Is It Really Necesarry To Load Creatine?

[bonan]

i have always followed the advice on the phosphagen hp bottle and loaded 20 grams of creatine for 5 days before backing off to 10 grams for the rest of the time.

My question is , do you guys think it is really necessary to do the loading phase or just start out with 10 grams a day?

 

[ENDRO]

I did creatine for a long time and i finally got tired of the loading phase and quite and it didnt really seem to make a differance.
try it what is the worst that can happen?

 

[TraxZBT]

I did creatine for a long time and i finally got tired of the loading phase and quite and it didnt really seem to make a differance.
try it what is the worst that can happen?

you run out of creatine quicker?

 

[gymtime]

After 8-10 weeks on creatine, you will not notice any difference whether you loaded or not.

 

[JATS]

You should load creatine if you are in a very big rush to "Look big" or if you are only cycling creatine for a month or so. Studies have shown that over the course of 3 month on creatine there is no difference between loading and not loading except $$$.

 

[ISN_Man]

The whole idea behind loading creatine is to reach peak creatine muscle saturation in the shortest amount of time. Theoretically, if you load for 4-5 days, taking 20-30 grams of creatine, once those days are up, you should be at peak creatine saturation. From that point forward, it would only take a dose of 5-10 grams to maintain that peak saturation stage. Whether you chose to load or not, the results will more or less be the same, it's just that you'll be fully saturated in the creatine quicker if you load (theoretically).

 

[iambig_r]

THIS QUESTION HAS BEEN ANSWERED 9000000000 TIMES.

USE THE SEARCH BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[thesuperstar]

yes its true that after 8-10 weeks you wont need to load.

but you load so that you look and feel like its week 8 at week 1.

 

[bonan]

thanks for the advice guys.

as for iambig_r, chill the fuck out dude!!!!!!!!!

why do you give a fuck

 

[StillWorkin]

What I do with Cell tech....

I've only done one 8 week cycle with creatine monohydrate (cell-tech) After doing a lot of searching on this board I decided to take 10grams the first 5 days and but back to 5grams for the rest of the cycle.

I *think* it was a success for me. I never lifted weights before. I purchased weight lifting for dummies (which is a good book for people who are clueless in the gym, covers the excercies and edicate.)

For the first 4 months I did 2 total body workouts. The 2 hour workouts kicked my ass and left me sore for 2-3 days sometimes. After 4 months I began to feel/look stronger so I decided to go for it.

I really wanted a product that would speed up my recovery after workouts. I bought the Cell-Tech stuff which was expensive.

I worked out 4 times a week for 8 weeks (not total body anymore.) I pushed myself harder then usual because I wanted to feel like I was getting my moneys worth. The cell-tech stuff does cost more but you get twice the servings if you only take 5grams a day.

I'd like to give some credit to the creatine. I know I worked harder but I did seem to recover quickly. At the end of the 8 weeks I felt a lot stronger and people I worked with commented that I looked like I "have been working out"


My feeling is if your going to intesify your workout you might as well do what you can to get the most out of it. I really think creatine helped me. I lost 7


Now I got the bug.....
Its been about 3 months and i'm going to start on creatine again. After workouts I have a whey protien drink with a pinch of glutamine powder and I pop a flack seed oil pill.



Im more consious of my protien intake too. I get a lot of protein from soy products... is that bad? My girlfriend is a vegetarian and has me hooked on:
Veggie hot dogs
Veggie burgers
Veggie breakfast paddies

Most of these products are Soy/TVP based. What is cool about them is a lot of the products have more protien then chicken brests!!@ and they cook fast with no mess. I got sick of cleaning that damn george forman grill.

I also get protein from:
Egg Beaters
Tuna
Lots of skim milk
1-2 shackes or protien bars a day.

Ive read that too much soy protien lowers testosterone. Do you guys think im a candidate for that?

--stillworkin

 

[riskybizz007]

bro 1st off check out the Soy question on the above post and go from there on your thoughts on Soy.

#2 1 pill of Flax seed oil isn't going to do shit for you. Do yourself a favor and buy a liquid bottle and take a tablespoon of it, which would equal about 15 pills. You need a hell of a lot more flax than what they give you in that pill.

#3 Stay away from Cell-Tech. It's overpriced and they are ripping you off! Again, do yourself a favor and get some creapure creatine (prolab's or ultimate nutrition) and use that. You'll save yourself a lot of money and unwanted fat from all that dextrose you're taking in. Since you're new to the gym, most of your gains are natural, you'll be growing like a weed these first few months if calories are sufficient. And creatine as far as i know does not aid in recovery at all.

#4. Post work out drink, try to get some whey and either dextrose or Maltodextrin. 50g of each should be enough. Check out supplementsdirect.com for dextrose, it's extremely cheap there. Something like $10 for 11 pounds of it. You can make a million Cell-Techs with that amount of dextrose.

#5. Glutamine, don't take it w/ your whey shake. It competes for absorption w/ the other aminos (unless you're using Glutamine Peptides). Take regular l-glutamine on empty stomach, and you will notice a significant difference in recovery time. You can also take 1g of Vit.C after workout, drink gallon of water a day, and increase protein, sleep 7 or more hours a night, these all help in recovery time.

#6. Your veggie products. Don't know if it's bad or good, i've only heard of 1 guy who was a vegetarian and was a body builder. I do know red meat will increase your testosterone levels, and chicken and fish are staple foods.

#7. Unless you're very constrained for time, try not to do a whole body work out. To me it's crap. It's good for maintaining size if you're dieting, but if your goal is to get big this is not the way to do it. And try not to stay in gym more than 1 hour, it decreases your testosterone levels dramatically.

There's a diet board and Training board here too. Might want to check those out. Hope this helped you some what, and in the least maybe saved you some money w/ the whole creatine thing.