I believe the concencus is that creatine is safe. The side-effects are vastly overstated and won't be a problem as long as you use a micronized creatine and stay hydrated.
That said, the only thing I noticed when I took creatine a few months back was gaining a bunch of weight really quick, and actually ending up weaker pound for pound as a result of that. I'm not touching the shit again.
Creatine only helps the ATP-CP system, which means it won't do a damned thing for your endurance. It will shuttle water into your muscles, make you heavier, and perhaps even harm longer term endurance. (Water weight gain... the more muscle you have, the more this will affect you. 5-10 lbs is standard. Creatine will cycle out of your system if you stop taking it; in a month and a half it'll all be gone, the weight with it).
Cramping, as in intestinal cramping, is a problem if you take too much at once; elsewise, not.
Dahosse, creatine will make you gain water weight. You will weigh more and will look a tiny bit larger. This is just water weight, not lean muscle.
While you are on the creatine your muscles will recover a little bit faster and you can push yourself a little bit harder.
The idea is that your body uses something called ATP for energy while you are pushing yourself during a workout. When you use some ATP, it turns into ADP. The creative gives it a little extra something and turns some of the ADP back into ATP.
It's widely accepted that creatine is pretty much the only supplament that actually works in a significant way (besides food supplements).
dahosse: I'm 6'2 and I went from 175 to 185 lbs in a week when starting to take creatine. Really killed my pullup-progression. 175 is low for me, I often weigh around 185 but this time I had shaped up my diet and training and was comfortably down to around 175.
Ali: It takes a month and a halfg to get rid of it? That's awesome, then I might still loose the creatine-weight.
While this is certainly true, it is still seems like an understatement. I
realize you were referencing specifically endurance, and because of
that, energy systems in general, so i'd like to add that creatine might
also have significant effects on hypertrophy (that arent derived from
any gain in strength), and seems also to have at least some positive
effect on memory (tests demonstrated improved memory while using
creatine during sleep deprivation at least).
I think it's one of the more important supplements.
As far as muscle cramping goes, there seems to be no effect in tests
assuming athletes are properly hydrated, but as a matter of anecdote it
seems as though without added H20, you may experience some minor
muscle cramps in training.
right... ATP-CP system as opposed to aerobic system.... contrasting with endurance. And really, I should probably say just the CP system.
I agree it's one of the more important supplements. Just not for endurance work.
Hypertrophy from shuttling water into muscle cells, doug? Sure. Which I don't think is that big a deal, but it depends on what you're after.... If there's hypertrophy for some other reason, I'd love to know about it.
Creatine is significant -- one of the more important supplements -- because it does something, and something fairly definite, as opposed to other "ergogenic supplements" which, for the most part, have not been demonstrated to do anything. But really, I think it's only very helpful at certain margins. And again.... not going to do a damned thing for endurance.
OK, a trip down memory lane... if someone (vermonter?) has anything more recent to contradict any of this, then that would be good to know. But... as far as I know, none of this has changed. This is a post from 6 years ago:
===============
What has creatine been shown to do:
1. Increase intramuscular stores of creatine phosphate (which is a high energy substance used in the first 10-30 seconds or so of high intensity exercise)
2. Decrease lactic acid buildup during certain tasks (presumably by slowing the onset of anaerobic glycolysis)
3. Increase intramuscular water retention which causes weight gain in most individuals. This weight is technically lean body mass (LBM) but it must be remembered that LBM is simply everything that is not fat. With the exception of one new study (reported in a muscle mag which I haven't had a chance to go look up -- so suspect in my book anyway!), none of the studies that I'm aware of show an increase in actual muscle tissue.
4. May improve glycogen resynthesis following training (only one study, so not sure)
5. Improve various types of anaerobic performance
6. Improve the number of reps you can get with a given weight load (assuming sets last more than 10 and less than 30 seconds)
7. May improve maximal lifting capacity (1RM) (again, only one study and thoretically, creatine really should't improve 1RM, it should improve your ability to continue high intensity performance a few seconds longer)
8. Improves creatine phosphate resynthesis during recovery. So, an individual doing multiple sets of 5 with 3 minute rest would recover faster.
