northernmusician's Journal, 29 Dec 15

Nice job on the workout! 

PRs? 

Personal Records. :) 

Oh and congratulations! :) 

Water retention from your workout or from sodium? 

I'm hoping for some water retention :-) loading back on Creatine, usually an extra few lbs in water added to muscle cells as a result. 

Soon. It will have been from the workout. The body builds and heals through the use of water so it retains it for the process. John. I like the fact that creatine increases 'weight' which counters the bodyfat, giving the illusion that my lean mass has gone up. It also speeds healing and can increase stregnth slightly. :) Okay. We're talking grams of weight, but grams in the right places. Another indication of how fruitless overall 'weight' is. Arnold in his hayday was obese according to his body mass index.  

I'm "Obese" now, 26.54 BMI....however, at 11% Body Fat, meh'. Creatine is great stuff, muscle is 75% water, think of it like a sludgy hydraulic fluid, and you can see how muscle is so damned strong. Now increase the water in the muscle, and you can now lift more and lift more for a longer period of time, i.e., build more muscle faster :-) 

Sometimes it is just a matter of when you step on the scales whether you're holding water I recently you've gone to the bathroom even what clothes you're wearing personally I like to weigh myself completely nude before I've had anything to eat or drink and within 15 to 20 minutes of the same time I believe you will get a more consistent reading 

Hey, john! I'd never heard it explained that way before. That makes sense. Thanks for the visual. That would also mean that there's really no problem using creatine while on a cut as it's just water weight. 

One reason, and there are many, that I don't weigh very often is that daily fluctuations could simply be the contents of your colon.  

A muscle contraction is a myosin chain working against an actin thread. This reaction is powered by ATP(adenosine triphosphate) losing a phosphate and becoming ADP(adenosine diphosphate). Creatine is stored in the body as creating phosphate. In the muscles it is used to regenerate the ADP and AMP(adenosine monophosphate) back into ATP by giving up it's phosphate to repeat the cycle. This cycle produces a lot of anaerobic energy but there are limited stores of creatine phosphate in the muscles. Creatine supplementation is used to overload the muscles with creatine phosphate. The water retention is a side effect of creatine phosphate storage. 

ugh !! its all so confusing !! 

throw the scale away 

Excellent explanation CatHerder! , and yes Creatine on a "cut" is fine for a amateurs. There is no true weight, if I'm on a Creatine cycle, I expect to be 5lbs heavier sometimes, if I'm not and I've been in the yard working, I'll be 5-10lbs lighter. Use a tape measure, calipers, and use the scale as a reference. 

So, if I'm clear, the Creatine will speed the recovery of ATP? Shorter recovery during workouts! 

Not quite Northern. The Creatine/ATP system is only good for about the first 10 seconds of exercise. Using a creatine supplement should provide the ability to get in a few more reps. As far as I know it still takes the same amount of time to recover the system 

That's been my experience, when I'm cycling on creatine, I find that I can get a few more reps and a few more lbs to boot. Once "loaded", I find that even on rest days, muscles are a lot more full and semi-pumped. However in reading I've done in they past, Creatine is good for distance events also, leading to the assumption that it is indeed speeding the recovery of ATP during exercise..... As I have not done any distance running in years, no anecdotal evidence of my own to go with this. FYI, if you do try Creatine, vitacost.com brand is really cheap, same "Creapure" as more expensive brands. 

The only studies I have read about creatine and endurance athletes is that there is no evidence that it helps. For sprinting and field events there is a definite benefit. It may be beneficial when doing speed work as part of training. FYI, an alternate source of creatine is Powder City. I haven't tried any of theirs yet but it's a lot less expensive. You can get 16% off with coupon code NEWYEAR16 if you want to try it. 

I know what it was...CatHerder is correct, Creatine does not help endurance running events directly, and cycling off Creatine is favored for these events. However, during training sessions leading up to an event, runners perform intervals of short high-intensity sprints, it's how you run lower your time over a specific distance (Fartlek training). It is in these training sessions that Creatine will help, then as an indirect result, help in lowering the time during the endurance event. PowderCity Creatine is about the same cost as VitaCost, 250gms - $5.69, vs. $9.92 for 500gms. Thanks for the link, will keep that site :-)