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creatine cycling


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hi,

 

i've been using creatine for a while now and it's definitely contributed to some good size and strength gains. however i've read a lot of conflicting information of whether or not you should cycle it?

 

i was thinking of doing 6 weeks on with 2 weeks off and keep repeating, no loading phases (3-5g per day). your thoughts?

 

thanks

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I have a container of creatine that I purchased to give a try. I stopped taking it after reading about it possibly being a mutagen (contains heterocyclic amine). I could not find enough valid research to make a definitive decision about it, but I figure most supplements are processed and not so good for you, so I've quit for now. Haven't thrown out the jar yet tho...

 

If I do try it again I will definitely cycle it.. to ensure your body maintains its ability to create its own, and because there have been no long term studies on safety.

 

http://www.jissn.com/content/9/1/33

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I spoke with a sports nutritionist for a major university in Georgia about it, as well as done a lot of my own research, and everything I've seen is that there are no real reasons to cycle it. All creatine does is replenish muscle ATP, that's nothing the body will adapt to and not a process that is shut down, as in the case of anabolics and hormone production. Also, many supplement companies claim that creatine must be loaded at a dose of 20-30g a day for the first 5 or so days, then a maintenance dose of 5g a day is recommended. I've seen research that claims if you just use a 3-5g dose daily the body will be just as saturated after 30 continuous days. However, a strength & conditioning coach I have a great deal of respect for, Charles Poliquin, believed in cycling creatine and using higher than recommended doses as in 20-40g daily - it's important to note that the book he recommended that in was heavily promoted by the old Muscle Media 2000 magazine who's editor in chief was also the CEO of EAS at the time! Personally I notice a great deal of benefit from creatine and at a bodyweight of 180 +/- lbs I do well on 5g a day on non-workout days, and 10g a day on training days (5g in my pre-workout meal and 5g in my post workout meal) - no real science to my dosing, but it works well for me!

 

-Scott

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Ive also experimented in cycling dosages such as 5 grams a day for one week and then 30 grams a day for the next week, then 15 grams a day for two weeks etc. I honestly noticed incredible strength on higher doses. Its something to experiment with definitely if your lifting really heavy. See how it affects your lifts, not just lifting more or less, but how it actually feels to lift a certain weight over a period of a few weeks. How do your muscles feel?, Is it increasing recovery time even faster than before? These questions are things I ask myself when trying different dosages.

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Something that I find interesting is that our bodies can really only synthesize (on average) about 9 grams of creatine (from creatine monohydrate) a day. So, being a man of research and experience, I suggest you try a dosage of 10 grams for a loading phase. People do this anywhere from 1-2 weeks but I wouldn't load for more than two weeks because then you may just be wasting your creatine.

 

The science of creatine is that in our muscle tissues, we have ATP which stands for adenasine tri phosphate. This is the quick-grab energy that our body uses up in about 15 seconds of intense training whether it be sprinting, squatting or bench pressing. In each ATP molecule there are three creatine phosphate molecules attached. When you perform intense exercise, the creatine phosphate molecules explode (probably not the best word) and give off energy. But our bodies only produce so much creatine phosphate each day (the average person synthesis 1g daily- not counting the creatine obtained from beef and other animals products). When supplementing with creatine, whether it be monohydrate, ethyl esther, hydrocloride or any other, we are intaking these supplements in order to help build up the available store of creatine phosphate in our muscle tissues (so that when they "explode" and give off energy, they can be replaced in order to give off more energy again and again). When our bodies are fully saturated (whether you loaded or not), we have reached our maximum capacity (with the certain supplement and brand of creatine) to store creatine phosphate molecules in our muscle tissues.

 

Now, studies have shown (with creatine monohydrate- the most researched supplement) that when you consume creatine in any form over a period of time, your body stops synthesizing creatine phosphate on its own. It's like steroids in the way that because you are generating so much testosterone from the synthetic drug, the testes shrink because they no longer need to produce their own testosterone. However (going back to creatine), even when people have used it for years at a time and then go off it, when the body stops receiving it, it begins to produce creatine phosphate again on its own.

 

I suggest from both experience in research to cycle creatine. It's always a good idea because when the body stops producing something, you begin to rely on it. We all like to be independent people, don't we?!

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