when to take creatine

[pala123lifter]

Ive been taking creatine for a few weeks now,but Ive just been taking 5 g before my workout and I didnt do the loading stage.Is it necessary for me to do that?also would it be bettr to take creatine b4 an aftr my workout and take it days i dont workout?Any advice would be good.whats a good drink to mix it with?

 

[bigdawginCO]

Dont even worry about the loading stage, thats just a gimmick to get you to burn up your supply quicker as your body can only hold so much at a given time, after that you are just going to expel it out of your system. Personally i have been taking it post workout in my protein shake, but i think i may have been getting better results preworkout. i'm still tinkering with it.

 

[2horns]

i do 5 pre, 5 post, works great for me.

 

[granby140]

what do you mix it with?

 

[pala123lifter]

i usually mix it with lemonade,apple juice or a juice like that,but i dont know if im suppose to be using that.

 

[mayhems]

best thing to mix with is grapefruit juice because there's something inside grapefruit juice that makes you absorb creatine and other supps. as well

 

[pala123lifter]

thxs

 

[blut wump]

The loading stage helps the effects come on sooner. This stuff is dirt cheap so why skimp on it? The idea of a loading phase is that you top up the body to capacity in reasonably short time and then the rest of the cycle is a maintenance dose. I load with 5 days at 20g per day spread into four 5g doses and then run the maintenance phase at 5g per day spread into 3 doses. Take it off-days as well as workout days. The idea is to keep the body topped-up throughout the maintenance phase.

Creatine needs to be taken with carbohydrates for an insulin response to carry it effectively into the system. Take it with meals or with something that has sugar. Fruit juice is fine or just add some dextrose to water. Some studies suggest that you need 75g of sugar to trigger the insulin take-up effect which is a lot of sugar so I just try to take mine with meals and take a dose as part of my pwo drink.

CEE may have a different transport system to get it to the muscles. I've only used creatine monohydrate powder.