Good Quality Creatine ?

[diamond]

I have never really used creatine much in the past, but am pretty keen to give it a go.

What is a good quality, reasonably priced creatine monohydrate ?

[Melbot]

Just use eas phosphagen. DNT waste ur time with monohydrate without a transport system!

[Luigi]

id say go with kre-alkalyn other creatine makes me feel so shit but this stuff dosnt, just real thirsty and hungry but thats all good.

[2guns]

at the moment im using musashi 100% creatine monohydrate, im into the 5th day of the 6 day load, bit of water retention... but nothing like wat the gear gives u.

havnt noticed much yet (and im realistic, i dnt expect much really), but if i remember ill post up anything i think ive gotten out of it

[Agent]

Reactiv have some pretty good deals on creatine monohydrate at the moment. It's Creapure brand so it's good quality too. Stick with the monohydrate, it's cheap, effective, and almost all the studies that show the effectiveness of creatine have been on creatine monohydrate.

[big MAC]

Get the cheapest monohydrate you can find, it's hard to get junk mono.

Get hold of some dextrose for 3 bucks for 500gm at Foodtown. Mix equal quantities of around 5gm, twice a day for first 2 weeks or so, then once a day after that. If you're taking some BCAA's incl L-Arginine and this mix then you have a great delivery system. No need to waste your money on more expensive stuff. Keep it simple and cheap.

It's not likely that you'll notice much results from creatine inside 3 weeks. Thereafter you should notice additional stamina during shorter, explosive bursts of activity. Some bodyweight increase may occur. I usually gained up to 5kg in 10 weeks, losing around 3kg water weight over the next 3 weeks.

[Pseudonym]

Get the cheapest monohydrate you can find

What, and miss out on a product like MuscleTech's Anator P70? A product that "literally turns on your DNA for muscle growth" by activating "key signaling cascades consisting of mTOR, PKB, and p70S6K", all for the very reasonable recommended retail price of a mere $229 per 1.3kg? Tell me you're not serious, man!

[Flex]

Get the cheapest monohydrate you can find, it's hard to get junk mono.

It's pretty easy to get junk creatine monohydrate actually - however the good stuff is often not much more than the chinese stuff and in some cases cheaper.

It's not likely that you'll notice much results from creatine inside 3 weeks.

That's probably because you're using cheap creatine. If you load and are using good creatine most users should notice effects within the first 5 days. Personally I find 3-5 days sufficient to start noticing results. If I had to wait 3 weeks to get results from creatine I'd think that either there was something wrong with the creatine, there was something wrong with my training or I was a non responder. Combining with high GI carbs should improve results even for some non responders. I'd use a good few cycles of creatine mono before looking at esters or other fancy things, as Creatine is always going to give better bang for bucks than any esterified or "next generation" creatine will.

IMO Krealkalyn is a bit like liquid creatine and a waste of money - stick with pure creatine. If you really think the acid in your gut makes that much difference to your results and you want to make your own Krealkalyn get some quickeze or even plain old sodium bicarb and take it at the same time as your Creatine. Hey Presto - buffered creatine.

[big MAC]

Point taken on cheap creatine. If you say so.

I'm not loading and while I see bodyweight changes inside 10 days, I don't notice any major performance difference inside 3 weeks. Thereafter I can repeat higher intensity sets for 30-50% longer than usual. Within 2months all my lifts would increase 5-10kg.

If I load I'll bloat quickly, not ideal.

[teamfatboy]

Is creatine dosage mass-dependent? Ie should a 100kg guy like me use a different dose to 85kg guys or 125kg ones?

I like that advice on the combo with BCAAs n dextrose, thanks

[Flex]

Is creatine dosage mass-dependent? Ie should a 100kg guy like me use a different dose to 85kg guys or 125kg ones?

I like that advice on the combo with BCAAs n dextrose, thanks

It's weight/lean mass dependent.

http://www.creapure.com

What is the normal daily dose for Creapure®?

A loading phase with 20 g (4 x daily 5 g) of Creapure® per day over 5 days, followed by a maintenance phase with 2 to 5 g (once a day) is standard for athletes. Depending on body weight, the following values can be used: 0.3 g Creapure® per kg body weight per day during the loading phase and 0.03 g Creapure® per kg body weight per day during the maintenance phase. Alternatively, a lower dose over a longer period (3 g a day for 28 days) can produce the same levels in creatine in muscles. Taking larger amounts of Creapure® for more than 5 days does not result in significantly higher creatine levels, so is unnecessary.

Orally administered creatine is absorbed by the intestines and then goes into the bloodstream. Small doses of creatine (1-10 g) result in maximum blood plasma concentrations after fewer than two hours (Diagram 4). For doses less than 10 g, maximum creatine levels are not reached for more than three hours.

Short-term supplementation with 15 to 25 g creatine for five days elevates the total creatine content in the muscles by 15-30% and the phosphocreatine stores by 10-40% (analyses of muscle biopsies). After a loading phase of five days, a maintenance does of 2-5 g is enough to maintain elevated creatine levels. Without the maintenance dose, creatine levels return to their original concentrations after four to five weeks. A comparable elevation of creatine levels can also be achieved with low-dose creatine supplementation of 3 g daily for four weeks (Diagram 5).

For concentrations of creatine in muscles there appears to be an upper limit that cannot be extended (~160 mmol per kg muscle dry matter) Ongoing supplementation with large amounts of creatine (15 g or more) does not raise the levels of creatine in muscle any more, so is not recommended.

[big MAC]

Flex, would you say a heavy loading phase has more to do with marketing on the supplement companies part (wanting to sell more product), or is it really the ideal way to take the creatine?

I've never tried loading, neither have any of my training partners. We've all noticed the increase in performance after 3 weeks, with one having no results at all regardless of creatine quality. Perhaps loading would bring quicker results.

[Melbot]

Ive used pure mono and mixed with dextrose and bcaa's and glutamine. Ive also used creatine that has the transport carbs etc and the latter worked much better.

I actually got a response from it.Not to mention no loading and no mixing in other crap. lol. Im not suggesting Muscletech, there are many cheaper options.

[Flex]

Flex, would you say a heavy loading phase has more to do with marketing on the supplement companies part (wanting to sell more product), or is it really the ideal way to take the creatine?

I've never tried loading, neither have any of my training partners. We've all noticed the increase in performance after 3 weeks, with one having no results at all regardless of creatine quality. Perhaps loading would bring quicker results.

"Alternatively, a lower dose over a longer period (3 g a day for 28 days) can produce the same levels in creatine in muscles."

As stated by Creapure (the manufacturers) you can omit the loading phase and just use 3g or so per day. It will just take a little longer to reach the same saturation point (like 3 weeks) that the loading phase provides in 5 days.

I'd give the loading phase a go if I were you and see if it makes a difference. I think you will find you'll notice the benefits a lot quicker.