Despite what science says, i know people who claim they get no results at a low dose(5g) yet get results taking over 30g daily. Im skeptical about this but i dont know. Creatine is creatine, but people(inclding myself) also claim they respond better to certain brand types, why i have no idea. Stuff like this is a mystery cuz theres no scientific facts to it. But I myself found EAS Phosphagen to work much better than Prolab.
I agree that the level of conversation is pretty good but there’s some misconceptions that need to be cleared up.
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Creatine does not seem to affect muscle protein synthesis to a measurable extent in humans. In fact, at least 3 seperate studies have demonstrated this. There is a study showing enhanced myosin heavy chain (part of a contractile protein) synthesis, but it was in vitro (if I remember correctly).
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One of the three studies showed a decrease in muscle breakdown in men, but not women (Parise et al., 2001).
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The effect of creatine on skeletal muscle mass is FAR from proven, and is really still up in the air. There’s a great review by Gibala and Spriet (2004)on this.
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Practically speaking, the increased strength gains (and possibly the superhydration) that come with creatine supplementation will lead to greater muscle mass, than if it had not been used. Studies can’t go long enough to conclusively show this.
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Although the body will reduce natural creatine production when supplementing, this can actually be a good thing because a natural byproduct of endogenous (internal) creatine production (homocysteine) potentially leads to cardiovascular disease. So less natural creatine production=less homocysteine=potentially reduced risk for cardiovascular disease (the number one killer in Canada/US).
Hope this helps!
Cheers
man, all this talk about creatine has hyped me up again… but the evidence is so contradictory, i don’t know what to do… hehe.
i’ve read plenty of good things about cell-tech… also, there’s some creatine from germany that’s suppsoed to be really good… not sure what it’s called… i tried the EAS, but not really long enough, prolly try it again soon…
Hspder,
I take 5g once per day mixed in with my workout drink of either Surge or Gatorade. I do not do a loading phase.
Am I taking it at the ideal time? Who knows. Should I be taking it with fruit juice instead of a sport drink? It’s working for me with the sport drink. Plus, I’m a bit insulin sensitive, so a glass of grape juice for instance will put me to sleep in about 30 minutes.
I take creatine mainly for the improvement in between-set recovery. I have not noticed any significant size increase that I could specifically attribute to creatine, but I’m not really looking for it either. As I mentioned earlier, I like the improvement in quality the creatine gives my workouts, and I think that has translated into more mass than I would have gained without it.