I have been taking creatine for a year now i just take 5 grams in the morning and if I workout I take another 5 before I workout
and it worked for me.
I want to stop taking creatine now and see what happens.
Question is what happened to you when u stopped taking creatine?
DId you lose weight?
Did you lose strength or speed or overall explosivenss?
Or will you be able to maintain strength or and size.
Thanks this will help me greatly
have you been taking creatine none stop for this duration???
yes i take it everyday
personally i would be more enclined to cycle creatine.you will get better effects/results if you do say-4weeks on 2weeks off
to use it consistantly the effects will be less effective
That is absolutely false. There is no reason to cycle creatine that involves any sort of tolerance or anything. The only reason one may wish to do so is to reduce the chance of muscle cramping during a pre-competition or competition phase in their training.
Creatine cycling is a myth. Just like creatine loading.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/creatine.html
its not a fact but it will expalin more.there are still questions to be asked about creatine.
“the only reason one may do so is to reduce the chance of muscle cramping”. ask yourself this,would you prevent “cramping” if cycling was the way to go?!
Nothing new there, I’ve read that countless times.
Now go browse the forum and find ONE person that says they experienced detrimental results from non-cylce usage of creatine.
Creatine isn’t like “other substances” that will totally shut down your body’s natural production lines, and any “inhibition” of in vivo creatine production will stop when you go off of creatine, so you don’t have to worry about something like PCT or any other ridiculous ideas.
And that’s as far as I’m going with this analogy.
I’m confused as to what you are exactly asking here.
you have read the research but still don’t agree with it.why? why do you not like loading or cycling creatine.
“The only reason one may wish to do so is to reduce the chance of muscle cramping during a pre-competition or competition phase in their training.”
so what your saying here is,use your daily amount whatever dosage it maybe but leading up to comp start to cycle it.hmmm but then you are saying that cycling is bull.you are saying cycling causes crampes but on the other hand you are against the use of it during pre season but FOR it during and leading up to comp…
personally if i was to use it i would cycle it during GPP and either taper it off or get off it completley by comp phase.if it was to cause “cramps” i would scrap it totally.some athletes like it with good results and some don’t.
Ok, now I see that you simply misunderstood what I meant.
I’m not saying “use it until competition, at which point you want to “cycle” it”. I was saying that taking it during GPP is fine, but most athletes don’t want it during precomp or comp, at which point you STOP TAKING IT! Not “cycle” it.
What I had meant to say was "the only reason to STOP taking creatine is to prevent muscle cramps, etc . . . "
I did not mean to make it sound like I was in favor of cycling creatine during a more advanced stage in training.
Most people “cycle” on 6-8 weeks, off a couple weeks, and repeat.
For bodybuilders who don’t need to worry about sprint performance, there is NO REASON to cycle creatine. For sprinters, cycling is still useless in terms of “preventing downregulation” or anything like that, but of course, STOPPING creatine use totally when leading into a more SPP/precomp/comp phase is recommended.
I apologize for not being more clear in what I meant. I think, for the most part, you and I are actually on the same page and just didn’t realize it.
i would advise athletes to be cautious with creatine due to cramping.i personally had no trouble with it but i know a few who did.if it works for you great,if it gives you trouble then scrap it
Oh definitely. Even in a GPP phase, muscle cramping is obviously a bad thing, so if the person experiences this with creatine usage, I would say the negatives certainly outweigh any positives.
I do stop taking creatine for part of the training cycle. ON for GPP through max strength phase, OFF for the rest of the cycle. I take the 3g/day as mentioned by Herb in one of the threads.
When I stop taking creatine, I don’t notice anything different. It can take up to 30 days to completely eliminate the creatine stored in muscle, so any effect is very gradual.
I do not lose weight when I stop. But I’m taking 3g. You are taking 10g/day, which is more than the recommended maintenance dosage, so you may lose some weight.
I don’t see any effect on strength by not taking it when I’m in a maintenance phase. But I don’t think I’d want to try to increase strength on the bench when I’m not taking it. When you try to GAIN strength is when you can feel the difference creatine gives you, especially if you are doing multiple sets. Obviously, you will lose some size while in a maintenance phase, though I think it’s the decline in volume of work that cases this, rather than the dropoff in creatine.
I see a sizeable jump in explosiveness (measured by weekly flying 30’s) 6-8 weeks after switching off heavy squats. But this is due to the protocol for increasing FT IIx fibers that can be found in the strength section, and I doubt that switching off creatine has anything to do with it.
well from my experience…creatine is not that helpful
sure it makes you big but shiiit
to much extra waterweight, and it camped me up like CRAZY!
I always have my HS athletes asking me if they can take creatine. I tell them they don’t need to and I wouldn’t recommend it because we don’t know for sure they it will help them, but may actually have a negative effect (cramping). I tell them that if they are working smart and hard, and eating right, they will get bigger, faster, and stronger. It seems as though there are feelings on both sides of the creatine issue. Does anyone that works with HS athletes have any specific opinions and why?
Creatine cycling came about from animal research that showed that creatine supplementation may cause a down regulation of creatine transporters in rats.
However, Parise, G., et al. (2000). Can J Appl Physiol. 25(5):396., showed that there was no change in the amount of creatine transporters.
They also found that that mitochondrial creatine kinase activity increased in response to training (this is the enzyme responsible for forming creatine phosphate). They concluded that long-term creatine supplementation by humans does not induce a down regulation in the amount of creatine transporters.
So really ‘creatine cycling’ as whitechocolate has pointed out - is a myth and is completely unecessary.
In the past I’ve posted about creatine and cramping.
Some interesting reading.
http://charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=7405&highlight=creatine+cramping