Creatine. Your Thoughts and Experiences

restlesssoul

I took creatine years ago, and it was in powder form, grape flavoured, you would blend it up. Tasted gross. As far as I can remember I was stronger, but nothing stuck in the way of gains, and there was lots of water retention.

Six years later, I went to get some again. I bought this stuff called Purple K - King of Creatine. It's a kre-alkalyn thing that bypasses the whole retaining water thing. Ph buffered creatine or something. Goes straight to the muscle.

I must say that I have seen major, major results on this stuff. More lifting for longer periods of time. Lots of energy. It came with a chart to keep track of your bench pressing. I started at benching 150lbs, a month and a half later, I'm benching my own body weight for the first time in my life - 190lbs.

I go to the gym 5-6 times a week on a rotation and am training for a 10k run in April on the side, so I am doing cardio a lot too.

I really recommend this Purple K stuff, you guys should try it!

For any interested: http://www.fusionbodybuilding.com/purplek/

Thought I would pass it along.

Any opinions out there on creatine in general? I think it's fine if you do two month cycles to give the old liver a rest.

CreedDisease

Hmmmm.. Looks like this stuff is creatine monohydrate, which I believe to be the oldest form... I am not an expert, but I thought that creatine malate is the best and Creatine Ethyl Ester is after that... But what really matters is that you are getting the results that you want from it, congrats. Since you used to work out, maybe you are seeing the affects of muscle memory at work. in other words, it is easier to add muscle if you had it and lost it as compared to creating it the first time...

On a related note... I recently read an article about the placebo effect in regards to HGH. Two groups were told that they were being injected with HGH and only one group was. However, both groups exprienced significantly higher gains than a control group... So, maybe if you believe it works, then it works?

restlesssoul

i dont think that it is strictly muscle memory, because i was working out for months, before I plateaued and decided to try creatine again.

as for the placebo, without creatine, i fatigue very easily, get tired and discouraged. these workouts i am doing now, are hard and 1.5 hours. thats not all in my head. there is a big difference

have you used it before?

CreedDisease

restlesssoul wrote:

i dont think that it is strictly muscle memory, because i was working out for months, before I plateaued and decided to try creatine again.

as for the placebo, without creatine, i fatigue very easily, get tired and discouraged. these workouts i am doing now, are hard and 1.5 hours. thats not all in my head. there is a big difference

have you used it before?

Oh, i'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that creatine did not work... It is well documented that it does work. I have used it before and felt much the same way you describe... It is good stuff... i just thought the placebo thing was interesting, and thought I would share....

I have read (again, i am by no means anywhere near an expert) that you should limit you workouts to 1 hour to avoid overtraining.... I do not understand the concept of overtraining, do you? Is that something you have researched? Are you lifting the whole time or are you doing cardio as well? If doing cardio too, before or after? Well, i am off to the gym... see ya soon

restlesssoul

i dont know much about overtraining....i just know that muscles need rest to repair the ripping you do.

im just about to get into this seriously i think. so im not very knowledgeable yet.....i only know the basics, muscle memory and positive and negative training. i really like the negative aspect of the lift. i focus on really slow lifting....its a lot of fun getting into it though and you feel GREAT! more energy, no napping and when you are creatine you arent supposed to drink too, so that helps...

didnt mean any harm by my response...

i will keep you posted on my final bench gains....should keep going. i have felt aches in the bones from time to time, from the weight, maybe that is overtraining.....also, overworking my chest puts more muscle on, therefore my back has to carry more weight, and you have to work it too...you know what i mean? its got to be all around gains, cant just be one area.

also, creatine is known for cramping, and ive only experienced that once so far....in my forearm, the muscle just contracted and stayed that way, i had to physically move my hand to make it stop. funny feeling.

Fighting Hellfish

I used in about 10 years ago, and gained 15 pounds of muscle quickly, with working out of course. Problem is, when i stopped working out, I kept the weight. It just didn't stay muscle after I stopped working out. i used the EAS dtuff. i always liked their stuff, and still use their Myoplex Lite shakes

stickfig13

restlesssoul wrote:

I took creatine years ago, and it was in powder form, grape flavoured, you would blend it up. Tasted gross. As far as I can remember I was stronger, but nothing stuck in the way of gains, and there was lots of water retention.

Six years later, I went to get some again. I bought this stuff called Purple K - King of Creatine. It's a kre-alkalyn thing that bypasses the whole retaining water thing. Ph buffered creatine or something. Goes straight to the muscle.

I must say that I have seen major, major results on this stuff. More lifting for longer periods of time. Lots of energy. It came with a chart to keep track of your bench pressing. I started at benching 150lbs, a month and a half later, I'm benching my own body weight for the first time in my life - 190lbs.

I go to the gym 5-6 times a week on a rotation and am training for a 10k run in April on the side, so I am doing cardio a lot too.

I really recommend this Purple K stuff, you guys should try it!

For any interested: http://www.fusionbodybuilding.com/purplek/

Thought I would pass it along.

Any opinions out there on creatine in general? I think it's fine if you do two month cycles to give the old liver a rest.

Don't buy into the supplement hype...I know people that spend tons of cash of crap that they just pee out. Nothing replaces eating real food.