[hoops330]

I've done my research on the internet but I wanted some first hand accounts from the forum. We don't have a thread devoted entirely to creatine so I want to know everyone's take.
What has been your experience using creatine for working out. I am considering trying it and I want to know your routine w the supp, pros, cons, and any other pertinent information. Thanks in advance.

[AlbertoDelMuerto]

Creatine is really good, you won't be sore anymore, and you will have more energy,once you start taking 3g pre-workout and 3g post-workout. Also, you can try taking 3g in between workouts, but remember to drink plenty of water though.

[Hannibal]

I tried it for about a month and a half. The biggest thing I noticed was that I was thirsty as hell all the time and if I didn't drink at least a gallon of water a day, I'd piss lemonade.

The problem was that I was still a noobie in the gym at the time. I did notice my lifts jump up a bit quicker, but that was more than likely because I was detrained and the creatine seemed to give me more energy (could have been completely psychosomatic).

A lot of athletes I know swear by it, but I'd rather not use supplements for the same reason that I'd rather not use lifting straps, leg wraps, or a belt. That, and I'm broke as shit.

[LooTa]

overrated for mine. I did put on 2-3kg in about a week, but performance didn't noticeably improve. I also noticed I had a thirst that couldn't be quenched. I'm thinking it may be of benefit to squeeze an extra 1% out of elite athletes, but it's not going to do much for your average man.

[TheBulldozer]

I find Creatine excellent. Once it's in your system, I feel like you can do a set of an exercise to failure, and then all of a sudden there is this turbo boost at the end of the rep allowing you to get one more done.

I don't notice any additional hydration issues, and this is backed up by my daily scale saying I'm 59-61% water weight, which is just about normal for a person.

I drink between 120-150 oz. water/day.

[mikeymike]

the benefits are minor, you'll put on some water weight, I didn't notice anything for energy...for recovery and soreness I found glutamine a better product...all in all I don't think it's worth it but grab some cheap monohydrate give it a shot see what it does for ya, won't really hurt ya. If you have a sensitive stomach grab a kre alkalyne but don't expect anything major.

[Magic Bullets]

Probably the best supp for training naturally out there. One positive side affect is ease in sleeping, some pre-workouts can make it hard to sleep. It can also boost aerobic output. If you aren't notising significant strength gains you must be doing something wrong, must be taken in conjunction with good nutrition and intense training. Sure you will reach a level when the fast gains stop or just remain steady, once you have it in your system, you generally don't loose the gains you have made.

[AlbertoDelMuerto]

Also try taking Jack 3d and Glutamine.

[kosko]

It's the most reliant supplement out there I find but you got to get the good stuff as a majority of Creatine is complete crap.

I only use and trust the German sourced stuff called 'Creapure' it's sold under different brands and I have yet to find any Creatine that works better.

Good Creatine is grainy and tastes like paper on the way down. The fine powder shit is trash as I have yet to get any quality increases/gains from this type - my guess it's to overprocessed and dead. The grainy stuff can be hit or miss but the majority of brands I've tried were marginal but did work.

[LooTa]

How do you guys tell whether it is the creatine, or just natural progression that improves your performance? Some days you feel strong and tear it up and some you don't, regardless of whether you're supplementing or not.

[kosko]

(02-05-2013 03:17 AM)LooTa Wrote:  

How do you guys tell whether it is the creatine, or just natural progression that improves your performance? Some days you feel strong and tear it up and some you don't, regardless of whether you're supplementing or not.

You can feel the extra water in your muscles as they are more full and tight while your pumps in the gym are noticeably bigger.

[LooTa]

(02-05-2013 03:22 AM)kosko Wrote:  

(02-05-2013 03:17 AM)LooTa Wrote:  

How do you guys tell whether it is the creatine, or just natural progression that improves your performance? Some days you feel strong and tear it up and some you don't, regardless of whether you're supplementing or not.

You can feel the extra water in your muscles as they are more full and tight while your pumps in the gym are noticeably bigger.

yeah I definitely noticed the extra muscle volume, but in terms of assessing it's impact on your performance, it's harder to nail down. If you're loading your system with it over a week or so, and it takes ~ a month to fully leave your system after you stop taking it, there's going to be a lot of natural variations during that time.

[funkyzeit]

Watch out brah, you may overdose if you don't inject it properly. Also, I can provide you with real shit, this is my stash.

[Moma]

Creatine works. I took it years ago but you can take it with an insulin spike which works wonders. I knew some cats that would take it with water. I found that shyt so I would go and buy some apple juice from Asda and take it with the creatine.
Very noticeable differences both in looks as well as performance.
I always go for good quality as well don't go for the first cheap piece of shyt you see or it will jade your experience.

