Creatine?

[Capt Froggy]

Yes, creatine helps with muscle strength. If you want strength you want a creatine stack of various things, I havent used creatine in awhile, so I dont know the best stuff anymore. Go to GNC or whatever supplement store and talk to them, or read a magazine.

The problem with using creatine is that your muscles will over time out perform your ligaments, and joint strength so when you are lifting, you can actually hurt your ligaments or joints by stressing them. Your muscles get stronger faster, faster than your ligaments and joints, when using crreatine versus just lifting normally where the muscle and ligaments, joints get stronger together.

Plus, drink alot of water when using creatine or you get nasty cramps, in weird areas.

[Kuniku]

What Martial Arts do you train?

From I've been told regarding my new gym excursions etc is that its Lean Muscle you want rather than bulking up?

[the kins man]

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

If you know all this, I don't know why you are posting on a video game forum. You obviously have some intelligence and should be fully capable of looking this information up on your own, rather than hoping that there might be one or two people who randomly see your post and know what they're talking about. A forum for working out, Men's Health, Men's Fitness, GNC, etc all would be a more appropriate place to post this type of question.

[jbhasban]

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

Creatine really has modest effects on power. It tends to be much more useful for strength, 5% increase on average. In fact, it tends to be a detriment to many martial artists because it can increase water retention which equates to a harder time making a weight class. If you want to increase your power for your techniques, I would focus on Olympic lifts and other speed lifts. What I mean is you do something like 60% of your 1 rep max for 2-3 reps as quickly as you can for a ton of sets. It will be SUPER easy but it is more helpful than lifting to exhaustion for your goals. You should also do things like box jumping. You need to also understand that training to show muscles is different than training to be a good fighter. Fighters and power lifters tend not to be ripped, focus a lot more on explosive strength, and care a lot less about muscle symmetry. One last thing, power and strength has a lot to do with genetics. You are not going to be able to drastically change how you are built or how powerful you are.

If you are going for vanity, then there are differing opinions on how to do it. Some say build up strength for your 1 rep max. Others say focus on the 3-5 range. Still others say you should focus on the 10-15 rep range. I honestly don't know which one is correct but my suspicion is that it really depends on the person and how their body reacts to different types of exercise.