Does anyone here take creatine?

[jsmoke]

I've been taking it for 2 days. What are your experiences?

 

[jsmoke]

I use to take cheap mono as it seemed to work best for me although you do need to wait and build I up in your system.
I found that it best benefit for me was that it would postpone the aches after a workout stopping me having down days.
I would say have a look a kreatine or purple-k creatine I did notice when I tried that it was strong and seemed to work in a couple hours, I had dry lips and a bit of cotton mouth unless I drank excessive amounts of water so be warned, but that stuff was fast acting.

I am definitely noticing the cotton mouth.

I hope this isn't a stimulant where I end up with my eyes permanently popping out of my head and pupils dilated and all kinds of side effects like a rave pill popper of the 90's.

 

[jsmoke]

Yes and no; it is one of the few WADA-permitted ones that actually does anything, but I suspect it isn't anywhere near as hyped as supplements that make even less difference (betaine, BCAAs, brotein supplements themselves) to workouts and muscular output.

There's a reasonable likelihood that most people don't actually dose it correctly... it takes:

- 6+ weeks at 5g/day
- taking with carbs within 30 mins of consumption...

And even then most people won't lift heavy enough or train hard enough to notice.

So on that basis, it is a lot of work and consistency for not much overall gain.

I have creatine monohydride(I think that's the name). Instructions say if under 75kg then 5g for 7 days then 5g every other day and if over 75kg, 10g for 7 days then 5g every other say.

 

[jsmoke]

The cotton mouth symptom to me spells stimulant like effects. So it's possible it's just increasing your heart rate like pseudoephedrine and hence masking any pain, tricking you I to thinking you can train harder.

 

[jsmoke]

I've been taking for 2 weeks and my times both swimming and cycling have got a lot better. To me there is no dispute. AMA.

 

[jsmoke]

Well many will say it's the training that's improving their times and it can be difficult to separate the two.

Psychology, I don't think is a factor as I take it in the morning at never think about it during training.

My training hasn't really changed yet I'm swimming longer and stronger as with cycling. It's such a noticeable difference also. I just cycled 22 miles in 1 hour 30 mins(strava) I've done the exact same cycle around 20 times, quickest in over 2 hours( pre strava). I feel fresh after the cycle. Then again maybe my general nutrition is not good and this is genuinely supplementing lacking nutrients.

I did go out on the bike quite a bit extra over last few weeks in heat spell but I would still vouch that creatine has made a significant difference. Though if you've been training properly and constantly over a longish time period you may have peaked and creatine may do very little.

I'll keep the experiment going.

 

[jsmoke]

gosh i am shocked that the extra miles of work you put in over the last few weeks have impacted in better times !!!

You could be correct there, is is hard to separate the variables. You would need to setup a perfect situation to really gauge the results of creatine.