[Matt3B]

Took it for 4 weeks back in October. My piss was toxic yellow while I was on it but I was bursting out of some of my clothes. It made a difference but I started getting loads of spots and attributed to the creatine and how it fucks up your kidneys. I stopped using it and the spots stopped.

I've got a protein shake that has creatine in it but not its sole ingredient (hurricane evo from myprotein, chocolate mint tastes fucking great) and I'm enjoying using it. I've got caseine to tie in with it but my gym routine hasn't been regular enough since the turn of the year for me to add that to my supplement regime yet.

You'll make gains off creatine but when you stop using it, you'll notice a drop. Seemed kind of pointless to me unless you wanna do the 6 weeks on 6 weeks off thing. I know of bodybuilders who have won national competitions and have done all sorts of things like steroids, etc but have never touched creatine because of the harm it does to you.

[kosko]

(02-05-2013 08:23 AM)Moma Wrote:  

Creatine works. I took it years ago but you can take it with an insulin spike which works wonders. I knew some cats that would take it with water. I found that shyt so I would go and buy some apple juice from Asda and take it with the creatine.
Very noticeable differences both in looks as well as performance.
I always go for good quality as well don't go for the first cheap piece of shyt you see or it will jade your experience.

This is another good tip sugar/glucose/insulin helps a lot with absorption. Its easy to fell into the trap of just stuffing the stuff down first thing in the morning or putting into your protein (not enough sugars present) but Creatine needs some type of sugar to help your body suck it all up. I would add corn sugar/Glucose or Gatorade powder to my Protien shakes and then toss in a scoop of Creatine to make sure its all getting in.

MattC Wrote:

You'll make gains off creatine but when you stop using it, you'll notice a drop. Seemed kind of pointless to me unless you wanna do the 6 weeks on 6 weeks off thing. I know of bodybuilders who have won national competitions and have done all sorts of things like steroids, etc but have never touched creatine because of the harm it does to you.

In regards to harm I think there is enough stuff out there that de-bunks that and I think many people fall into traps because they just don;t get enough water. Its hard on your system I won't deny that but if your barley getting a glass of water a day Creatine will be an issue with a lot of others things too.

The brand I use is Allmax:



It's a Creapure style Creatine and it has never failed me in the 6 years off and on I have been taking it. Allmax gets extra points for having a see through container so you can see the quality of the the product and its priced reasonable also, their are cheaper Creapure types out there but they are hard to track down I find. I have bought other brands but nothing comes close and to me nothing is more frustrating then going to GNC and have some meathead talk a bunch of shit on a Creatine and crack it open to find that dead pixe dust I was talking about earlier. If I can't find Allmax I will sometimes get brazzen enough to demand they crack open a small container at the store to let me see the product If I amd feeling like I don't trust the stores attendants knowledge on the subject/product. Unless the staff can admit/acknowledge Creapure is elite then he is talking shit and is selling me Snake Oil. That is a a top for any newbies looking into it, if he can't look you in the eye and tell lou Creapure is superior... walk out.

[Ziltoid]

(02-05-2013 05:05 AM)funkyzeit Wrote:  

Hahaha! Goddamn, that's priceless.
Scooby and his cult are so annoying.


Creatine is the single most effective weightlifting supplement that you could spend money on. It's had tons and tons of studies done on it for decades, and the results are quite clear. It's effective, dirt cheap, and prettymuch 100% side effect free.
Like the above poster said, find yourself some creatine that lists Creapure as the manufacturer and get to it. Just dissolve one scoop a day in a hot liquid... Coffee, water, tea, soup, anything. Honestly doesn't really matter what time of the day you take it.

You don't need to load it (but you can if you want), you don't need to deload it, you don't need to drink tons of water a day when you're taking it, you won't have bloating (besides intracellular muscle water retention, which is good for a number of reasons), and if you take it properly you won't have digestive issues of any sort.

I definitely noticed creatine improving my rep range and recovery time.

If you want to know everything there is to know about creatine, this is recommended reading
http://www.creatine-report.com

[Cr33pin]

(02-05-2013 01:46 AM)AlbertoDelMuerto Wrote:  

Also try taking Jack 3d and Glutamine.

Im pretty sure Jack3d is BANNED IN THE USA live 2 Live Crew

[FitAsFuck]

Just know that some people, who naturally has high concentration of creatine in the body, will not benefit from extra supplementation. But as stated by almost everybody else, try it and see if you feel any difference.

