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There’s no mystery on how to supplement with creatine. Most commonly, it is just ingested in liquid form. But knowing the dosage and how often to take it helps you reap the most benefit from this supplement. I’ll be talking about creatine supplements sold in its most common form: dissolvable creatine powder.

How Much Creatine Supplementation to Use

It’s very common for creatine supplements to instruct a “loading phase” when first starting supplementation. This is to encourage the amount of creatine in your body reaches the peak of what your muscles can hold the quickest. The normal suggested dose for the loading phase is 20 to 25 grams for the first 5 days taken over the course of each day for maximal absorption into your system. After this, you would go into the “maintenance phase”. This is usually 5 grams of creatine a day in order to keep you at that saturated level.

Just to let you know, I personally don’t bother with the loading phase (despite calling myself “Max Loder”). I just let the creatine level build up to saturation over time. I have two reasons for doing this.

• First, I try to avoid introducing a large amount of anything into my body at one time. Granted, back when I first started to use creatine supplements, I did use the loading phase without any ill effects, and probably would still be fine if I were to use it.
• Secondly, I cycle my creatine supplement usage along with cycling my workouts. Basically, I do something that bodybuilders have done since the early days of bodybuilding. This is to rest (not lift weights) for at least a week, and then start working out with slightly lighter weights than I’m used to in order to ease my body back into the groove of working out again. Then, over the course of two or three weeks, I quickly work back up to the poundages that I consider my personal best, and then incrementally try to push myself beyond those personal bests. When it doesn’t seem I can add any more weight to my main exercises, I take that week off again to start this process over again. My creatine supplement intake follows this cycle. During the time I don’t work out, I don’t take creatine supplements. When I start lifting again, the weights are lighter, so a heavier dosage of creatine supplements really isn’t necessary for me until later.

Of course, everyone does things differently. I suggest you read the instructions provided on the creatine supplement packaging and follow them. You’ll have to decide for yourself if the loading phase is right for you.

The Creatine Supplement Cycle

As I mentioned above, I cycle creatine supplements. This is a rather common practice for many supplements. The thinking behind this is that the body may get used to a supplement after continued use resulting in it being less effective. If this is the case, then one can take a break from the supplement allowing the body to get used to its absence. When introducing the supplement again, it should work as well as it did the first time it was taken. In all honesty, this has never really been studied in the case of nutritional supplements, but that’s the theory.

You’ll never find any agreement on what the perfect cycle is. Many bodybuilder swear by it, but will never quote you the same span of time. It’s very subjective.

Currently, I’m supplementing with BSN Cell Mass creatine. The container suggests a cycle of 12 weeks of use followed by a 4 week break. That’s longer than most cycles I’ve heard. Some cycles suggest the time on the supplement be equal to the time off of it. I’ve seen a cycle start of at a low dosage, rise to a peak amount, fall back down to the low dosage, and then some time off.

My suggestion is to learn to listen to your body. If you think a supplement is working, keep using it. It still may be a good idea to take breaks from it now and again though. If you don’t think the supplement works or isn’t as effective as it was, that’s when you should stop the supplement. Take some time off from it, and then return to using it again to see if you feel a difference. If you never felt benefit from the product, it’s possible that your body chemistry doesn’t respond as well. Everyone’s biology is different, and reacts differently to different things.

Just to let you know what I do, I usually take creatine supplements for about 8 weeks, and take about 1-2 weeks off. This falls in line with how I cycle my workouts.

Max Loder

CreatineZone.com

You’ve probably heard of “creatine supplements” due to being one of the last breakthroughs in sports supplementation to come along. It’s one of the most popular supplements for bodybuilders alongside whey protein. It’s been shown over and over to be an effective aid when it comes to pushing yourself harder with the weights and recovery. I’ll be explaining what this supplement exactly is, what it does in the body, and how it is normally supplemented when taken in tandem with a good weight lifting program.

A Brief History

Creatine was first discovered in the human body in 1832, but had not really gained attention for use as an athletic supplement until news of its use by some athletes at the 1992 Olympics came out. By the 1996 Olympics, the use of creatine was practically commonplace. Today, it is considered a standard supplement among many professional athletes.

Where Creatine is Found

Creatine is found naturally in humans. It is a compound consisting of the three amino acids glycine, arginine, and methionine. Muscle tissue holds 95% of the creatine found in your body.

Your body is able to produce about half of the creatine in your body. The other half comes from food primarily found in fish and red meat. You can eat these kinds of food to raise the level of creatine in your body, but there is proportionally so little found in food that you would have to gorge yourself before seeing results. It’s more likely that one would become fat before seeing their creatine levels noticeably rise. Creatine in a supplement form is much more practical.

How Creatine Supplements Work

Why would anyone want to raise the creatine level in their bodies in the first place? This is because it’s been shown to increase lean muscle mass, speed recovery during a workout by decreasing lactic acid production, and speed recovery after workouts.

How are these bodybuilding benefits achieved? First, you need to become acquainted with a substance called Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP). This is a molecule of adenine with three phosphate groups attached, and it acts as a powerful fuel for your muscle cells at a moments notice. When contracting a muscle, one of these phosphate groups detaches, and produces energy. With this phosphate missing, ATP has turned into ADP (Adenosine Di-Phosphate), and it cannot be used for energy production without having that third phosphate reattached.

This is where creatine works its magic. When creatine supplements are ingested, the body processes it into creatine phosphate which gets stored in muscle tissue. This essentially keeps a backup supply of phosphates in your muscles to restore ADP back into ATP. You can see now how this would allow more energy to be provided to the muscle and provide a quicker recovery. Another rep or two may result, which is a basic goal of bodybuilding.

Drink Plenty of Water

One of creatine’s characteristics is that it holds onto water as it’s being stored in your muscles. This causes what looks like a “permanent pump”. Have you ever noticed that, after a workout or anything else physically intensive, that you look more muscularly defined than you do at times that you aren’t so physically active? That’s due to the blood being delivered to your muscles during the activity and recovery afterwards. A very similar effect occurs with creatine’s presence since it is keeping a good amount of water in your mucles for as long as it’s in your system.

Due to this characteristic, it is very important that you drink more water than usual. If you don’t drink enough, dehydration could occur. This is normally noted on the packaging of all creatine supplement products.

Creatine supplements should not be taken purely for this muscle volumizing effect since it is nothing compared to the benefits it provides to a good bodybuilding routine. It is not a miracle supplement that provides results on its own. It only enhances what you do in the gym.

Feel the Burn? But I Don’t Wanna!

Taking creatine supplements have an added benefit of reducing the burning sensation that is sometimes felt during more rigorous sets. The burning is produced by lactic acid, which is a waste product of working muscles. Without boring you with the nitty-gritty details, the process already described above about turning ADP into ATP that creatine performs actually lessens the burning sensation. Since this burning would normally encourage you to stop before you want to, you can see how one or two more sets on any given exercise could be achieved.

Max Loder

CreatineZone.com

This blog will be updated regularly with articles about good bodybuilding practices, information on supplements, and any other useful information regarding bulking up. Be sure to check back often or set up a feed as new blogs come out.

~Max Loder