creatine with your green tea

I think you mean the carbonation and phosphoric acid in Coke or Pepsi causes a lowered ph in your stomach and intestines - which is corrected by the release of calcium or use of calcium in the food you eat to raise the ph.

What Haycock is getting at is that caffeine actually increases calcium levels inside muscle fibres by opening up the sarcoplasmic-reticulum’s calcium-release channels. Calcium release causes key protein structures (actin and myosin) within the cell to slide past each other - producing force. Caffeine allows the muscle cells to skip several steps normally required to release calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction and depolarisation of the muscle-cell membrane) - making it a pretty decent ergogenic in it’s own right.

If you get the good green tea that is fresh & not the low grade you get in the bags, you would probably lose less. The higher quality tea can be used a few times, not the once a bad quality bag can.
I get mine when in Japan but may be available at an Asian market… I would ask.

Where do you guys get your green tea? Do you get it in capsule form or do you drink it?

Also, I was looking around on this site and it has all different types of green tea. Is any one kind better than another, or are they all pretty much the same?

Is it best just to leave the bag in, cold water for 3 - 5mins. And drink post - workout.

I try and keep up to date with creatine and all the current research so I’d just like to add a bit to this debate…

In the early research at Nottingham uni (Greenhaf et al), the Tea that was used was a standard British tea. very low caffeine. This is also where the popular rapid loading phase came about. Time constraints dictated that rapid loading was necessary therefore the 4x5g per day for 5 days was born - obviously this has since been proven not to be necessary.

I know of no studies that prove caffeine and creatine work together synergistically. Due to a couple of studies (sorry i dont have them to hand) indicating a negative relationship between creatine absorption and caffiene intake - i’d err on the side of caution and take it with a different liquid.

Fructose, although used is some studies, to my knowledge is not the best simple CHO to take creatine with. It has to pass through the liver before being converted into glucose. Dextrose/gluscose is better and happens to be dirt cheap.

Concerning green tea, best to drink hot rather than boiling. If you want to increase the strength of the brew, add more tea rather than leave to brew/stew longer.

I personally take a teaspoonful of mono PWO with a shake.

What sort of creatine?

The ethylester with dextrose 19 has the quickest absorbsion. Caffiene if involved with nothing that is overly aerobic or endurance related anaerobic (IMO).

Monohydrate gives you too much bloat, and who needs to be heavier!