[TheBulldozer]

(02-05-2013 12:50 PM)kosko Wrote:  

(02-05-2013 08:23 AM)Moma Wrote:  

Creatine works. I took it years ago but you can take it with an insulin spike which works wonders. I knew some cats that would take it with water. I found that shyt so I would go and buy some apple juice from Asda and take it with the creatine.
Very noticeable differences both in looks as well as performance.
I always go for good quality as well don't go for the first cheap piece of shyt you see or it will jade your experience.

This is another good tip sugar/glucose/insulin helps a lot with absorption. Its easy to fell into the trap of just stuffing the stuff down first thing in the morning or putting into your protein (not enough sugars present) but Creatine needs some type of sugar to help your body suck it all up. I would add corn sugar/Glucose or Gatorade powder to my Protien shakes and then toss in a scoop of Creatine to make sure its all getting in.

MattC Wrote:

You'll make gains off creatine but when you stop using it, you'll notice a drop. Seemed kind of pointless to me unless you wanna do the 6 weeks on 6 weeks off thing. I know of bodybuilders who have won national competitions and have done all sorts of things like steroids, etc but have never touched creatine because of the harm it does to you.

In regards to harm I think there is enough stuff out there that de-bunks that and I think many people fall into traps because they just don;t get enough water. Its hard on your system I won't deny that but if your barley getting a glass of water a day Creatine will be an issue with a lot of others things too.

The brand I use is Allmax:



It's a Creapure style Creatine and it has never failed me in the 6 years off and on I have been taking it. Allmax gets extra points for having a see through container so you can see the quality of the the product and its priced reasonable also, their are cheaper Creapure types out there but they are hard to track down I find. I have bought other brands but nothing comes close and to me nothing is more frustrating then going to GNC and have some meathead talk a bunch of shit on a Creatine and crack it open to find that dead pixe dust I was talking about earlier. If I can't find Allmax I will sometimes get brazzen enough to demand they crack open a small container at the store to let me see the product If I amd feeling like I don't trust the stores attendants knowledge on the subject/product. Unless the staff can admit/acknowledge Creapure is elite then he is talking shit and is selling me Snake Oil. That is a a top for any newbies looking into it, if he can't look you in the eye and tell lou Creapure is superior... walk out.

I use All Max as well. From what I know, it is THE highest quality creatine you can find. Nice to see you've backed me up on that Kosko. I take about 5g post workout in a shake. My shake is mixed with about 20 g dextrose as well to maximize absorption.

Since I've gotten back into heavy lifting with creatine, my numbers have gone way up. My father asked me if I was on steroids the other day.

[mikeymike]

(02-05-2013 12:59 PM)Ziltoid Wrote:  

(02-05-2013 05:05 AM)funkyzeit Wrote:  

Hahaha! Goddamn, that's priceless.
Scooby and his cult are so annoying.


Creatine is the single most effective weightlifting supplement that you could spend money on.

yeah I don't think so...there are at least a half dozen pro hormones that blow it outta the water...glutamine, bcaas and eaas are equally important to more important than creatine to lifters results and wellbeing...one could argue that a good protein powder will yield better results...it may be in the upper echelon of supplements in that it actually does something vs nothing like most supps but depending on your goal there is better ways to spend your money.

[Magic Bullets]

When it first came out it was consumed like water by professional rugby union, league and afl players. It still is used as a staple for many athletes.

[Moma]

kosko, how long do you cycle creatine for? Edit what I said for insulin spike, I specifically used white grape juice OR cranberry juice for my insulin spike. This was back in the day before the quality was maybe as high as it is now.

A friend of mine told me that he felt his dyck was failing using Creatine. Is that placebo or is there any real to that? What about for those with diabetic tendencies? Should they watch Creatine for that?

How do you maintain the gains? I remember being on Creatine and just doing reps at my friend's place in Tooting while we played footie on the playstation for fun. I wasn't even on my training day but I was just repping out for fun.

When I was on Creatine, I also had some guys questioning whether I was on the juice.

[Ziltoid]

(02-06-2013 12:45 AM)mikeymike Wrote:  

yeah I don't think so...there are at least a half dozen pro hormones that blow it outta the water...glutamine, bcaas and eaas are equally important to more important than creatine to lifters results and wellbeing...one could argue that a good protein powder will yield better results...it may be in the upper echelon of supplements in that it actually does something vs nothing like most supps but depending on your goal there is better ways to spend your money.

Prohormones aren't supplements, they're drugs...

