Creatine?

[Rotted]

Well, I'm sure a few people have seen me post on more than one occasion about training in Martial Arts,

I think I've gotten to the point in my training where my speed is good enough, but my Str is lacking, and so I'm looking at take some creatine, but I was just after some general information on it, each time I look up info on the net, I'm getting the same general description word for word.

I train 3 times a week, and swim once a week,

I have recently started the gym as well for about a hour each week after training, which isn't ideal but thats the only time my schedule permits,

I also do general fitness + fitness testing and take part 3 days a week for a few hours in a array of sports due to my course.

I should also point out, I'm not looking to become "huge" or "bulky" that it slows me right down, but I am looking to get my muscles "showing" more if that makes sense,

So yea I was just after general opinions on Creatine from people who take, if they recommend a different product, etc etc

Cheers

Rotten

[Lyricist]

I have recently started the gym as well for about a hour each week after training, which isn't ideal but thats the only time my schedule permits,

I would recommend improving this before adding in additional supplementation. Things like creatine aren't nearly as beneficial when you're not plateaued in your strength training, which I doubt you've reached with your schedule. I would increase the amount of weight room time you get first, with a focus on lifting for power, and then if you don't see any gains after a month or so, consider the supplementation again.

[Wildtree]

I've used it for a while before.
It did exactly what it was suppose to do. After the build up phase it increased my abilities. I was able to push more repetitions, and more weight.
It helped to the build up process of the muscles. Once I dropped it, I noticed no reverse effects other than realizing that I hit the ceiling.
Progressing with it was easier than without it. But in my opinion it doesn't mean you cannot progress without it. It's just easier.

I wouldn't probably put too much emphasis on the gym in your case. Rather increase the swimming.
It's said, and I strongly believe it's true that swimming is the best exercise one can get. It uses the most muscles in the body. And you definitely won't get bulky, yet still strong.

[Rotted]

Okay thanks for the opinions guys, sorry was in the shower

Also can a mod move this to sports and fitness, I didn't realize we had a room for it

[Aalyy]

If you want muscles you need to lift weights and/or resistance training. And eat a lot of protein, esp meat. 20g or so of whey protein right after a work out is good too. Personally I would look at your diet and exercise regimen before looking into supplementation. Esp since it seems the results you want are pretty modest. Supplements are no supplement for proper diet and lifestyle.

[Deleted]

I used creatine and wasn't impressed. Most bodybuilders and people that work out don't use it
because it's only a slight help. If you want your muscles to show more i'd definitly not recommend
creatine as all it does is create "water" around your muscles to help it recover. You say you're in
the gym 3 days a week, this states you don't need it. The people that tend to use it wisely work
out the same muscle twice a week thus needing the recovery rate it provides.

I've been bodybuilding since i became a marine, mainly to stay fit but after i got let off i started
working out for looks (and quite frankly because the cancer rate in my family scares me). If you
want your muscles to show more there's one thing that's MUCH more important than working out
itself and that's the food you eat. Imo this is the hardest part of bodybuilding as it took me well over
a year to work out exactly what it was that i needed to get what i want. I'd stay away from creatine
and all that other crap but take Whey Protein just to make sure you're getting enough protein. Though
that doesn't mean you should depend only on Whey, get your main protein from food and a little bit on
the side from Whey.

Step 1: Get a workout plan that works for YOU, don't copy paste it from somebody else because it worked
for them, just because it worked for them doesn't mean it will work for you. Experiment a bit and
find out what you find comfortable and what works for you, stick to for and change it around about
once every 3 months. Dedication is the key.
Step 2: Find out what amount of calories you use and adjust your food schedule for it. First build up the
amount of muscle you are looking for, this might mean you have to consume a little bit more than
you actualy use so you're making the best out of it. It's always better to consume slightly more than
too little.
Step 3: Once you have the size you're looking for start cutting down, meaning you still have to consume the
right food (carbs, proteins and vitimins) but reduce the calories to a level where you consume less
than you actualy need so your body starts eating its own fat, thus showing your muscles as you wanted.


I hope this is what you meant, if not i apologize.

[sheffield]

does it work? yes
do you need it? no

[dispatchcrab]

I got such bad headaches when I started taking creatine!

[TJ]

When I was gyming it up I drank protein shakes, straight forward and easy. It's not a magic potion and not a shortcut (people seem to confuse protein and creatine with steroids), it just helps you build muscle. I personally have never had creatine, I've only had protein. My brother on the other hand knows his shit since he's very into the gym and completed a sports science degree and has been having creatine for a while and he has been seeing the results combined with hard work (again creatine just aids you, it doesn't do the work). So go for it, just make sure you get the right one and not some cheap shit, read up a lot on the products since you'd be surprised how many look legit but are rubbish.

