Can anyone provide a typical creatine cycling schedule for football players (i.e. Offseason / InSeason, etc.)?
Thanks in advance.
Creatine doesn’t need to be cycled.
Taking creatine while regularly exerting yourself for several hours combined with dehydration can be dangerous. YOU MUST DRINK A LOT OF WATER.
If you’re going to take it, consume 1-2 teaspoons/day and drink at bare minimum 4L of water a day.
As long as you properly load it you don’t have to cycle it. You’ll retain a good bit of water, so you might want to just stop using in-season if that bothers you.
Take 5 grams a day. Period.
[quote]kakno wrote:
Take 5 grams a day. Period.[/quote]
True but loading for a couple days will top-off stores a bit quicker. Arguably minutia…
I’ll repeat…no need to load just take 5g a day year round. It is even more vital for a football player to be taking creatine because it has been shown to provide a protective effect in the brain for concussions.
[quote]nycsfinest wrote:
I’ll repeat…no need to load just take 5g a day year round. It is even more vital for a football player to be taking creatine because it has been shown to provide a protective effect in the brain for concussions. [/quote]
IF you’re taking 5g year round, then no there obviously isnt a need to load. In the context of the thread though, it doesn’t seem like the OP has been.
I meant to say no need to cycle don’t know why I said load 
[quote]MAF14 wrote:
[quote]kakno wrote:
Take 5 grams a day. Period.[/quote]
True but loading for a couple days will top-off stores a bit quicker. Arguably minutia…[/quote]
Yes. I had a few days a few years ago when I just had semi-full “store of creatine”. Don’t think it affected my current strength much.
Thnx for the replies. Per Kakno’s response, if someone needed to seriously shed about 15 pounds with intense dieting/exercise prior to preseason practice, to avoid any potential dehydration issues, he could conceivably take “1/2 daily dosage” for a month or 2…? The currently “bulking” phase is working fantastically with some serious gains in size and strength. However, unrelated to the Creatine intake, some extra non-muscle weight has been added that is not at all helpful for a running back to carry around with him. That being said, whether he does or doesn’t lower his creatine intake in the Spring while trying to tone up, it appears that the concensus is to continue taking creatine right through the football season?
[quote]kakno wrote:
[quote]MAF14 wrote:
[quote]kakno wrote:
Take 5 grams a day. Period.[/quote]
True but loading for a couple days will top-off stores a bit quicker. Arguably minutia…[/quote]
Yes. I had a few days a few years ago when I just had semi-full “store of creatine”. Don’t think it affected my current strength much.[/quote]
Again… In the context of the thread OP doesn’t sound like he is suing at this point so loading would have its uses.
Suing? Is that an acronym for something?
Like I said, this current Winter bulking phase (using Creatine for the first time) has been a huge success with regards to size and strength gains. However, with it has come some superfluous weight, most likely from bad over eating habits, that needs to be totally gone by the Summer…in time for speed/agility team workouts. But he also doesn’t want to sacrifice any of the strength gains in the process. And from what I’m hearing, “maybe” it would be an option to lower his creatine intake again during the hot 2-adays in the middle of the Summer…or at least make sure he’s drinking well over a gallon of water daily. I’m sorry that I’m so naive, but being his Father, it is my responsibility to find out as much current info/trends on creatine use from the experts that use them, which includes ANY potential tweaking that might be advantageous during certain times of the offseason/preseason/inseason.
[quote]Retoolingdad wrote:
Suing? Is that an acronym for something?
Like I said, this current Winter bulking phase (using Creatine for the first time) has been a huge success with regards to size and strength gains. However, with it has come some superfluous weight, most likely from bad over eating habits, that needs to be totally gone by the Summer…in time for speed/agility team workouts. But he also doesn’t want to sacrifice any of the strength gains in the process. And from what I’m hearing, “maybe” it would be an option to lower his creatine intake again during the hot 2-adays in the middle of the Summer…or at least make sure he’s drinking well over a gallon of water daily. I’m sorry that I’m so naive, but being his Father, it is my responsibility to find out as much current info/trends on creatine use from the experts that use them, which includes ANY potential tweaking that might be advantageous during certain times of the offseason/preseason/inseason.[/quote]
*using. My bad, lol.
If I were him I would be sipping on a mix of something like 10g creatine and 1-2 tsp iodized sea salt w/ crystal light for mixed in a gallon jug during workouts. Obviously he can have gatorade and that type stuff too, I just dont like gatorade.
Like you said the creatine didn’t make him gain fat, the bad eating habits did. Creatine might add water weight, not fat. No reason to stop using it.
Oh and he doesn’t have to sacrifice the strength gains either. Just have him cut back on the junk and eat 1.5g protein per pound body weight. This is THE time for him to get bigger and stronger. He has the best hormonal environment for putting on mass he will ever have, at this point in time.
Excellent suggestions MAF14. Thnx. So, it sounds to me that since I last read about Creatine use years ago, cycling isn’t really necessary anymore.
BTW…no, he is certainly not using as far as I know.
Haha, again, by ‘using’ I meant using creatine.
HaHa…Sorry! Ok, now I’m embarassed…
As you can see, I am quite new to forums such as these. My apologies!
To be clear, since the break right after the last FB season, aside from Protein shakes and Glutamine supplementation, he began taking 5g of Creatine (no loading) in January. He is a HS FB player and at least so far, trusts everything I tell him regarding training / nutrition. Given that, I want to make sure “I” know everything there is to know about both, especially with regards to training specifically for FB. Of course, as you would guess, like me when I was his age, he certainly doesn’t mind the added mass produced in the process…being in HS…
The more I’ve been reading about Creatine recently, it definitely appears that it would be quite helpful to continue with it through football season because of it’s effects on explosive moves such as sprinting. The only obvious caveat that I can see is that you MUST be diligent about taking in adequate amounts of water daily.
[quote]Retoolingdad wrote:
The only obvious caveat that I can see is that you MUST be diligent about taking in adequate amounts of water daily.[/quote]
That’s a bit exaggerated w/ 5g per day, IMO. But if you’re doing 2-a-day work outs in hot summer weather, water intake obviously should be high.