Glutamine is a good general health and wellness supplements but the evidence doesn't hold up well for it directly aiding lean body mass gain. BCAAs are a big waste of money, IMO... Supplemental BCAA's are pretty damn pricey, and if you're already eating a decent diet (among others, whey protein happens to contain a lot of branched chain amino acids) then you're getting plenty as it is. The only real compelling use for supplemental BCAA's would be, I think, a cutting cycle where you're severely restricting your calories.

Whey protein powder is definitely good stuff for post workout purposes, but it's a bit pricey to just be gulping down all day long. It's beneficial, but it's not a game changer... You won't start exploding with muscle or breaking strength plateaus from the introduction of whey into your routine.

For strength and LBM, creatine is a game changer.

[mikeymike]

(02-06-2013 07:24 PM)Ziltoid Wrote:  

(02-06-2013 12:45 AM)mikeymike Wrote:  

yeah I don't think so...there are at least a half dozen pro hormones that blow it outta the water...glutamine, bcaas and eaas are equally important to more important than creatine to lifters results and wellbeing...one could argue that a good protein powder will yield better results...it may be in the upper echelon of supplements in that it actually does something vs nothing like most supps but depending on your goal there is better ways to spend your money.

Prohormones aren't supplements, they're drugs...

Glutamine is a good general health and wellness supplements but the evidence doesn't hold up well for it directly aiding lean body mass gain. BCAAs are a big waste of money, IMO... Supplemental BCAA's are pretty damn pricey, and if you're already eating a decent diet (among others, whey protein happens to contain a lot of branched chain amino acids) then you're getting plenty as it is. The only real compelling use for supplemental BCAA's would be, I think, a cutting cycle where you're severely restricting your calories.

Whey protein powder is definitely good stuff for post workout purposes, but it's a bit pricey to just be gulping down all day long. It's beneficial, but it's not a game changer... You won't start exploding with muscle or breaking strength plateaus from the introduction of whey into your routine.

For strength and LBM, creatine is a game changer.

prohormones are legal, and they're classified as supplements...what you choose to think of them as, is your choice. Creatine is banned in certain countries as a performance enhancer...it's all labels...if you want to label them as drugs so your creatine argument holds more water, so be it but if anyone wants to compare what creatine does against say epistane for example... take them both alone then tell me which one generates better results...

I didn't say glutamine was a lean body mass gainer tho in theory the relase of hgh should help with body fat loss and lean tissue gain...the argument was for a lifter that creatine was the best supplement...I'm saying a lifters body better utilizes glutamine than creatine and recovery is a bigger plus than is lifting 20 pounds heavier...in terms of health and general effectiveness for bb'ers there is a bigger ROI with glutamine.

Again, the argument is what is the better buy for bb'ers, bcaas have a specific role to play and it plays it well. Creatine is cheaper but I find the bcaas a necessary tool when in calorie deficit, I don't find a time that I NEED creatine. I'm willing to concede this one might be personal preference.

Protein powder has uses outside of post workout. It is pricier than creatine but it is strict nutrients your body can build off of. As for not being a game changer I'd disagree...if you're the rare person who gets in enough protein from food then you're set but I'm taking in excess of 350 grams of protein (everybody feel free to save the broscience your body can only absorb so much protein talk) when you're taking in mega doses it's a life saver and you'll need to tell a lot of pros and guys going for their pro cards, guys some of whom I'm training with, others I know well, that protein isn't helping them in their gains. You won't explode with muscle without the right nutrition, you aren't exploding on creatine period without it either, protein powders can be part of that mix...long run if you supplement with protein or creatine which is gonna yield better results? Over a 10 yr span, consistent protein, consistent creatine...

I don't want to mock anybody but the my bros thought I was on juice when I was on creatine, is silly, if they knew gear at all they'd know better...I've played high level sports my entire life, train with athletes and competitors now...nobody made significant strides off creatine consistently, a few pound blows up here and there, a bump up in lifts here and there but nothing that continues significantly with use...the only people that are making strides are people who would've made strides naturally. When you're in very good shape creatine isn't doing anything major for you...bcaas will aid against catabolism, glutamines ability to aid recovery alone is beneficial to every athlete, protein is the building block of muscle....and if you want lean tissue...call them whatever you want but a pro hormone is going to pack on lean slabs of muscle while creatine is going to fill you with water and you'll lift a bit heavier cause you're heavier.
I sound extremely negative on creatine, I'm not as much I sound...but there are very few supplements that are good and this one gets so much hype when the reality is far from the truth. It's a solid supplement, it does something but it's not the best supplement you can invest in...In truth, along side some aas or even insulin (not juice spikes, good ole fashioned diabetic insulin), creatine can be quite effective as there is some very good synergy between certain combos...just in the current supplement mold it is very limited.