The conventional line of thinking I have found states that one should drop creatine 4-6 weeks out from game day as it promotes water retention.
Lately I’ve been coming across the occasional article talking about creatine cycling when gearing up for competition. The gist is that one drops it about 4-6 weeks out and restarts 7-10 days out. The intent is fill the muscles (given the water retention) similar to carb loading.
I’m 10 weeks out from a competition and am curious about the concept. I don’t make major changes to my programs on a whim but this sounds interesting. I’m wondering if anyone has come across any articles/info on this, not “I know a dude, who worked with a dude, who’s mom dated a dude that guarantees this is The Shit”
i’ve actually been wondering about this myself the past few days. i’ve always read in the past that dropping creatine a few weeks before the show is beneficial, but then (if i’m not mistaken here - someone please feel free and correct me if i’m confusing something) Layne Norton recently recommended in an article in MD about peak-week that you should not manipulate sodium or creatine intake.
i believe the premise was that when your body is used to dealing w/ a given level of these items, it keeps itself in a level of stasis and that messing around w/ them will actually have a negative effect. i did a show last spring and stopped using any creatine at all a few weeks out and did not do any kind of loading - i came in very conditioned (well, upper body was at least - i decided to be a moron and run on a treadmill all week which caused my legs to swell and hold water and look terrible, so we’ll set that aside for a moment). it seemed like too much of a gamble to me to load creatine before the show just because i knew too little about it, but i’d be interested to know more on the subject for this spring.
[quote]agent37 wrote:
i’ve actually been wondering about this myself the past few days. i’ve always read in the past that dropping creatine a few weeks before the show is beneficial, but then (if i’m not mistaken here - someone please feel free and correct me if i’m confusing something) Layne Norton recently recommended in an article in MD about peak-week that you should not manipulate sodium or creatine intake.
i believe the premise was that when your body is used to dealing w/ a given level of these items, it keeps itself in a level of stasis and that messing around w/ them will actually have a negative effect. i did a show last spring and stopped using any creatine at all a few weeks out and did not do any kind of loading - i came in very conditioned (well, upper body was at least - i decided to be a moron and run on a treadmill all week which caused my legs to swell and hold water and look terrible, so we’ll set that aside for a moment). it seemed like too much of a gamble to me to load creatine before the show just because i knew too little about it, but i’d be interested to know more on the subject for this spring.[/quote]
Yeah I was also wondering the other day about creatine use during a contest prep. Anyway, I read an article on contest prep - by Layne - just a few days ago, where he outlines basic sodium manipulation.
I’d be interested to hear his reasons for no longer advising it, perhaps too risky?
i tried pretty much that exact approach last year and it seemed to work well (i.e. i didn’t look like i had much subcutaneous water), but then, i have to wonder if it made any difference at all. like, would i have looked the same had i not bothered loading/flushing the sodium? i’ll admit i wasn’t very precise w/ the measurements when i did it, as i basically just added a shitload of hot sauce to every meal at 15 days out, then a lot of hot sauce, then some, then none. yes, those were the measurements i used. and yes, it made diet food much more exciting!
Haha! Well, I guess the only way to find out is to do a contest prep without manipulating sodium, perhaps you won’t look quite as good, but it shouldn’t make a huge difference I’d imagine. If there’s not really any noticeable difference, then I’d say don’t bother and keep things simple and safe. Worst thing you can do is try lots of tricks in the last week and screw up all that hard work.
Though… it sounds pretty simple to implement and if there were no negatives, I would probably keep on doing it and assume it works in the mean time, then look for other people who have tried both ways to see if it is really worth it.
I’ve never played with my sodium levels, but in regard to creatine and water, my suggestion is always to play either the conditioning card, or the size card. Now obviously we’re talking maybe a lb or two, but when I asked Christian his advice last year, his take was the same,… .natty shows usually go for conditioning, so I cut my creatine a couple of weeks out, and then just stopped using condiments (sodium levels) the last week. I’ll probably do the exact thing next time as well.
I have used it all the way up including the day of. I think again with some of the others it has a lot to do with your condition. Minimizing sodium levels. Max water intake and the day of take in what you lose.
Based on the idea that creatine causes subcutaneous water retention I cut it out about 6 weeks out for both my previous competitions. I came in pretty ripped but can it be attributed solely to the creatine? Not really as there are many other factors to consider (such as my sodium manipulation).
I’m interested in this new concept and can’t find any factual data.
I used creatine up until right before my contest. I did manipulate sodium levels and water intake as well. However, my conditioning wasn’t as good as I had hoped. Perhaps the creatine was the factor. I’ll have to consider cutting it out for my next contest.
My last 2 contests I stopped creatine about 6 weeks out and came in pretty ripped. As I can’t find any real background/explanation for loading it in the last few days I’ll probably just go with what I know. Was it dropping the creatine that allowed me to dry out in the other contests? Too many variables to make a cause/effect determination. That said it didn’t appear to hurt my showing last time so I’ll just stick to the sodium and water manipulation.
Not to say I’ll stop looking for answers to my original question.