[Wikiy]

Moved to Sports & Fitness.

[Rotted]

If you want muscles you need to lift weights and/or resistance training. And eat a lot of protein, esp meat. 20g or so of whey protein right after a work out is good too. Personally I would look at your diet and exercise regimen before looking into supplementation. Esp since it seems the results you want are pretty modest. Supplements are no supplement for proper diet and lifestyle.

Okay I've been out since posting, but also still researching, I'm now looking at creatine monohydrate as this seems to be better than capsule creatine by most people standards, I believe I have a decent diet, the only thing that isn't ideal is one takeaway every friday, due to the lateness I get back to my flat, and I lead a pretty healthy life style, more so than most people

I used creatine and wasn't impressed. Most bodybuilders and people that work out don't use it
because it's only a slight help. If you want your muscles to show more i'd definitly not recommend
creatine as all it does is create "water" around your muscles to help it recover. You say you're in
the gym 3 days a week, this states you don't need it. The people that tend to use it wisely work
out the same muscle twice a week thus needing the recovery rate it provides.

Sorry let me rephrase that slighty, I use the gym Once a week if that, I train in my martial arts 3 times a week, and swim once a week before I train in martial arts,

I probably dont have enough calories Monday - Friday Evening, as I feel exhausted, might have something to do with what I eat which is very little, Friday night I have a takeaway, and barley touch anything till Saturday late evening, then sunday the cycle starts over of not eating much,

Also Im slighty confused to your water reference, I quite understand the kreb cycle and electron transport chain, and that a by product is water, but I fail to see how it only creates water for recovery?

I should also add to the nutrition, I tend to eat meat, nearly uncooked when it comes to beef, literally still bleeding when the knife goes in so to speak, I know theres a few people who say the less cooked the meat is, better it is protein wise than a incinerated piece of meat

Oh and I don't follow anyones training reign, only what I've learned from the past two years, it may be where Im going wrong / right but everyone seems to critacise anyone elses training program

When I was gyming it up I drank protein shakes, straight forward and easy. It's not a magic potion and not a shortcut (people seem to confuse protein and creatine with steroids), it just helps you build muscle. I personally have never had creatine, I've only had protein. My brother on the other hand knows his shit since he's very into the gym and completed a sports science degree and has been having creatine for a while and he has been seeing the results combined with hard work (again creatine just aids you, it doesn't do the work). So go for it, just make sure you get the right one and not some cheap shit, read up a lot on the products since you'd be surprised how many look legit but are rubbish.

Well, Im on a sports course atm alongside my other courses, and what the lads are on is the same as your brother, and I can see the results 6 weeks in with them, which is what made start to think, and after reading up, its powder creatine monohydrate that seems to be the preferred choice over capsule, out of interest what does your brother take?

and again, cheers all for the advice

Moved to Sports & Fitness.

And thank you

[TJ]

Well, Im on a sports course atm alongside my other courses, and what the lads are on is the same as your brother, and I can see the results 6 weeks in with them, which is what made start to think, and after reading up, its powder creatine monohydrate that seems to be the preferred choice over capsule, out of interest what does your brother take?

and again, cheers all for the advice

Not too sure, he's just gone to bed so I'll have to catch him tomorrow. Probably post back here about 10pm UK time (if I remember :>).

[PowerGamez]

From the sounds of it Creatine won't help you if you are looking to build up strength.

You really need to be hitting the gym more often. A quick smart routine of 3 x 45 mins is enough, you've just gotta try make time in your schedule. Train only a few individual muscle groups i.e. Chest/Tri, Back/Bi, Legs/Shoulders, instead of doing an all round weights work out.

These training sessions shouldn't be piggy backed onto the back of other sports sessions otherwise you'll get very little out of them. Ideally prepare for your session by being well fed and having lots of energy. If you go in with nothing in your body you'll just feel sluggish and perform like crap.

Do a few exercises with low reps (6-8) and high weights and most importantly track your performance. Take a book/pad to the gym and a pen and write down how much weight you're doing and how many set/reps you can do. Keep this data and always aim on increasing it every week. If you're not tracking your progress, you're juts wasting your time.

[Deleted]

Take 5g in the morning, continue your day as normal. Just continue doing that.
5g every day in the morning ( you dont have to, its just preference for me to have it in the morning )

[JustaBigBird]

Unless you plan on going onto a proper lifting routine then creatine is pointless and even so as a beginner it would not be worth it.

