Starting Creatine.....

[Clark]

Hey guys I've decided to take the creatine plunge. I plan on starting it on Monday and would love some advice on the proper way to take this supplement. I'm 19 years old, 6 feet tall, weigh 167 lbs and have 7% body fat. My current routine looks like this:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Lifting
Tuesday, Thursday: HIIT

I do variations on the lifting and HIIT routines just to keep my body guessing basically. Occasionally I will do a nice 4-6 mile run on Saturdays and Sundays are completely for rest. My diet is completely solid and the reason why I am at 7% BF right now. Anyway, thanks in advance guys.

Clark

[Ian Kay]

There are a couple of different takes on how to use it:

1) Follow the typical instructions on the label, which usually means a loading phase. So you'd end up taking 4-5 servings of 5g each every day for the first 5 days.

2) Toss out the loading phase idea and simply take one 5g serving per day. On workout days, you'd take it with your post-workout shake. On off-days, take it first thing in the morning.

The idea, of course, is to saturate your system with the creatine. So loading (#1) gets this done more quickly. Doing #2 has the same long-term effect. Creatine is relatively cheap (unless you're wasting your money on Cell-Tech) so I guess it doesn't really matter. Something to keep in mind is that creatine sometimes has a rough impact on gastro-intestinal activity, so just one serving (at least the first day) might be a safer way to approach it.

A few rules about how to take it (whether loading or just one serving per day) : (1)Take it with carbs, preferrably post-workout type carbs (malto, dextrose, gatorade, etc.) This helps it digest better and get it to your muscles. (2) Drink lots of water while taking it. I mean like add to whatever you're drinking now, even if you think it's a lot already. Creatine pulls water from your system so you can dehydrate if you're not careful.

Others can give better, more complete, scientific-based answers if they'd like. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Lost Dog]

Don't wait 'till Monday. Just take some now.

You can probably skip the loading phase, like RockHard said. Long term, you'll have the same effects with just starting daily.

On non-workout days, you can just stir it into coffee or tea. On lifting days, put it into your PWO drink. This is what I do. I take 3g per day. 3g was based on a couple of studies that I read that showed that more than 3g didn't have an effect. The extra didn't hurt, but was just "eliminated" from the body in urine.

I've been taking it for about 6 months and have never had any intestinal/bowel issues. The key, apparently, is to make sure that it's dissolved as well as possible before drinking it down.

Here's a link or two with interesting stuff.

http://www.universalnutrition.com/en...on/incled.html

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/archive...p/t-18926.html