9. Decreases endurance performance. This is consistent with its mode of action since creatine phosphate isn't the primary energy system during events lasting longer than 30 seconds. Additionally, the increased water weight will slow many endurance athletes down.
So, in this respect, creatine 'works'. It reliably improves performance (in most people, some are non-responders) in certain anaerobic tasks. Will this lead to increased muscle mass down the road? Perhaps. In theory, being able to work harder in the gym should lead to faster mass gains. however, if you have terrible recovery, it's plausible that being able to work harder might push you over the edge into overtraining.
ok... that's ... hard to make any sense of, LOL. I believe it "may". Very vague in too many places for me to take it very seriously. In addition to which.... there's been a lot of creatine for a long time now, and I'm not sure there's much hope to be had in its "indirect" hypertrophic qualities. But as usual... doesn't hurt, in that regard, at the very least, and maybe you're onto something.
Still, I've said, quite seriously, many times: we need better placebos. So I don't want to rain on any parades. And I've also said in private (now public) that vermonter has likely surpassed me in knowledge... so whatever this ATP-related trigger might be, maybe I just am outclassed in my skepticism. I have no idea what that means, and am quite ready to concede that vermonter might!
Let's not forget that it gives you an awesome "pump" in your muscles for awhile after working out (great if you are on your way to the beach; too bad I don't live near one :(. The 10-15lbs of weight you gain might be water, but it looks just like any other lean mass gain, and the weights feel a heck of a lot lighter for mid-range reps; think of how long it would take you to gain 10-15lbs of muscle with no fat gain whatsoever, and that's what creatine does in 3 weeks.
And it improves memory and mental clarity (there are many other supplements, vitamins, and drugs that do that; they are known as "nootropics"), though you probably won't notice it unless you are regularly engaged in mentally taxing activities (if you're an accountant or grad student, go for it).
I can't give out all my secrets Ali! Actually, more accurately, I could
easily get this wrong as i do not currently have access to all my
resources being down here in Boston, but i'll give a stab at it.
Apparently mechanotransduction is where it's at in terms of anabolic
stimulus, but despite this, protein synthesis doesnt begin at the end
of, or during sufficient tension. If memory serves, most often it doesnt
begin until an hour later, and sometimes longer. This is because
cellular ATP concentrations are a powerful limiting factor for
hypertrophy. Something about survival rolls eyes. So powerful in fact,
that if the ratio of ATP:ADP is too low, you will experience no protein
synthesis whatsoever. That's where CP comes in. The donated
inorganic phosphate apparently dramatically reduces ATP recovery time
and allows for much more rapid protein synthesis.
I'm not sure if this will yield superior results in the long run or not,
hence all the "mights," "mays," and "influences." However, it certainly
DOES play some role in protein synthesis, and i suspect it can actually
play a critical part in changing the prevailing catabolic effects after
exercise into anabolic ones much sooner at that oh-so-critical phase. I
also suspect that it's influence over the ATP:ADP ratio has many
benefits we are unaware of.
"If memory serves, most often it doesnt begin until an hour later"
I remember reading this in a John Berardi article. He cited several studies, and it was the article that pretty much brought home to me that my muscles do NOT grown when I'm lifting. They grow AFTER I lift, with correctly timed meals.
I agree it's one of the more important supplements. Just not for endurance work.
Creatine is just as helpful for long distance runners as it is for sprinters. How many times have you seen a marathon or a 10k or some long race won in the last 100m. having the extra kick can certainly help with any distance not just short explosive distances
It is more helpful to short term high intensity exercise vs LSD but to say that it is useless is an understatement
How much do you think a marathon relies on the CP system, as opposed to the aerobic system?
How much do you think carrying 5-10 extra pounds of water helps or hurts a marathon?
Why is it "just as helpful" for long distance runners as for sprinters, but "It is more helpful to short term high intensity exercise vs LSD"?
{and in case anyone missed the point: Creatine is much more likely going to hurt performance for endurance athletes in competition than it is to help}.