[JaoStar]

If I understand you right, you're just wanting more definition not that bulky look from putting on muscle. From my understanding creatine would be more for body building. What you want to do is high rep low weight training. I've gotten good definition just from non-impact weight training. Swimming, push ups, sit ups, jump rope or anything along the lines of how boxers train.

[JustaBigBird]

If I understand you right, you're just wanting more definition not that bulky look from putting on muscle. From my understanding creatine would be more for body building. What you want to do is high rep low weight training. I've gotten good definition just from non-impact weight training. Swimming, push ups, sit ups, jump rope or anything along the lines of how boxers train.

Your knowledge is flawed, no offence.

[the kins man]

Creatine has nothing to do with building muscle. What creatine does is help increase energy production. Creatine is taken through the suplement creatine phosphate (spelling, and too lazy to look it up) Within the body, all energy is created by ATP (adienosene triphosphate, again, spelling) when the bond between one of the phosphate molecules of phosphate is broken and ATP becomes ADP (adienosene diphosphate) and a phosphate molecule which has been broken away from ATP, and broken down. The creatine phosphate is broken down by the body, putting more phosphate into the system, thus allowing the ADP to bond with the phosphate groups from the creatine.

So, creatine has no direct effect on building muscles. What it does have an effect on, is the amount of rest your body (and thus muscles) need, in order to produce energy to do your next set. For example, lets say you do three sets of 10 on bench press, and after that your pectorals are worn out because you body is not able to make the ATP required for that specific muscle group (pectorals/triceps) to do another exercise. In taking creatine, you will have faster energy production, thus allowing you to do the set of bench presses, but then doing dumbbell flies and incline presses. So now you are having more training, thus you will see faster growth.

I will give the major comment, that this is a very very dumbed down version of what creatine does. For a more intelligent version, talk to a trainer who is still highly active in the field. I keep up in the field (still NSCA CSCS-D certified) but I have lot a lot of my very specific knowledge on some topics fade. For muscle growth, it is more going to be cutting fat out of your diet, increasing lean protein consumption, and proper lifting. Cardiovascular training will help clear fat out of your body as well. For people looking to get "cut" building muscle is not the answer, cutting fat is the answer. Cut your body fat % from 15 to 5, just through running and the muscle mass you have will be more noticable because the layer of fat covering it will be gone.

And my goodness, typos all over the place...

---------- Post added 2012-11-21 at 06:46 PM ----------

You really need to be hitting the gym more often. A quick smart routine of 3 x 45 mins is enough, you've just gotta try make time in your schedule. Train only a few individual muscle groups i.e. Chest/Tri, Back/Bi, Legs/Shoulders, instead of doing an all round weights work out.


Do a few exercises with low reps (6-8) and high weights

So much wrong with this... For martial arts, you want a whole body workout, especially if you are rarely in the gym. If you only go to the gym once or twice a week, it is almost no benefit to just focus on chest one day...

Second, 6-8 with "high" weight would be impossible. To build strength you want to use 85-95% of your one rep max (or estimated one rep max if you don't max out) for 2-4 reps. If you are in the 6-8 reps range you should be using 75-85% of your one rep max. For the training you want to do, I would suggest high reps, as you do want to build muscular endurance, in addition to strength. Reps above 10 with 60-70% of your one rep max will help you accomplish this goal.

For you wanting to increase your speed, I assume you mean speed in the ring, as a 40 yard dash time will not help in MMA much at all. For that I suggest shadow boxing, a speed bag, jumping rope, or other "fast-twitch" muscular responses. Speed in the ring isn't just about muscle, it also involves brain activity. Reaction times help with speed. If you don't see a punch until it is making contact with you, you need to improve your reaction time. Starts are a good way to do this, with a sound, or a light flash, etc.

[Rotted]

As I mentioned I'm happy with speed, but not with strength, I use the word strength as power is, speed & strength combined,

my reaction time is above average

as I say, I want strength behind my techniques without losing my speed, the best example I can give is, whats the point in hitting first, if I don't have a impact?

and yes I did wonder why body builders use Creatine for muscle building and its one reason I thought I'd ask here, I'm quite aware of how the ATP/ATP-PC (and AMP if you want to go that much into it) work and I know in depth how the Kreb Cycle and Electron Transport Chain work, and wondered how a Creatine supplement works "better" than a standard endurance / stamina supplement, my guess would be its chronic, which would also be beneficial to a point

[TJ]

Sorry forgot to mention that my brother has protein shakes as well, I'll ask him a few questions tomorrow.