Start again / Creatine ?

[Pulsedriver]

Hey folks, just like loads of us I'm sure, the strength gains have dissolved during lockdown, and when I returned to the gym, the level of weights I could do had dropped drastically.

It's crazy how a few months off the gym, makes such a difference, considering I only went twice a week, albeit for 5+ years but even so it's not like I went from 5 days a week to 0 days.

Yesterday I was doing 22kg chest press dumbbells, when before it was 38kg, and to be fair, I struggled with the 22kg!

Anyhow, what I am wondering is, as I ease myself back into the gym, I have only been going once a week, i'll up to twice probably next week onwards, however, is it worth taking creatine for this time period to try to get a 'boost' as such? Or to scrap my previous training regime and move to something like 5x5 for a few weeks to build the strength back up again?

Previous was just a 2 day split with chest/triceps on one day and back/biceps/legs on the other day, it did seem to work well even for a 2 day a week workout.
In terms of 'DOMS' I only had them the day after returning to the gym, and not since (been 3 weeks so far).

 

[Musty Pie]

The best kind of plan is one you can stick to!

For me i was dreading strength loss, never been much of a gym goer until the start of 2019, when i started stronglifts, which i really enjoy.

Getting back in the gym after 4 months was worrying, but didnt really lose as much strength as i thought.

The key is to be safe. Build back up slowly, muscle memory will kick in and the losses should be negated quite quickly.

As for a program, depends what you want to achieve? As for creatine, i personally dont bother, but I do use BCAA and Whey on training days.

 

[mrthingyx]

Creatine is one of the few supplements actually proven to do anything (10-15%), but you probably won't notice a "boost" as you need at least 6 weeks of loading before you make any statistically relevant gains... and then you wouldn't notice, anyway, because you'd be lifting 24kg instead of 22kg.

There are other ways it makes a difference, but again nothing z0mg-worthy.