creatine suppliments or not, so your body doesn't adapt to it. The steroid comment isn't quite true either. If you bombard your body with testosterone year round, you will continue to see gains, they just wont be in leaps and bounds because you psychologically become used to the results. People cycle testosterone because your body can become no longer able to produce it's own testosterone after a few months.

The point about upping the ammount of creatine is true only to an extent. You can see better results if you up the amount of creatine ever so often, but your body can only hold but so much creatine at one time, so after a certain point, you'de be wasting your time and your money and risking your health.

[Chemical King]

So when comonig off creatine, is it a good idea to gradually reduce the dose and come off it at the same time as the steroids

[DBarcelo]

It doesn't matter how you come off of creatine. Creatine isn't created in your body, so you don't have to worry about causing any part of your body to stop producing it. As is the case with testosterone. You have to ingest all of the creatine that ends up in your body, so if you stop supplimenting it, it really doesn't matter to your body.