How Many Of You Cycle Creatine?

[nuck]

I think I may have missed 1 week in the last 5 years. How many of you take time off and what were the results? When you are not cycling how many of you continue to take creatine on your off days? I normally go postworkout with simple carbs like fruit juice but do not take it on non workout days.

 

[gymtime]

Never heard of anyone going quite that long. I'll go 6-8 weeks, then four weeks off. That works for me. Gives me a chance to shed the water and give the old liver a break.

But I've read that some cycle, some don't. Whatever works for you.

 

[MrMuscle]

i always cycle it..2 months on, 1 off. works fine for me..

 

[Cackerot69]

Nah, no need to cycle.

 

[JustinM]

i cycle

 

[MrTestosterone]

I use creatine year-round. I see no need to come off of it. Considering creatine does not require reception to be active (it is non-hormonal), you don't have to worry about down/up-regulation of receptors. The idea of cycling creatine came about when Phosphagen was released. It much like the "HMB feels like Deca" conspiracy, it seems like some info leaked out of EAS that the original Phosphagen had methandrostenolone mixed in. No one complained; people just started cycling the stuff. Heck, no one could really explain the tremendous gains creatine produced at that time, so no one really refuted the "juiced creatine" argument.

Next point: I would *definitely* take creatine on my off days. Why? Let's look at how creatine works (in a general sense). Your body, depending upon size, has the ability to store roughly 160g of creatine phosphate. However, you normally only house about 80% of that number, or 130g. Sure, this number varies greatly from person-to-person, but to make things simple, let's just say 130g. By supplementing with enough excess creatine, you can drive this number up. By standard protocol (40g/day for one week), it is possible to increase this to about 140-150g. However, since the body abhors anything but homeostasis, you will naturally revert back to 130g before long. That is why you use a maintainance dose daily- to replace the CP that your body sheds automatically. By missing your dosage on non-workout days, you enbale you body to get closer to the homeostatic threshold: about 80% of your total capacity.

Hope this helps out a bit.

Coe

 

[Welsh power house]

personally, i think it works better when taken 8 weeks on, 4 off. My gains in strength and mass seem to stop after around 8 weeks on the stuff.
again, i think it depends on the person.
i cycle....

 

[The One]

i usually do a short creatine cycle of 1 month on one month off. Give my liver a break. but i usually cycle it with eca. when on eca i am not on creatine vice versa.