i'm bored so here goes. also, i'm SURE that theres a creatine thread aroudn somewhere here but i can't remember where, so ill just make a whole lot of these and dump em here.

i wrote this a while back:

Creatine is basically a substance that helps you lift that little bit more, hopefully leading to muscle growth.
It comes in powder form, serum, and who-knows-what else.
Just go with powder. Powder beats all - because your body can digest it then and there, fast and easy.

You can take creatine in water, or non-acidic juice such as grape. It can be taken with glutamine, or even in your protein shakes.

How does it work? What does it actually do??
For muscle contraction, the body converts sources of energy (like carbs) into ATP (adenosine triphosphate - spelling??).

During intensive training, stored ATP is used very rapidly.
Basically - you're lifting and gradually as you do more rep's...your strength depletes - till your muscle fails right???
Bye bye ATP !!!!

What creatine does , is provide phophocreatine (spelling?) which regenerates ATP.

This, inturn , means that you're able to do that little bit extra more lifting.

You may get a little bit of water retention, maybe up to 5lbs of it in weight, but it will go when you finish taking creatine.

How much do I take per day, workout and non-workout?
(One serving = 5g)

Creatine is taken in phases.
The first phase is the LOADING phase.
This means, for a week you will take 4-5 servings per day. Spread them evenly through the day.
The BEST time to take creatine is 30-60mins before and after workout.

The second phase is the MAINTENANCE phase
This means, for a month, have a serving of creatine before and another serving after your workout.

The final phase is the REST phase
Have a 3 week break from creatine.
You don't need it any more. Your body has absorbed all that it can, and anymore creatine will just be wasted.

<------repeat phases, through steps 1,2,3,1,2,3, etc

It has no side effects known (well except for slight water retention but that's nothing!).
It's safe as, take it if you want to.
Recommended?? Yea sure, give it a try.

Hope this helps. I might have forgotten to mention something, so feel free to comment.

i'll add more later, i'm sick of creatine...

Most of the stuff below was taken from an article I had on creatine.

After creatine enters the body (or after it is produced by the body) it firsts binds with a phosphate molecule to form Creatine phosphate. It provides the following;
1. Provide additional energy for your muscles
2. Volumization of your muscles
3. Buffer Lactic Acid build-up
4. Enhances Protein Synthesis

ATP is the body's energy source. When your body oxidizes carbs, protein, or fat it is doing this process in order to produce ATP. ATP is responsible for driving almost every body process there is. Hell ATP is even involved in creating ATP. ATP works like this... energy is needed to drive bodily process. ATP provides this energy by hydrolyzing a phosphate group.When a phosphate group is hydrolyzed, energy in the form of heat is given off and this energy is used to drive whatever process is being performed, for example muscle contraction. Because one phosphate has been lost from the ATP it is now called ADP (adenine Di-phosphate).
The reaction is as follows ATP (hydrolysis)=ADP + Energy. Now you have free ADP as a product from the ATP hydrolysis. ADP is pretty much useless in the body unless it is converted back into ATP. Now this is where creatine comes into play. The phosphate bound creatine donates it's phosphate group to the ADP to re-form ATP! I assume you see where this is going now. By allowing you to return ADP to ATP creatine will increase your ATP stores, thus allowing you to train harder and longer.

Another benefit of creatine is that creatine itself is a fuel source.
In fact your body's first choice of energy when performing anaerobic activity (such as weightlifting) is your creatine phosphate stores. By supplementing with creatine phosphate you will increase these stores, thus giving you more energy for your workouts.

There is another anabolic property that creatine holds and this is it's ability to hydrate muscle cells.
a) When muscle cells are hydrated a few things happen. The most notable
being an increase in protein synthesis. B ) An increase of ions into the cell. Since the cell is holding more water, it can also hold more ions since the ions will follow water into the cell in order to keep the concentration the same. When more ions are present in muscle cells (the most important being nitrogen) muscle protein synthesis also increases.

Creatine comes in other forms ranging from the powder and serum you listed to the gum and pills that dissolve in water. Liquid/Serum creatine don't usually work because the creatine degrades in the water and it produces a byproduct called Creatinine which is useless.
It's a combination of three different amino acids, glycine, arginine, and
methionine. Creatine is also produced by the body and found in high protein sources of meat such as fish and red meat. It is NOT a lab synthesized compound, it is natural but it's found in trace amounts in certain foods.

What is creatine?

your mum

mum? Nice joke dave, almost made me pee my intestines!!!

so when you start the next cycle, you load again right?

I personally would. But a LOT of people say you don't need to load it.

With many of hte new creatine formulas out there (CEE, V12 etc etc) they don't need loading

What effect does acidic juices have on creatine. Im just curious!